Wake County DA investigating Wright

WILMINGTON — We have an update on the ethics investigation surrounding Wilmington lawmaker Thomas Wright.

Wake County District Attorney Colin Willoughby is looking into allegations that Wright mishandled hundreds of thousands of dollars of his campaign money, using it for personal expenses.

Wright is also accused of falsifying his campaign finance reports to cover his tracks.

Last spring the House Ethics Committee announced they would look into the matter. But they recently suspended their investigation.

Willoughby told NewsChannel 3 there’s a very good reason behind the committee’s decision.

“The House was being criticized for their ethics committee not dealing with Representative Wright’s issues, and I had asked them not to start their investigation until we had finished the criminal investigation, so that the actions that they took did not in anyway interfere with the criminal investigation,” Willoughby said. “And they were graceful and very respectful of that and had told me they would do everything they could do to not in anyway hinder what we were doing and so their delay is specifically at my request.”

DA Willoughby expects to wrap up his criminal investigation later this month.