As part of a criminal investigation, the grand jury is seeking information about the North Carolina domestic violence program

A federal court grand jury in Raleigh is seeking information about a domestic violence monitoring program that has raised questions about how state lawmakers set it up by giving a newly formed nonprofit $3.5 million in COVID-19 relief funds in 2020.

Late last month, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina demanding that it produce records related to the Greenville-based nonprofit organization Caitlyn’s Courage and 15 other individuals or entities identified as “relevant parties.”

“A U.S. agency and a federal grand jury are currently conducting an official criminal investigation into an alleged crime,” the June 26 subpoena states. FBI Special Agent Caleb Jobe in the Greenville office is listed as the contact person.

Those named as relevant parties in the subpoena include Jordan Hennessy and Marion Warren, who co-authored the bill, according to correspondence obtained by The N&O for a Feb. 3, 2021, news report. The N&O reported at the time that the bill contained unusual provisions that a lawyer for the lawmakers worried would disqualify some companies from participating in the surveillance mandates.

Grand juries are not public. Their job is to determine whether there is enough evidence to indict a person or entity. A relevant party is not necessarily the target of a grand jury investigation.

Who are the “relevant parties” named in the summons?

Hennessy, 29, of Manteo, is a former parliamentary aide and delegate to the Republican National Convention. He is a key figure in two companies formed in recent years when state lawmakers released budget money to help Dare County with dredging and affordable housing. He was recently appointed to the state Coastal Resources Commission, which sets policy for coastal development.

Warren, 58, a Republican from Brunswick County, was a former assistant district attorney and district judge and later headed the administrative office of the state’s courts under then-Chief Judge Mark Martin. Warren is also a “member manager” of the affordable housing company that counts Hennessy among its clients.

Last year, UNC-Wilmington hired Warren as parliamentary liaison and special assistant to the chancellor at an annual salary of $213,200.

Hennessy and Warren could not be reached for comment.

The other people associated with Tarheel Monitoring, the Wilmington-based company paid by Caitlyn’s Courage to provide monitoring, are owner Larry Powell, his wife Sonja, Shawn David Sullivan and Lance Jeremy Cable.

At least five of the other companies named in the subpoena have ties to Tarheel, including Securus Technologies, which makes the equipment Tarheel uses for surveillance.

One of those companies is Monotec, which shares the same address as Tarheel, according to LexisNexis. Hennessy’s economic interest statements filed with the state Ethics Commission show that last month he revised his 2023 and 2024 reports to show a financial interest in Monotec.

In the 2024 disclosure document, he reported that Monotec did business with the state and provided electronic monitoring services for “high-conflict cases ordered by court order.”

The subpoena also lists two companies that appear to be unrelated to Tarheel Monitoring. One is Pamlico Management Group, a business consulting firm founded by Hennessy. The other is Juristrat, which lists Warren as a corporate agent. Both companies have the same registration agent, Tonia Trest Twigg of Shallotte in Brunswick County. She filed incorporation papers for them on the same day, October 23, 2020.

Not listed among the relevant parties are the state legislators who helped provide public funds for the surveillance program.

What is Caitlyn’s Courage and how was it funded?

Caitlyn’s Courage was founded in 2019 by Beth and Judson Whitehurst of Pitt County. They lost their daughter Caitlyn to domestic violence when her ex-boyfriend killed her and then himself.

They wanted to develop a program that would provide victims of domestic violence with tracking devices so they would know if their attackers were nearby.

Then-Assemblyman Perrin Jones, who represented Pitt County, filed a bill in 2020 that provided $100,000 for a pilot program. His bill was never heard in a legislative committee. But when lawmakers passed a massive COVID-19 relief bill later that session, it included $3.5 million for the nonprofit to roll out the program in multiple jurisdictions.

Jones, an anesthesiologist and trustee at UNC-Chapel Hill, did not respond to phone calls or a message left at the gated community in Charlotte he now calls home. Greenville attorney Les Robinson, a board member of Caitlyn’s Courage, also did not respond to calls to his cellphone or his office.

The funding immediately raised questions from people who run programs to assist domestic violence victims in North Carolina. The $3.5 million was nearly as much as the $4.8 million that goes into the state’s domestic violence centers fund each year.

The language of the budget provision included detailed restrictions that could disqualify electronic surveillance system vendors from bidding, according to a lawyer who drafted the bill. The nonprofit also gave potential bidders a short deadline to find and respond to its RFP.

Rep. Donny Lambeth, a Forsyth County Republican who is considered a top budget writer in the House, was included in the lawmakers’ email correspondence about the funding. He told the N&O in 2021 that he was not involved in the details, referring questions to Jones.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t always know what’s going on in a member’s office and the speaker’s office,” Lambeth said.

Tarheel Monitoring has two ties to House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican currently running for the 14th Congressional District. Sonja Powell, chief financial officer and wife of Tarheel Monitoring’s owner, and Sullivan, chief technology officer, each donated $3,000 to Moore’s re-election campaign in June 2019.

State records also show that Gene Davis, a close friend of Moore’s and a Raleigh attorney, filed for shares in a spin-off of the company in 2013 and 2014. Davis is a House-appointed member of UNC’s board of trustees.

Moore has not received any subpoenas or inquiries from federal authorities regarding “Caitlyn’s Courage” or any other matter, said his communications director Demi Dowdy.

Charlotte’s WBTV reported in April 2021 that billing records showed Tarheel Monitoring was charging much more than the usual rate for electronic monitoring.

Later that year, the House budget proposal included a $27 million statewide expansion of the electronic monitoring program. Again, House budget writers did not disclose who requested the measure. While it did not make it into the final version of that year’s budget proposal, state lawmakers did shift the $3.5 million in annual funding from Caitlyn’s Courage to the state’s Criminal Justice Information Network.

The network is governed by a 21-member board that includes members appointed by the governor and the Legislature. The N&O could not reach executive director LaVonda Fowler for this article. The network’s most recent budget report said it has expanded use of the monitoring program and found it to be effective in protecting victims of domestic violence.

The subpoena required the Department of Public Safety to return relevant documents, including invoices, correspondence and legal requirements, to the grand jury by July 16. However, at the department’s request, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Duffy granted the department a one-month extension.

Duffy and Jobe could not be reached for comment.

Caitlyncourage Ausa Subpoena Dps by Dan Kane on Scribd

Power + Secrecy is a News & Observer investigative series that covers North Carolina state government and, in particular, the North Carolina General Assembly since 2011, when Republican lawmakers gained control of both chambers. All articles can be found at www.newsobserver.com/topics/power-secrecy

Charlotte Observer writer Ames Alexander contributed to this report.