Rockingham Police Chief Robert Voorhees said the lack of further indictments in the investigation of the Rockingham Housing Authority may be attributed to its multi-jurisdictional nature Monday.

He went on to discuss the possible conclusions of the inquiry, not ruling out the possibility there will be no federal indictments forthcoming.

“Federal investigations move at a different pace than local investigations,” Voorhees said. “This investigation is multi-faceted. We’re looking at a host of different charges, and at least three different law enforcement agencies are involved.”

He said that because there is the possibility of federal indictments against subjects of the investigation, “it is going to take time.”

U.S. Attorney’s Office Public Information Officer Lynne Klauer said Department of Justice guidelines don’t allow the office to confirm or deny the existence of investigations.

Voorhees also didn’t rule out the idea the culmination of the series of events would involve some alternative to federal indictments.

“We’re working very closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” he said. “This investigation is proceeding at a pace that I am satisfied with, and I feel at some point we will be able to bring this thing to a conclusion with an investigation summary or a federal indictment.”

Whisperings of concern about the activities of the Rockingham Housing Authority began in August of last year, when Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin contacted newly-elected Chairman of the Board of Directors Ed Ormsby about transparency in the agency’s financial activities.

An investigation was officially opened in April after then-RHA Director Gracie Ingram allegedly refused to respond to requests from the Rockingham Police Department concerning financial, employment and other records.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General then joined the investigation in April. She was later suspended with pay May 5, and fired on June 16.

Retired Farm Service Agency Director Jim McCaskill was named as the interim director after Ingram was suspended, and he then dismissed Bruce Stanback, who was the head of the 21st Century Learning afterschool program because of a conflict of interest.

He had formerly served as the chairman of the board, and North Carolina General Statute and HUD guidelines require a year to pass before someone who served on the board becomes employed by the agency.

The entire staff of the afterschool program promptly tendered their resignations, and 21st Century is now no longer administered by the RHA. Its fate in Richmond County hangs in the balance as no potential suitor to administer the program has been approved by the state.

Stanback has maintained he is not guilty of wrongdoing throughout the investigation has granted several interviews with the Daily Journal to explain his position and actions but has declined all comment since mid-June.

Charlotte Attorney Will Terpening represents Ingram, and he granted an e-mail interview in which he said his client will fight any charges leveled against her.

Stanback has recently registered to run for Mayor of Rockingham, but has been unavailable for comment about his campaign.

RHA board member George Stone explained at the time Stanback was hired to run the program, board members were unaware this was an improper action, or that they were in fact performing any action at all.

“... We were really going off of what (Ingram) said,” he told the Daily Journal in June.

The meeting took place in June of 2007, two years prior to that interview.

McCaskill explained in a May interview it is the responsibility of the agency’s director to notify board members when they are not in compliance with general statute.

Minutes from the meeting of the RHA when Stanback’s hiring was announced include no mention of Ingram informing board members of the potential conflict of interest.

There is also no mention of public advertisement or an interviewing process for the position, either.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General joined the investigation in late-June after the program was implicated in the investigation by Voorhees.

At that time, three laptop computers registered to the program were reported missing from its facilities at Falling Creek Park on Hood Street. The laptops have yet to be recovered.

The RHA will be held responsible for two of the laptops, McCaskill said, while Stanback will foot the bill for one of the missing computers out of his final paycheck, which was withheld until the matter was cleared up.

As of now, the investigation has netted one arrest on four felony charges against former-Ingram associate Mildred McSween. She served as housing specialist at the RHA.

Her indictments were state charges of fraudulent misrepresentation, obtaining property by false pretense and two counts of felony conspiracy.

On McSween’s arrest warrants, Ingram was named as a co-conspirator when McSween allegedly falsified the income of an RHA employee on a public housing application.

McSween has been suspended without pay from her duties by the RHA board pending the outcome of criminal prosecution.

Central to the investigation are charges of nepotism, including the hiring of relatives as employees without obtaining the proper waivers, along with the hiring of Stanback.

Ingram hired her daughter Carol Bryant in March of 2008. There is no mention of their relationship in the minutes of that meeting.

Ingram has not commented publicly on the hiring.

In addition, Stanback hired his sister, Patricia Clemmons, as an instructor at the 21st Century Program.

He cited her experience and qualifications, including a master’s degree and 20-plus years as an educator, as his reasons for hiring her.