As new video emerges, UNC system to hold private meeting on ex-ECU interim chancellor
The UNC System Board of Governors and East Carolina University Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday to discuss “additional facts and issues” uncovered during the investigation of former ECU interim Chancellor Dan Gerlach.
“During the course of the investigation, our investigators uncovered additional facts and issues that will require additional review and consideration by University leaders,” UNC System spokesman Josh Ellis said in a statement Monday. “Those matters will be discussed with the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees in closed session on Tuesday.”
Gerlach abruptly resigned Saturday, nearly a month after photos and videos of him at local bars drinking and dancing with students circulated online. Hours after the UNC System announced Gerlach’s resignation, The News & Observer received new videos that showed Gerlach walking on the streets outside the bars near the Greenville campus on Sept. 25. One video showed him getting into a car after 2 a.m. the following morning and driving away.
Lawyer Peter Romary of Hillsborough, who said he was working on behalf of local law enforcement officers in Greenville, on Oct. 24 requested video footage of the downtown Greenville area, including the exterior of Sup Dogs and Club 519 restaurants. The request also specifically named Gerlach.
The footage, which came from the City of Greenville’s traffic and public safety cameras, was requested through a petition to the Pitt County Superior Court.
The city gave Romary a DVD with seven recordings related to the incident about an hour after it was requested.
An attorney from Womble Bond Dickinson, the law firm representing the UNC System, made the same request later that day. However, the city has not released the footage to them because it has not been granted by the judge, according to city spokesman Brock Letchworth.
The UNC Board of Governors will meet in special session at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Chapel Hill and the ECU Board of Trustees will meet at 1 p.m. in the same building.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 6:18 PM with the headline "As new video emerges, UNC system to hold private meeting on ex-ECU interim chancellor."
