DA Merriweather asks NC SBI to conduct criminal probe into CMS ‘irregularities’
Mecklenburg County’s district attorney has asked state officials to launch a criminal investigation into Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools’ finances.
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District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced Friday he’d requested the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations initiate a formal criminal investigation after previously asking the SBI to “conduct an informal inquiry into reports of alleged financial irregularities within transactions involving Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools” in the current and previous fiscal year.
“As with any inquiry, a request for a criminal investigation is simply an ask for a formal determination of facts and a search for evidence that can be applied to relevant criminal law,” Merriweather said in a statement announcing the moves. “A request for an investigation is not itself a confirmation of the existence of wrongdoing, nor should it be understood as the State’s tendering of a formal allegation of malfeasance.”
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The request comes as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is dealing with a swarm of controversies: a two-month-long school board investigation into Superintendent Crystal Hill, calls to remove CMS Chair Stephanie Sneed and an allegation contained in a memo from Hill that the board tried to extort her into resigning.
CMS spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Merriweather’s announcement.
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This is a developing story and will be updated.
Read Merriweather’s press release and his letter to the SBI below.
