Fact check: Ad omits GOP candidate’s ‘criminal charges’ were speeding, traffic tickets

A new TV ad from Wiley Nickel, the Democratic candidate in the 13th Congressional District, claims his Republican opponent, Bo Hines, has faced six criminal charges and stood with rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the ad, which began airing Oct. 3, Roy Taylor, the owner of a private security firm in Raleigh and former, longtime law enforcement officer who unsuccessfully ran in May for the Democratic nomination for Wake County sheriff, says Nickel has been endorsed by law enforcement and “is tough on criminals.”

“But the law says everyone has a right to an attorney,” Taylor says. “Just like when Bo faced six criminal charges himself, his friend Donald Trump tried to overturn the election, and the Jan. 6 rioters were implicated in the deaths of five police officers.”

When Taylor mentions the criminal charges, an image of Hines edited to look like a mugshot appears on screen. Later, when Taylor talks about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, on-screen text states Hines “stood with Jan. 6 rioters,” and an image of Hines carrying a rifle, standing beside two people whose faces have been blurred, shows up.

The ad concludes with Taylor saying, “Bo, the way you’re headed, you’re going to need a lawyer again real soon.”

The News & Observer asked both the Nickel and Hines campaigns about the claim that Hines had multiple criminal charges on his record.

Both campaigns confirmed that the charges refer to speeding tickets and traffic violations including driving with an expired registration card or tag, not having an updated inspection, and driving recklessly. The ad doesn’t specify the nature of the violations though — some of which were dismissed and some of which Hines pleaded guilty to and paid fines for — which the Hines campaign said was a “blatant attempt to mislead” voters.

Speeding tickets and traffic violations

In total, Hines picked up nine citations between February 2014 and January 2020, according to the state court records.

Four of these citations were for speeding (one of which was dismissed and the other three paid by Hines), and four were for driving with an expired registration card or tag, or driving with either no inspection or an expired inspection (three of which were dismissed and the other one paid by Hines).

Another citation, from February 2014, was for “reckless driving to endanger.” Hines paid a fine for this violation, and received a prayer for judgment, a plea that lets drivers claim responsibility without incurring points on their license or increased insurance rates, according to the UNC School of Government.

Nickel and Hines are in a close race in the 13th district, the most competitive in the state this cycle and a critical one for both parties as they jostle for control of Congress. The district covers southern Wake County and parts of downtown and Southeast Raleigh, all of Johnston County, and parts of Harnett and Wayne counties.

The Nickel campaign’s effort to invite scrutiny of Hines comes after a series of ads paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which attacked Nickel, a Cary-based criminal defense attorney, for the kinds of cases his law firm takes.

Those ads cited multiple pages on the law firm’s website as proof that Nickel represented people charged with crimes such as assault, domestic violence, and child pornography, but failed to mention the website stated that many of those cases were handled by another partner at the firm.

In a press release, the Nickel campaign said the attack ad against Hines sought to convey that Nickel “has always, and will always, stand with law enforcement.” Responding to the ad, Rob Burgess, a senior adviser to the Hines campaign, said the description of the traffic violations as “criminal charges” was a “disrespectful and shameful” attempt to mislead voters.

“By equating traffic tickets to the types of despicable and heinous crimes Wiley defends in court — sexual assault, child exploitation and domestic abuse — Wiley Nickel is accusing hundreds of North Carolinians who receive traffic tickets every day of being criminals while proving that he doesn’t have enough integrity to represent North Carolina’s 13th District,” Burgess said in a statement.

Nickel’s campaign said most of the cases he takes involve low-level offenses and misdemeanors, as well as traffic violations and expungements, The N&O reported earlier this month. Older versions of the law firm’s website accessed through the Internet Archive also described Nickel as an “assault lawyer” and “domestic violence lawyer.”

For other types of cases mentioned in the NRCC ads, however, such as drug charges, sex crimes including rape, and child pornography, the website advised potential clients to contact other attorneys at the firm, not Nickel.

Ad uses photo of Hines with his family

The N&O also asked both campaigns about the photo shown in the ad alongside the claim that Hines “stood with Jan. 6 rioters.”

Burgess said the photo is of Hines standing beside his father-in-law and brother-in-law during a family gathering last Christmas in the mountains of North Carolina. In the ad, the faces of Hines’ relatives are blurred, and the photo is shown next to text that states Hines “stood with Jan. 6 rioters.”

“Neither Bo or any member of his family were present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021,” Burgess said.

The Nickel campaign did not respond to questions about why the photo of Hines with his family was used in the ad, but said the photo was publicly available and obtained from a tweet Hines posted on Dec. 25, 2021, wishing his followers a “Merry Christmas!”

Instead, the Nickel campaign pointed to tweets, statements and quotes Hines made about the Jan. 6 attack and the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. These included a Feb. 16 tweet describing the congressional committee investigating the attack as the “sham Jan. 6 Unselect Committee,” and a December 2021 Washington Post story, in which Hines said he believed the 2020 election was stolen but acknowledged that Joe Biden was president, as proof of Hines standing with Jan. 6 rioters.

None of those sources are mentioned or cited in the ad, however.

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