AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n
Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n After 10 years as a state probation officer, a dangerous job with low pay and high turnover, April Taylor saw an opportunity to start a new career with the N.C. Department of Insurance.<\/p>\n Read more This NC native is performing in Raleigh for a good cause. When is the concert?<\/a><\/p>\n Taylor\u2019s great-uncle was a big supporter of Mike Causey, who was again seeking the insurance commissioner\u2019s office in 2016 after falling short four times earlier. This time, Causey won<\/a>, and the following year, he offered Taylor a job as a regional director covering roughly 15 counties in the central part of the state.<\/p>\n Her pay jumped more than 25% to nearly $52,000, and she traded meeting felons for insurance agents and fire chiefs.<\/p>\n But she was going to have to deal with a side of Causey\u2019s personality that she said left her uncomfortable.<\/p>\n She left in March, after eight years with the department. During that time, she said Causey sent her text messages that she found inappropriate. The texts are on her iPhone, and she provided them to The News & Observer.<\/p>\n \u201cI might jump your bones. Watch out!!!,\u201d Causey texted her on the early evening of April 26, 2018. He followed it with a heart emoji.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re hotter than you realize,\u201d followed by a grin emoji and a large flame emoji, after 6 p.m. on June 5, last year.<\/p>\n \u201cJust don\u2019t let me catch you in the room alone,\u201d followed by a crying and laughing emoji, three months later.<\/p>\n Causey ended at least five text conversations, one shortly before he hired Taylor and four after, with \u201cSee you in dreamland.\u201d The most recent was Sept. 4. Initially, a month after he was elected, he told her \u201csee you in NCDOI dreamland.\u201d<\/p>\n The number from where the texts originated is Causey\u2019s personal cell, Taylor\u2019s phone showed. When an N&O reporter called the number, Causey picked up.<\/p>\n He acknowledged texting with Taylor to discuss her work, but he said he had no memory of sending any of the comments or emojis regarding her appearance or expressing a sexual interest.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any recollection of it,\u201d said Causey, a Guilford County Republican now in his ninth year in office. \u201cI remember she was having some issues in the past, and would send me some things, some personal things, and I recall responding something. I don\u2019t remember what. But she, she was having a lot of issues. I\u2019ll put it that way, and I was concerned about her.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor had left the department after raising concerns about procedures that weren\u2019t followed, and a difficult work environment that she said Causey seemed unwilling to do anything about.<\/p>\n Causey did not agree to a reporter\u2019s request to look at his phone. The N&O subsequently filed a public records request for all texts between Causey and Taylor. Department spokesman Barry Smith said Tuesday that messages were being reviewed and would be provided \u201cas promptly as possible pursuant to the Public Records Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor never chastised Causey for the texts or reported them to personnel officials, she said. She often responded to the texts with flattery and appreciation.<\/p>\n \u201cHehe!!! You are a sweetheart!!! And a handsome man!\u201d she texted in response to his \u201cmight jump your bones\u201d comment.<\/p>\n Privately, she felt otherwise, Taylor said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a few text messages that made me feel uncomfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a couple of them that made me feel a little violated. Like, wow, you know you\u2019re a married man, that\u2019s kind of crossing the line.\u201d<\/p>\n A News & Observer reporter met with April Taylor three times to review text messages on her phone after she had sent several screenshots. The long string of text messages to and from Causey\u2019s personal cellphone go back to 2016. The reporter called that number. Causey answered.<\/p>\n The reporter had Taylor scroll through all the messages, and swipe several on the cellphone\u2019s screen to the left. That exposes the timestamps for each message.<\/p>\n The text messages include photos that Causey sent of himself and his whereabouts. In some texts, he discussed state business.<\/p>\n Causey has not disputed texting Taylor, but said he does not recall sending her inappropriate messages.<\/p>\n On May 11, The N&O requested Causey provide his texts with Taylor. The department is working on the request, a spokesman said this week.<\/p>\n Taylor said she feared making Causey mad by pushing back on the comments. She also said she feared being retaliated against.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I was just like, OK, I\u2019ll just, you know, laugh at his little comments and just go along with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At times, she initiated the flattery. \u201cI want to do everything I can to get you re-elected! I adore you and look up to you,\u201d she said in a text message on Feb. 3, 2020.