Police reports shed light on claims Speaker Moore sent someone to ‘cover up’ affair

A husband’s lawsuit accusing North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore of an affair with a married woman claims Moore sent someone to “intimidate” the husband in attempts to “cover up” his “unlawful conduct.”

Scott Lassiter, the former Apex councilman who filed the lawsuit, claims that Moore leveraged his position as one of the state’s most powerful elected officials to have an affair with Jamie Liles Lassiter, his estranged wife and the executive director of the N.C. Conference of Clerks of Superior Court.

Lassiter is suing Moore for damaging his marriage as well as for civil conspiracy, trespassing and intrusion. These latter charges are based on alleged trespassing and theft occurring this month on his property in Cary by an unidentified man said to be in cahoots with Moore. Lassiter listed this unidentified individual, dubbed “John Doe,” as a defendant in the case and included photos of the man.

Cary Police Department reports obtained by The News & Observer show that two incidents were reported in June at Lassiter’s home address. The reports do not mention Moore.

Lassiter’s lawsuit does not provide evidence of why Moore is suspected to have been involved with the man in the photos. Moore, in an interview with The News & Observer on Wednesday, acknowledged the relationship but flatly denied any involvement with or knowledge of the man.

Trespassing and larceny

The lawsuit says there were multiple trespassing incidents and a theft.

Police records describe a larceny reported by Lassiter on June 16. The police report lists an $100 exterior camera said to have been stolen on June 7.

Another incident reported by Lassiter on June 3 “was in regards to a suspicious activity call” that day.

Asked for further details, Kenric Alexander, a spokesperson for the Cary Police, wrote that “we do not have any active investigations ongoing, therefore, we are no longer involved and will not be commenting further on these cases.”

What the lawsuit says

The unidentified man “conspired” with Moore to place a motion-activated camera at Lassiter’s property on June 1, says the lawsuit.

“Defendant John Doe installed the camera on a tree in Plaintiff’s yard at an angle facing Plaintiff’s house so that it could, upon information and belief, capture photos and video recordings of events inside and outside Plaintiff’s home,” says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges that the man on June 4 “unlawfully and without authorization entered upon the property, went onto Plaintiff’s porch, and looked around Plaintiff’s home without Plaintiff’s consent.”

Because of these actions, says the lawsuit, Lassiter replaced the camera with a similar one of his own, connected to his wireless network so he could take photos and videos.

On June 7, the man returned to retrieve the camera he’d installed. Upon realizing the camera had been swapped, he attempted to destroy Lassiter’s camera and took it from the property, the lawsuit says.

This story was originally published June 21, 2023 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Police reports shed light on claims Speaker Moore sent someone to ‘cover up’ affair."

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi

The News & Observer

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi is a politics reporter for the News & Observer. She reports on health care, including mental health and Medicaid expansion, hurricane recovery efforts and lobbying. Luciana previously worked as a Roy W. Howard Fellow at Searchlight New Mexico, an investigative news organization.