RALEIGH -- Rep. Thomas Wright still doesn't seem like a man ready to give up on his 15-year legislative career just yet.
Defiant in the seven months since House Speaker Joe Hackney and Gov. Mike Easley called on him to resign from the Legislature, Wright again gave no answers to reporters outside the Wake County magistrate's office, where he received bail after his indictment last week on fraud and obstruction of justice charges.
''You would have thought I had murdered somebody, wouldn't you?'' Wright said while surrounded by cameras.
A court could send the Wilmington Democrat to prison if he's found guilty. Legislative ethics committees also may recommend to the full House that he be expelled from the General Assembly as early as February.
While Republicans and editorial pages have repeated their calls for him to resign, it would not be out of sync with Wright's headstrong attitude and personal history with government for him to stay in his 18th District seat.
Documents show his financial situation also may leave him little choice but to stick it out, keeping more charges of Democratic corruption on the front burner heading into the 2008 elections.
Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover
Fellow Democrats who hadn't asked for his resignation earlier this year are still willing to let him decide for himself whether to stay in the Legislature for now.
''If he feels like he's innocent, than that's what he should do,'' said Rep. Larry Bell, D-Sampson, but ''I haven't heard his side. I would like him to respond to the allegations.''
Wake County prosecutors accuse Wright of fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 bank loan for a foundation he led by getting a state health administrator to write a letter to a bank about a fake grant. He also is accused of converting $185,000 in campaign contributions to his personal use and taking nearly $9,000 in corporate donations that were supposed to be for the foundation's charitable work.
If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 11 years in prison.
Wright's indictment on six felonies wasn't unexpected. The State Board of Elections raised questions in May about the bank loan and uncovered paperwork showing unreported campaign contributions going into bank accounts Wright used to pay personal bills.
Those same accounts showed that the former emergency services worker was earning little income beyond his annual legislative salary of $13,951 and expense checks.
Wright cited his constitutional right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer the board's questions. He later said campaign finance problems were the result of sloppy bookkeeping. Wright didn't return several messages left on his cell phone or at his home and legislative office last week.
A somber Hackney announced last week that the Legislative Ethics Committee and a parallel House committee would examine whether he violated ethics rules or participated in corruption.
If a committee recommends censure or expulsion, the full House would meet, probably in a special session before lawmakers are scheduled to return to Raleigh in May. No legislator has been expelled in 127 years.
''We have authority to judge our members,'' Hackney told reporters. ''When allegations (arise) that are this serious, then we have the obligation to investigate and to act.''
Democratic leaders probably would be relieved if Wright resigned.
It would lessen days of media coverage in an election year mentioning Wright as the latest in a series of elected officials who have been accused or convicted of wrongdoing.
The most recent was former Speaker Jim Black. Wright was once a top lieutenant of Black, who pleaded guilty to taking thousands of dollars from chiropractors while advancing their agenda.
Wright's indictment ''is just one reminder that the Jim Black era in state government is not behind us and there still is a great deal of investigative and reform work left to do,'' said Joe Sinsheimer, a former Democratic consultant who filed the original elections board complaint against Wright and once ran a Web site calling for Black's ouster.
Wright has retained some sympathy from fellow members of the Legislative Black Caucus, of which he was once chairman. In May, the caucus said calls for Wright's resignation were premature.
''We have to let the process play out,'' Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield, D-Wilson, said last week, but ''the sooner it's resolved, the better it is for everybody.''
Wright's unwillingness to resign may stem from a life and legislative career that at times have seen injustice.
Wright's brother was one of the ''Wilmington 10,'' who were convicted of conspiracy to commit arson and to commit assault after a race riot in 1971. Label by many as political prisoners, the 10 were later were freed after a federal appeals court overturned their convictions.
And Wright was the co-chairman of a state commission that investigated the Wilmington race riots in 1898, when white supremacists overthrew government officials by murdering and terrorizing black residents.
Bell said: ''Based on the time I've known him, he can be pretty well set on what he believes.''
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.