Wake Democrat exiled to supply closet at NC General Assembly

A Wake County lawmaker, who last month asked the county district attorney to investigate Republican Speaker of the House Tim Moore over an affair with a state employee, found his legislative office moved Thursday to a supply room in the General Assembly basement.

Rep. Terence Everitt, a Democrat, said he was on the House floor waiting to vote on the annual state budget Thursday when someone boxed up the stuff in his old office. Building janitors said they were told to clean out the supply room this morning.

Everitt got a letter from Speaker of the House Tim Moore telling him the move was for his own good after he and a state senator had an altercation earlier this week that was chronicled on social media during what is likely the closing week of a tense legislative session.

"Please know that I believe all members should be able to express themselves without the need to hide in a staffer's office regardless of how timid they are to avoid direct confrontation," Moore said in the letter, noting that Everitt's new office is "somewhat removed, has multiple points of ingress and egress and is close to the General Assembly Police office."

The office is also close to the legislative building's press offices, which were moved to the General Assembly basement in 2019. When Everitt arrived at his new office late Thursday, he brought cupcakes for the press room and the custodial staff.

In his letter, Moore told Everitt that a state legislator has never occupied this office, so he would "get the honor of adding a chapter in the rich history of these hallowed halls."

Earlier this legislative session Moore's affair with a state employee became public knowledge because her estranged husband filed a lawsuit over it. That lawsuit was settled in early July. The terms weren't made public. Everitt wrote Wake County District Lorrin Freeman in August asking her to investigate, partly because Moore's girlfriend got a 50% salary increase over the courst of the three year affair.

Freeman, who had already said she didn't see a basis for a criminal investigation, reiterated that after she got Everitt's letter.

Everitt on Thursday said the move was an act of retaliation by Moore, R-Cleveland. "I thought he was smart enough not to do it immediately," Everitt said. "And he waited about a month."

Asked to explain the move, Moore's office forwarded WRAL News a copy of the letter the speaker sent Everitt.

The argument that Everitt had earlier this week was with Sen. Paul Lowe, who got angry with another colleague four years ago and then threw a reporter's phone across the room, was just cover for revenge, Everitt said.

"Lowe and I are fine, and people have disagreements in that building all the time," Everitt said. "This is obviously an excuse, and it's a little ham-handed, too."

House Democratic Leader Robert Reives was copied on that letter and responded with his own letter, saying he'd assumed Moore was joking about the move. "It is obviously disrespectful," Reives wrote.

It's also logistically difficult: Everitt's office was moved, but his legislative assistant's office wasn't, so they're on different floors.

"I knew at the beginning that there would be consequences," Everitt said. "I'm disappointed that, after all these years, [Moore] thinks I care where my office is. ... I'm sorry he is so incredibly thin-skinned."

WRAL State Government Reporter Will Doran contributed to this report.