SBI probing 2016 drug surveillance involving ex-Cary manager. Experts favor review.
READ MORE
Cary under scrutiny
The town of Cary has been in the spotlight since late November, when Town Manager Sean Stegall was put on administrative leave without any explanation from the town. Stegall resigned Dec. 13, 2025, amid reports of questionable spending. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer.
Expand All
Cary Town Manager Sean Stegall’s visit to a motel under surveillance for suspected drug sales remained out of the public eye for nearly a decade, until his spending of public money and other issues forced his resignation two months ago.
Stegall had been the town’s manager for all of three weeks when Cary police detectives reported observing his silver Cadillac pull into the former Harrison motel late on a Friday night. The man driving the car met with the target of the surveillance and left in 15 minutes, driving back to Stegall’s home.
That’s when the trail goes cold, as far as what has been made public. Nothing in Cary police records released in response to a News & Observer request indicate police questioned Stegall, who was not charged, or investigated further.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the State Bureau of Investigation will review whether any investigation related to the incident was handled appropriately.
From what she knows so far “it appears that the determination was made that there was not sufficient evidence of criminal conduct to warrant charges,” Freeman told the N&O.
Two law enforcement experts who reviewed the records say whether the incident was handled properly should be revisited.
“Something was definitely not right,” said Paul Martin, a former Durham city police captain and Durham sheriff’s major who ran undercover drug investigations during his 35 years in law enforcement.
An outside agency should be called in to find out how the incident was resolved so town residents could be confident in the findings, said Lawrence Smith, a retired Massachusetts State Police sergeant and former federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer.
“I’m not saying that anybody did anything wrong, but there’s enough there that it merits somebody taking a closer look, and it shouldn’t be somebody from the town,” he said.
Stegall told others about an incident
Stegall volunteered that he was seen by police at the surveillance site back in 2016, according to former town council member Jennifer Robinson. He told her that several years later, she said, around 2023.
The former town manager said he had stopped only because a woman flagged him down for help and asked him to go to her motel room, said Robinson, a council member from 1999 until last November. He said he sensed something wrong and left quickly.
The stopping-to-help scenario doesn’t match what the 2016 police records released by Cary describe. The Cary detectives’ report said they observed the driver of the Cadillac appearing to go into a storage room with a man suspected of drug dealing.
The N&O reached out to Stegall with questions, but the former town manager did not respond.
Questions remain
Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht and Police Chief Terry Sult did not address what Cary police did after following Stegall’s car from the surveillance site back to his home and learning who it belonged to.
The documents “are concerning and raise many questions,” wrote the mayor, who declined to comment further.
Sult, who was not the chief in 2016, wrote that he saw no need for further inquiry, but did not explain why.
Martin and Smith had many questions about the drug investigation that should be asked of the detectives and others involved. Among them:
- Who in the upper ranks of the police department and town government were informed about Stegall’s car – and apparently Stegall himself – at a suspected drug-dealing location? What action did they take?
- Was Stegall interviewed, and if so, what did he tell investigators?
- Why wasn’t his car stopped? Were he, his car and home searched?
- Was he drug tested, and if so, what were the results?
- Was an outside agency called in to investigate, given Stegall’s authority over all town administrators and staff, including the police department?
After The N&O asked a Cary police spokesman many of these questions, the department released a statement from the chief that said: “We can only speculate as to those questions as it was 10 years ago. We have released all related investigative documents we are aware of to date.”
Two of the records released reflect inconsistencies. One is an “event report” for the case, but it only shows activity for Aug. 28 and 29. Stegall’s car was spotted at the Harrison motel on Aug. 26, a detective’s report said. The other is an incident report, but it lacks a signature from a supervisor.
Martin and Smith said given what the surveillance report shows, the best move back then would have been to call in the district attorney or the State Bureau of Investigation to look into Stegall, since he oversaw the police department. But there’s no indication that happened.
Freeman, first elected in 2014, two years before the stake out, said she learned about it after Stegall’s resignation in December. Cary police did not ask the SBI to investigate at the time, spokesman Chad Flowers said.
Freeman has not seen any reports beyond what the town released, she said. “The challenge that we have is that this is information that has surfaced nine years after the incident itself,” Freeman said.
Freeman and Sult requested that state investigators open a formal probe into allegations of misuse of Cary town funds after State Auditor Dave Boliek announced preliminary findings from his office indicate “potential criminal activity” by Stegall.
Stopped to help someone?
Former town council member Robinson said Stegall told her and town spokeswoman Susan Moran about the incident.
After accompanying the woman he stopped to help, he stayed only a short time because he began to have doubts that she wanted him there for legitimate reasons, the former town manager told them, she said.
“I had no reason to question him because I did not know he was untrustworthy at the time,” said Robinson, whose comments were first reported by WRAL on Friday.
Town staff members should have reported the incident to council members, Robinson said in an interview with the N&O on Friday, noting that all, including police department members, were by then working under Stegall.
Tony Godwin, Cary’s police chief at the time of the drug investigation, did not return a reporter’s phone calls for comment. He is now chief of field services for Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe.
Renee Poole was Cary’s chief human resources officer then and remains in that position. She also did not return a reporter’s calls for comment.
Michael Bajorek was Cary’s deputy manager then and second in command. He retired in 2019, state pension records show. He could not be reached.
The town of Cary has a detailed policy on drug abuse, adopted in 2014. It states that employees are required to “submit immediately to reasonable requests for testing when requested by a responsible supervisor or other Town representative. Refusal shall constitute insubordination and will normally result in immediate dismissal.”
Getting answers to what happened nearly a decade ago are important, Martin and Smith said, because without them the public is left to wonder if any possible investigation was shut down to protect Stegall. That could leave residents wondering if police can’t be trusted, and could have damaged the morale of police officers who pledge to serve and protect.
“You can’t trust your superiors and you can’t go to your city manager,” Martin said.
After The N&O reached out to all current council members, only two members responded. Sarika Bansal and Bella Huang said they were troubled by the reports. Neither were on the council in 2016.
The town spent $23,500 on Waters and Company Executive Recruitment to help identify finalists for the position in 2015 and 2016, the N&O previously reported. Huang said she wonders if enough vetting was done, and if better vetting is needed as the town looks for Stegall’s successor.
Staff writer Nathan Collins contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "SBI probing 2016 drug surveillance involving ex-Cary manager. Experts favor review.."
