A former Mooresville employee who discovered evidence late at night that Mayor Chris Carney was naked and visibly aroused at City Hall was faced with two choices: conceal the evidence or resign, a third whistleblower lawsuit alleges.
Former town IT director Chris Lee insisted the town preserve “politically explosive” video evidence showing Carney and a communications consultant just after midnight on Oct. 10, 2024, according to a federal lawsuit Lee filed Wednesday.
According to court documents in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, when Lee “resisted improper instructions from town leaders” and “refused to delete, alter, misclassify, conceal (or) damage” footage and other electronic evidence such as access logs, he was “forced to leave his position due to threats of termination and pressure to resign.”
Lee’s lawsuit names Mooresville Township Carney, Police Chief Ron Campucciani, Town Manager Tracy Jerome and Chief Financial Officer Chris Quinn.
Mooresville mayor refutes lawsuit claims about late-night encounter
After this story was first published, the town released a statement:
“The Town denies any allegations of misconduct related to the lawsuit filed by Chris Lee and intends to vigorously defend the matter in court. The Town remains committed to maintaining a safe, respectful and professional workplace free from harassment or retaliation.
“The Town takes seriously any concerns raised by employees or others and has policies, practices and procedures in place to address such matters. The Town will respond to and defend the lawsuit through the appropriate legal process and remains committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.”
Carney told The Charlotte Observer last month those claims were false. He said he came to the office after getting a drink from a bar a few blocks away that didn’t mix well with his medication.
He said he was cleaning up the vomit himself while the consultant was multiple offices away.
“To be fair, I never thought vomiting and making a mess would become a national story,” the mayor previously said. “I really can’t imagine it.”
Former IT director says video shows something else
Lee claims in the lawsuit that the video shows “Mayor Carney in a state of partial or complete undress inside City Hall, with his genitals exposed and his penis visibly erect.”
Lee claimed that his forced resignation “served the dual purpose of silencing whistleblowers and sending a clear institutional message that employees who insist on legal evidence preservation, true classification and transparency will lose their careers.”
Two other former town employees, including another IT employee and the assistant police chief, said they were forced to resign after efforts to preserve similar evidence of Carney’s late-night visits.
Former Assistant Police Chief Frank Falzone, who spent nearly 30 years with the department, said officials threatened to forfeit his pension if he did not retire. He said it was retaliation because the mayor “may have been harmed” because he expressed concerns about missing body camera footage from a late-night traffic stop, according to the allegations in Falzoni’s lawsuit.
Former IT employee Jeffrey Noble claims in a lawsuit that the town falsely accused him of leaking footage of the incident and fired him without a proper investigation.
Carney called both claims “sensational” and said last month that a separate investigation had found no truth.