RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Dan Blue, a groundbreaking figure in North Carolina politics across more than 40 years, will no longer serve as leader of state Senate Democrats after over a decade and is being replaced by another Raleigh-area lawmaker.
The Senate Democratic Caucus elected Sen. Sydney Batch as the minority leader entering the next two-year session, the caucus said in a news release Monday after it met privately.
Batch, a family law attorney who first entered the General Assembly in 2019, succeeds Blue, who before the leadership election “announced his desire to decline another term” as leader, the caucus release said.
“I am excited to pass the torch into the capable hands of Senator Batch,” Blue said in the release. No details on the vote were released.
Blue, 75, first joined the legislature in 1981 as a House member and 10 years later was elected North Carolina’s first — and still only — Black House speaker. He held the position for four years until Republicans took over the chamber.
He left the House following an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2002. He returned to the House in 2006 and shifted to the Senate in 2009 — filling vacancies in both instances. In early 2014, Blue was elevated to the minority leader's post after then-Sen. Martin Nesbitt stepped aside due to an illness. Nesbitt died days later.
As minority leader, Blue has been in the difficult position of finding ways to push back effectively against Republicans, who have held continuous control of the Senate since 2011. Through several years in the post — including most of 2023 and all of 2024 — the GOP has held veto-proof majorities in each General Assembly chamber.
While referencing a “new chapter” in caucus leadership, Batch praised Blue on Monday for “bringing forth his many years of experience gained through a historic tenure in both chambers of the General Assembly to deliver results for the people of North Carolina.”
Blue, who was reelected to a Wake County Senate seat last month, didn’t immediately respond to a text seeking comment.
In the next two-year session starting in January, Republicans will continue to hold at least 30 of the 50 Senate seats. But barring changes in an unresolved district race, House Republicans will fall just short of veto-proof control in their chamber — giving more leverage to Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein and his legislative allies.
Batch was first elected to the House in 2018 but lost a reelection bid two years later. In early 2021, she filled a Senate vacancy and was elected again in 2022 and last month. Batch is a breast cancer survivor who has spoken out on issues involving health care and support for abortion rights.
Batch said the Democratic caucus "remains focused on creating a North Carolina where every resident can build the life they want for their families and themselves, and we are ready to work to get North Carolina back on the right track.”
The Senate Democratic Caucus also on Monday reelected Sen. Jay Chaudhuri of Wake County as the minority whip.
Separately on Monday, the House Democratic Caucus reelected Rep. Robert Reives of Chatham County for another two-year term as minority leader. Reives joined the House in early 2014 and was elected the Democrats' leader after the 2020 elections, succeeding then-Rep. Darren Jackson.
FILE - North Carolina state Sen. Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat, speaks at a news conference with members of her party at the Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum, File)
FILE - North Carolina Senate minority leader Dan Blue speaks at a primary election night party in Raleigh, N.C., March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker, File)
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Center for SafeSport abruptly fired one of its investigators last month after learning he'd been arrested for stealing money confiscated after a drug bust he was part of during his previous job as a police officer.
Jason Krasley left his job with the Allentown Police Department in Pennsylvania in 2021 and was hired by the Denver-based SafeSport center to look into sensitive cases involving sex abuse and harassment.
Among Krasley's cases was one with Sean McDowell, who had filed a report to the center accusing a member of his Seattle-based recreational rugby club of stalking and harassment. McDowell said it took the center, which has struggled with timely handling of complaints, about eight weeks to assign an investigator to the case.
That investigator turned out to be Krasley, who stopped responding to emails from McDowell a few weeks after they first spoke. Around then, McDowell got a terse email from the center's assistant director of investigations, Daniel Kast, who said he was “writing to advise you that Jason Krasley is no longer employed” by the center, and that a new investigator would be assigned.
McDowell did some digging and saw news reports that Krasley had been arrested and charged with theft and receiving stolen property for allegedly stealing $5,500 that had been confiscated from a drug bust in Allentown in 2019. The criminal case in Pennsylvania still has not been resolved.
“I went back and double-checked it. It was just disbelief, because I'm thinking, ‘There’s no way this could be the same guy,'” McDowell said. “I'm still struggling to wrap my mind around it because it just seems so off from what their stated mission is.”
