NC Auditor Beth Wood ‘trying to avoid taking responsibility’ for crash, car owner says
When Chris Valverde finally got State Auditor Beth Wood on the phone this month, their conversation was brief.
Valverde had left two messages with Wood’s assistant, asking to speak with Wood about the Dec. 8 crash that resulted in Wood’s state-issued vehicle, a black Toyota Camry, slamming into and partially resting on top of Valverde’s car, a white Toyota Camry parked on the side of the road.
For nearly a month, Valverde had been trying to find out who had crashed into his car, causing damage to the front left side that Valverde says will likely take until April or May to fully repair due to a parts shortage affecting multiple body shops he’s called since last month.
On Jan. 6, he was told by Travelers Insurance, the state motor fleet’s insurance provider, that the driver was Wood.
After a few days of trying to get in touch with her, Wood called Valverde back. He told her about the lengthy timeline for repairs, and asked if she could assist in any way to try to expedite the insurance process to get his car into a body shop sooner. She said there was nothing she could do.
Before he ended the call, he asked her why she fled from the scene of the crash. “And she said, ‘Well, that’s a question for my lawyer,’” Valverde, a retired 24-year veteran of the U.S. Army who lives in Pinehurst, told The News & Observer.
The next time Valverde heard anything about the incident was when a reporter called him about the story last week, after a hit-and-run misdemeanor charge filed against Wood last month first came to light.
“I didn’t think it was right, what was going on,” Valverde said of the lack of communication from Wood prior to him finding out she was involved, and contacting her office. “You know, she never called, she never apologized. It just seems like she’s trying to avoid taking responsibility.”
Auditor’s statement was ‘very shallow’
Wood, for the first time since news of the charges against her was reported, addressed the incident in a statement released Monday.
In the statement, Wood said she was “shaken” by the crash, and said that when she wasn’t able to move her car, she left the scene. She called her decision to leave without informing the police or the owner of the car she had damaged “a serious mistake,” and said she regretted it.
Wood apologized to Valverde, referring to him as the “owner of the car I hit,” but Valverde said he didn’t want or expect a public apology — just a “genuine” one when they spoke on the phone would have been enough, he said.
When he read Wood’s statement, he thought it came across as “very shallow.”
“It doesn’t seem like, one, she’s taking responsibility, and two, that it didn’t seem genuine,” Valverde said. “It was like, ‘I need to save my career as much as possible, here’s this statement.’ More than a month after the incident.”
Valverde said he’s called multiple auto repair shops but a shortage of the parts needed means that repairs likely won’t start until early or mid-March. He estimated that another month for the car to actually be repaired would mean he wouldn’t get it back until April or May.
In the meantime, his daughter, who works at a restaurant in downtown Raleigh, is without a car. For the time being, she’s been relying on Uber rides or getting rides from friends to get to work.
“Both of those cost money, or cost something, it’s either money or somebody else’s time, so she’s depending on other things. And it’s a cost she was not expecting to have,” Valverde said.
Video appears to show Wood after crash
Wood is scheduled to appear in Wake County court on Thursday to enter into a plea on the charges she faces — a Class 2 misdemeanor for hit-and-run involving leaving the scene and causing property damage, and an infraction for unsafe movement.
Ahead of her court appearance, there are still unanswered questions about the crash, including what Wood was doing before the crash and where she went after she left the scene, as well as whether she called the police at any point to report the crash, or if police had to track her down as the vehicle’s owner.
In her statement, Wood said she attended a holiday gathering for approximately two hours before the crash occurred.
A video posted on Instagram the night of the crash, first reported by WRAL on Tuesday, appears to show a group of people escorting Wood into a building on the corner of South Salisbury and West Hargett streets. The building at 132 S. Salisbury St. includes the office of the Edmisten and Webb law firm.
Rufus Edmisten, a former N.C. secretary of state and attorney general and a partner in the firm, was hosting a holiday party in the building the night of the crash, WRAL reported, citing a copy of an invitation to the party.
An employee inside the building where Edmisten has his law office told an N&O reporter on Tuesday that Edmisten was not available to comment.
The Instagram user who posted the video wrote in the video’s caption that he “looked over after hearing the sound of a car scraping something” and people surrounding Wood “were all screaming, ‘get her out of here!’”
Wood faces calls to resign from office
After Wood released her statement Monday, the N.C. Republican Party called on her to resign, saying that Wood’s “decision to sneak away from the scene was intentional and wholly unbecoming of an elected official.”
Over the weekend, someone also put a call for Wood to resign on a billboard in Youngsville, about 25 miles north of Raleigh.
Asked if he thought it was fair for people to ask for Wood’s resignation in light of the incident, Valverde said he thought “that’s something her and her team need to discuss.”
“The longer this goes on, absolutely,” he added. “And I think it’s starting to get to that point.”
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This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 11:57 AM with the headline "NC Auditor Beth Wood ‘trying to avoid taking responsibility’ for crash, car owner says."
