Debra Goldman
So after I’ve gotten over the initial shock of the extramarital hijinks allegedly going on between Wake school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone and the revelation that Goldman keeps six figures in cash in her home, I can’t help but be drawn again to the money.
Goldman gives a bizarre excuse for having so much cash:
Police asked Goldman why she kept so much money at home. According to the notes of Detective Joseph Lengel, who referred questions to Bazemore, Goldman said that she began to keep large amounts of cash at home in case of emergency because “she found it very difficult to get money from her bank in order to pay her bills” after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Debra went on to say that over the years she got better about having so much money in the home and the amount would drop,” Lengel wrote in the report. “A terrorist attack or plot would occur and she would build this fund up again.”
Goldman is either a bit nuts (which to me seems entirely plausible) or there’s another reason she had all that cash. Particularly interesting is that Goldman allegedly lost $130,000 in cash and coins, yet didn’t file an insurance claim. Why? In just about anybody’s book, $130,000 is a lot of money to simply have vanish. Was Goldman lying about how much money was stolen? Was she unsure it was even stolen at all? Or was she perhaps unwilling or unable to explain how she got the money?
With sacks full of cash being the undoing of former N.C. House speaker Jim Black and questions still lingering about how fellow school board member John Tedesco makes a living, it seems prudent for reporters and auditors to look into where Goldman’s $130,000 came from.
Update 25 Oct: I’m told that “hiding assets” is a tactic used in divorce proceedings. Still wondering why Goldman would file a police report but no insurance claim, though.