The SafeSport Center was established in 2017 to deal with sexual-misconduct, harassment and similar cases in sports with an Olympic connection, from the elite level down to the grassroots.
At last count, it had around 77 employees on its response and resolutions team — 36 of whom are on the center's investigations team — and the center was receiving approximately 155 reports a month. While not every report ends up as a fully investigated case, the numbers speak to an ever-growing catalogue of cases that the agency, with an annual budget of around $21 million, is tasked with resolving.
Embedded within that issue are the challenges that come with finding qualified investigators to ask delicate questions of both accusers and those accused of misconduct. The center said it hires subject-matter experts from a variety of sources including law enforcement, child protective services, Title IX, and other relevant fields.
“Although we value our relationship with law enforcement, nobody is above the law," the center’s CEO, Ju’Riese Colon, said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.
The center said it conducts multiple interviews and a “comprehensive background check” of potential employees by an independent third party “known nationally for its work in screening and vetting candidates.” Every year, the center conducts a search for criminal and sex-offender history for active employees.
“As a CEO, I am profoundly disappointed that a former staff member has been accused of such misconduct,” Colon said. “We take this matter seriously and are assessing the situation to determine what, if any, additional vetting could have prevented this individual from being eligible for hire.”
Public records show Krasley worked as a detective/task force officer for the Allentown police from 2002-21. His 2024 arrest came more than five years after the alleged theft.
It came out of a May 2019 drug bust on a barbershop where police seized cocaine and $16,000 in cash.
The grand jury presentment that led to the arrest revealed Krasley was one of the officers who counted the money and was later inside the van where it was stored. Back at the station, when some of the money went missing, Krasley became argumentative and would not submit to a personal search, according to the presentment.
Krasley did not respond to emails and text messages from AP seeking comment.
Krasley's arrest and dismissal from the center raises the question of what to do with the cases he handled during his time as an investigator there. The center did not provide a specific number of cases Krasley handled.
Among those whose cases were assigned to the former cop is Kirsten Hawkes, a fencer who ran into multiple frustrations with the center after reporting a claim that a former coach of hers forcibly kissed her after a meeting at a hotel bar.
Hawkes said Krasley came off as very sympathetic to her situation when they met, and “he'd sort of call me and talk about other things, like family, or other cases. We would talk for hours.”
Hawkes said she was grateful that someone was listening to her after her traumatic episode. But she also described Krasley as overly eager to resolve the case once it got to arbitration and unwilling to consider her abuse allegations against the same person from when Hawkes was a child.
When Hawkes heard that Krasley had been arrested and fired, she started wondering if her case and others were handled appropriately.
“They have the resources to call a police department and say ‘Hey we’re hiring him for a semi-government job handling sensitive information, anything we should know?'” Hawkes said. “It might not show up on a background check, but they should at least do the due diligence on digging a little bit further.
“It puts everything under a different lens, completely.”
The center said it was reviewing the cases Krasley was involved in, and currently has no indication any of them were mishandled. It is contracting with an external firm to conduct an audit of his cases.
Since Krasley's dismissal, McDowell, the rugby player, has had his case reassigned to a new investigator who he said “has been good" so far.
Still, the clock is ticking. The 34-year-old player says he was retaliated against and suspended by his rugby team in Seattle after he asked leaders to take action against the person he said was stalking him. The retaliation included sending details of his case to another rugby club in San Francisco, which also tried to bar him from playing.
“Because of this whole smear campaign, people are hostile to me,” McDowell said. "What the SafeSport Center doesn't understand is, this is actually my day-to-day life. It's not just the people I'm playing rugby with, because word spreads. And they just don't seem to really care, or take it seriously.”
McDowell brought the case in September. Heading into the Christmas holiday, he says the SafeSport Center had not treated his case with urgency and was no further along in getting his complaint resolved than when he initiated it.
“The public-facing comments seem to be that they're this beacon of hope and optimism," McDowell said. "Then, every time I read a new story about them, I keep thinking, ‘The actions from SafeSport don’t align with any of this.'”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Recreational rugby player Sean McDowell, whose SafeSport case investigator Jason Krasley was fired after being arrested for stealing drug money in his previous job as a police officer, poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
FILE - U.S. Center for SafeSport CEO Ju'Riese Colón testifies during The Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
