NC Auditor Beth Wooden sentenced after pleading responsible to misusing state-owned automobile

State Auditor Beth Wooden pleaded responsible Friday to misusing her publicly owned automobile, resolving the final of two instances that had forged a shadow over her ultimate 12 months in workplace.

Showing earlier than Choose Paul Ridgeway on Friday morning, her final day in workplace, Wooden pleaded responsible to 2 misdemeanor counts of misusing her state-owned automobile. Wooden introduced final month she would resign on Dec. 15.

Wake County District Lawyer Lorrin Freeman stated through the listening to that Wooden had paid $1,064 in restitution as a part of a plea settlement. On the finish of the listening to, Ridgeway sentenced Wooden to 12 months of unsupervised probation, granting the sentence that Wooden’s legal professional requested.

Wooden was indicted by a Wake County grand jury last month following an eight-month investigation into her use of the state-owned automobiles she was assigned earlier than and after she crashed one in every of them right into a parked automotive in downtown Raleigh in December 2022, as she was leaving a vacation get together.

The indictment alleged that over the course of two years, Wooden used a state-owned automotive to run non-public errands like hair and dental appointments and go to buying facilities and spas. Below state regulation, misusing a completely assigned state automobile is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

Earlier this 12 months, Wooden pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor hit-and-run cost stemming from the 2022 crash.

The crash, which occurred as Wooden was leaving a vacation get together hosted by former N.C. Lawyer Basic and Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten, and the misdemeanor Raleigh police charged her with, solely grew to become public data greater than a month later, when information shops first reported the incident in mid-January.

Public scrutiny of Wooden intensified over the next weeks as she confronted questions on how the crash had occurred and why she left the scene with out calling the police or making an attempt to contact the proprietor of the automotive she had struck.

Newly released records show speed NC Auditor Beth Wood was driving at before crash