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The
board of the W.E.B. DuBois Community
Development Corporation voted Tuesday
night to reinstate Bettie Murchison as
the executive director. She will be back
in her office on South White Street
Thursday, Sept. 31.
Murchison has been on
voluntary administrative leave since
July 18 when she was charged with
embezzlement and felony conversion of
property and released later that day on
a $200,000 cash bond.
The charges stemmed from a
complaint her cousin, Lawrence Eugene
Perry, made to the Wake Forest Police
Department after Murchison resigned as
executive director at the DuBois Center
at the end of February. Perry is
president of the National Alumni
Association of DuBois High School which
owns the 17-acre school site where the
center operates. Lt. Trent Coleman
undertook an investigation which
resulted in the charges.
Murchison’s first court
appearance, a probable cause hearing,
was initially set for Aug. 9, but it was
delayed until Sept. 12 at the request of
Assistant District Attorney Susan
Spurlin.
During Murchison’s absence,
Marshall Harvey stepped down as chairman
of the CDC board to become the acting
director. He remains on the board as
vice chairman.
Harvey and others hope the
charges will be dropped before or at the
Sept. 12 hearing. He said earlier this
month the money, $169,000, was
transferred from one account to another
to allow Murchison to pay the employees
in the mental health counseling program
for their work in January. The van,
Harvey said, was leased in Murchison’s
name and she offered to sign it over to
the DuBois Center as she was leaving.
Wednesday the CDC employees
were ebullient and had taped up a number
of signs welcoming Murchison back. She
could not begin work Wednesday because
she had already made plans to visit her
daughter in Greensboro.
(If you want to read more
about the case, please see the July 19
and Aug. 9 editions of the Gazette in
the archives.) |
