BROCKMAN BLAMES ALLEGED
VICTIM FOR HIS “RUINED” LIFE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In an extremely emotional five-paragraph handwritten letter addressing charges that he allegedly sexually abused a 15-year-old male teenager last summer, Cecil Brockman, former six-term Democratic NC House member from High Point wrote, “My life has already been ruined. The career and legacy that I have work (sic) so hard for, always trying to do the right thing taken in a instant because someone lied to me.”
In the November 4th missive, written prior to being released from jail on bail to the restricted custody of his mother, Brockman, 41, opined about the coming legal trials and tribulations he will soon be facing after being arrested in October on two counts of statutory rape, and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor under the age of 16.
“Why should I pay the ultimate price because someone wanted to grow up too fast? Why should I bare (sic) the entirety of consequence for another person’s lie?” Brockman rhetorically asked, before ultimately blaming the minor child he was allegedly involved with for most of his legal troubles.
“I keep trying to think of the red flags,” Brockman, who served in the NC House since 2015, wrote. “How I could have possibly known or figured it out. His father knew he was staying with me, a 41 year-old man and said nothing. When he came to me to stay with me in NC, his father knew and said nothing. He didn’t have or do any schoolwork. His best friend lived in another state with her boyfriend. He told me he was a legally consenting age and he looked the age he claimed. He was 6’1 muscular. And we met on an adult dating app.”
“I have paid severely for his dishonesty,” the former state house member continued. “I will never be the same.”
As if to cry for mercy, Brockman then relates how, if he is convicted, the punishment will be hard not just on him, but his family.
“My grandfather, the only one I have left, is in his 80’s. My mother, aunts and uncles are all in there (sic) mid 60s. I want to be there for them and spend as much time with them as possible. I spent all of my 30’s in public service. The thought of spending the rest of my life or 12 years in prison is unimaginable. Especially when I was the one that was lied to.”
Finally, Brockman shares how tough the whole legal ordeal has been for him so far.
“This amount of cruelty is unbarable (sic). I keep waking up and it’s a reality that I cannot change. I am so devastated, constantly hurt and sad. I do not know what to do. Praying God loves me and heals me.”
According to electronic evidence presented in court by Guilford County District Attorney Avery Crump, Brockman met the alleged juvenile victim by a dating app online last May, right before the alleged minor victim turned 15 the following month in June.
Brockman allegedly went to Atlanta to live with the minor, and both then moved to High Point in August.
The alleged relationship was unknown until, on October 5th, Brockman reportedly called 911 saying that the teenager had gone missing, and he was trying to track the child via a tracking app known as Life360. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Dept. initially responded, but eventually contacted the High Point Police, which ultimately got the SBI involved because Brockman was a state representative.
It was after the alleged juvenile victim was finally located, and the teen’s cellphone was recovered and examined, that 14 sexually explicit videos of “certain acts” allegedly involving Brockman, were discovered.
The alleged acts were reportedly from August 15th, according to arrest warrants.
Brockman was arrested on October 8th. The investigation is ongoing, with additional charges possible, according to D.A. Crump.
Since then, the Guilford County Democratic Party has voted to appoint a High Point city councilwoman to fill out the rest of Brockman’s term in office. This happened after Brockman resigned in writing, amid calls from top Democrats, including Gov. Josh Stein, to do so.
The resignation also took place hours after Republican House Speaker Destin Hall announced that he had selected House members for a bi-partisan committee assigned to examine the charges against Brockman, and recommend his removal if warranted.
Brockman is next expected in court is January 16.
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FEDERAL COURT RULES
REDRAWN FIRST DISTRICT
GOOD FOR 2026 MIDTERM
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A federal three-judge panel - all of whom chosen by Republican presidents - has granted NC Republican legislative leaders their redrawn First Congressional District for the 2026 midterm elections, denying a preliminary injunction from the NC NAACP, Common Cause NC and other plaintiffs, to stop it.
“Because Plaintiffs at this point in the litigation have not made a clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any claim advanced in their motions, a preliminary injunction is unwarranted,” the judges ruled.
This means that the new GOP-leaning First District- currently represented by moderate Democratic Congressman Don Davis - will likely vote Republican next year, giving President Trump at least a one extra Congressional seat advantage he can count on to get his agenda through the U.S. House in 2026 through 2028. The Republican-led NC General Assembly redrew the First District in October.
Candidate filing for the 2026 midterm elections began Monday in North Carolina.
Congressman Davis says he will still run for reelection in the First District.
Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger was happy with the court victory.
“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First Agenda,” Berger said in a statement. “North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map reflects that support.”
There is still a question about the five Republican-leaning seats Texas had redrawn for the Republican president that were constitutionally struck down recently, as well as five redrawn seats California passed last month by Democratic voters to counter Texas prior to that court ruling.
Texas is appealing to have those five congressional districts restored. Meanwhile Republicans are challenging California’s new five districts, claiming that they are racial gerrymanders.
Meanwhile here in North Carolina, the Republican federal three-judge panel ruled the day before Thanksgiving in a 57-page order that arguments against the newly drawn First Congressional District by the NC NAACP, Common Cause NC, and plaintiffs from the affected First and Third Districts were not enough to strike the newly drawn First District down.
Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause NC, was not pleased.
“This ruling gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history, a map that intentionally retaliates against voters in eastern North Carolina for supporting a candidate not preferred by the majority party,” Phillips said. “I believe the lawmakers responsible for the map and for this misguided ruling know they are wrong and will be judged accordingly. Meanwhile, our fight for fair maps continues, and our fight for voters living in these distorted districts will carry on, with more energy than ever. Ultimately, we the people will prevail.”
The plaintiffs had argued that the Republican-drawn voting map was a retaliation against voters in the previous First District for re-electing a Democrat to represent them in Congress in 2024. The NC NAACP and Common Cause NC, along with several other plaintiffs, also argued that redrawing the First District encroached on the historic “Black Belt” counties in the northeastern part of the state, thus denying black voter their choice of congressional representative as guaranteed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The three-judge panel didn’t agree, however.
Instead, the court ruled that plaintiffs’ argument raised political questions “beyond the reach of the courts.”
The NC NACCP has vowed to appeal the ruling, most likely to the conservative-led U.S. Supreme Court.
“We must continue this fight,” said Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the NC NAACP. “And we will take it wherever we can. Because people deserve their constitutional rights.”
"Enough is enough," Maxwell continued. "This is the swift urgency of now that we must continue to fight for the rights of people to be represented by people who want to represent them. Not just have their name where they can go and vote for someone who is threatening them that we need to have another congressional district."
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