Former Cary town manager Sean Stegall was named in Cary police department records from 2016 that the town released in response to a public records request following Stegall’s December resignation over questions about his spending.
The records, which include a Cary Police Department report and accompanying investigative narrative, are dated to four days in late August 2016, the same month Stegall started in the town manager position after relocating to Cary from Elgin, Illinois. The records document comings and goings of several people at an East Chatham Street hotel room where a person was suspected of dealing cocaine or heroin.
According to the records, on August 26 at 10:20 p.m., a man wearing a white polo shirt and driving a silver “newer model” Cadillac parked outside the Harrisons Motel room and spent 15 minutes in a storage room with the suspected drug dealer.
The investigative narrative states that, upon seeing the Cadillac and driver, the officers “felt like this was potentially the [drug] supplier.”
The Cadillac driver then left the hotel and the officers followed the Cadillac through Downtown Cary and ran the vehicle’s Illinois license plate number. The officers learned over dispatch that the vehicle was registered to Sean Stegall. Dispatch later advised the officers that the vehicle potentially belonged to Cary’s “new town manager.” The officers were given an address associated with Stegall. They drove by and noted the silver Cadillac parked in the driveway.
The purpose of the operation, the records state, was to “conduct surveillance” and “gather probable cause” about the residence and vehicle of the suspected drug dealer. One officer was assigned to surveil the hotel room, another was tasked with following vehicles that stopped in, and two more were assigned to make unmarked stops of vehicles that left the location.
The records describe surveillance and officers following vehicles but do not describe any traffic stops.
It’s not clear if there was any follow-up from Cary police following the surveillance of Stegall’s vehicle.
In a statement, Cary police Chief Terry Sult, who did not work in that role at the time, said he made the recommendation that the police records be shared publicly.
“No charges were ever brought against Mr. Stegall in this matter,” Sult stated, “and there’s nothing in my inquiry that warrants further action.”
Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said the police records are “concerning and raise many questions, questions for which don’t have answers.”
Weinbrecht added that the town leaders won’t speculate “on what happened nearly 10 years ago in the absence of facts and further evidence.”
“As has been the case since we asked for Sean’s resignation on November 20th and every day since then, our goal with this information release is continued transparency, something we lacked with Sean,” Weinbrecht said.