CMS Board Chair Dee Rankin on previous federal conviction: “This is not…a scarlet letter”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The newly selected chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education talked with WCCB about his past federal conviction. Dee Rankin pleaded guilty in 2008 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail, bank and wire fraud in a $20 million mortgage fraud scheme. He was sentenced to five years probation and one year of house arrest.
Rankin says, “It was something, I’m not ashamed of…I made a mistake back then.” He added, “I’m an open book.” He also said, “I don’t see this as a distraction,” and, “This is not something that, you know, that’s a, you know, that’s a scarlet letter.”
WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty asked Rankin if his fellow board members knew about that conviction prior to it re-surfacing on Tuesday. He said he didn’t know, but that he has spoken with several members of the board who do support him, saying, “I’ve had conversations with them, my board members, and also had board members reach out to me and support and continue to support me in my role as chair, support me in my role as a board member.”
Fogarty asked him, “Who (on the board) have you not spoken with?” Rankin replied, “Um, some, some of my board members are out, um, doing work at conferences and things, so I haven’t spoken to everybody. Um, but I’ve spoken to a few of my board members. I don’t know if that’s important for me to tell who I’ve spoken to or not.”
Fogarty asked, “Do you not wanna share those names?” Rankin replied, “No, I’m just, I, I was really just, I want to just make, maybe focus on what I was, I was talking about is, uh, making sure that I’m focusing on, um, talking about transparency.”
Former CMS Board member Trent Merchant on Wednesday publicly called for Rankin to step down, and said Rankin should not lead the superintendent search.