<\/p>\n Both have long been married. Each denied being in a sexual relationship with the other. Taylor said Causey often hugged her tightly in a way she found uncomfortable, and sought to kiss her \u201ca couple times.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the text exchanges reflects that.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a good opportunity to grab a hug,\u201d he texted on June 6.<\/p>\n She responded with a big laughing face emoji, then texted: \u201cand a kiss!\u201d followed by a smiling emoji wearing sunglasses.<\/p>\n \u201cEven better,\u201d he texted back. \u201cLordy.\u201d<\/p>\n Causey flatly denied initiating any inappropriate contact.<\/p>\n \u201cI never asked her ever for a hug,\u201d he said. \u201cShe asked me a couple of times she could give me a hug.\u201d<\/p>\n As for kissing? \u201cTotally false,\u201d Causey said.<\/p>\n Experts on sexual harassment said the texts that Taylor says came from Causey are beyond what is acceptable discourse for an employer with an employee. They were commenting on the substance of the texts, and not whether they came from Causey.<\/p>\n Read more WakeMed defends Atrium hospital merger plan in first community session<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think most (human resources) professionals would view this with horror, not only because it\u2019s potentially at least a lawsuit waiting to happen,\u201d said Eric Fink, an Elon University professor who specializes in employment law. \u201cBut even if it\u2019s not, it\u2019s just not, you know, it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n Durham attorney Kerry Sutton specializes in sexual harassment cases. \u201cNone of these are appropriate in a professional relationship,\u201d she said. \u201cNot a single one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the texts would be grounds for a successful sexual harassment lawsuit would depend on the circumstances surrounding them, the experts said. But the texts indicate an abnormal relationship that also could potentially create problems for other employees.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s any kind of imbalance of power, it doesn\u2019t matter, you don\u2019t do that at work,\u201d Sutton said. Taylor has reached out to attorneys about a possible whistleblower lawsuit, she said.<\/p>\n Causey has had two known previous stumbles involving women.<\/p>\n Shortly after he first took office in 2017, he apologized for sharing a post on his Facebook page that made fun of overweight women who took part in women\u2019s marches across the country after President Donald Trump began his first term. WRAL first reported t<\/a>he post.<\/p>\n And, for several years leading up to his first run for office in 1992, he was in court dealing with a child support case involving a woman who was not his wife.<\/p>\n At first, Taylor, 50, attributed Causey\u2019s comments about her appearance to his age \u2014 he\u2019s 75 \u2014 and an insecurity about his appearance, she said. But as time went on and the comments faded when she gained weight and grew when she slimmed down, she said she felt like he viewed her as a \u201cpiece of property.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was overweight I rarely heard from him,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n The insurance commissioner is a member of the Council of State. The insurance department<\/a> decides insurers\u2019 rate requests, investigates insurance-related complaints and licenses insurance agents, adjusters and bail bond agents.<\/p>\n Taylor said she was one of many political hires Causey made when he took office in 2017. The N&O previously reported<\/a> that he had hired several people with political or personal connections to regional director positions that hadn\u2019t previously existed. Taylor was one of them, assigned to an area in the central part of the state.<\/p>\n He moved regional offices out of three urban centers in the state \u2014 Charlotte, Asheville and Wilmington \u2014 and into more rural areas controlled by Republicans. He also added more offices, which resulted in hiring more directors.<\/p>\n Taylor\u2019s texts at that time show Causey practically guaranteed her a job, despite the fact that she had no experience in insurance matters.<\/p>\n \u201cYou may write your own job description,\u201d Causey texted her on June 22, 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah right!\u201d Taylor responded. \u201cLol!!!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can,\u201d he replied. \u201cWant to make you happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Causey, in the interview, didn\u2019t dispute hiring Taylor despite her lack of experience in insurance matters. He said it wasn\u2019t needed for that position.<\/p>\n As a regional director, Taylor and others were told to fill out weekly activity reports. The N&O has previously requested those reports and found that some of Causey\u2019s regional directors filed few. But Taylor regularly filed detailed weekly reports. They totaled more than 260 pages.<\/p>\n She said she sought a change in jobs within the department after four years of driving around her regional district, meeting insurance agents, and serving as an advance person for events that Causey would attend. At her request, in December 2021, she transferred to the department\u2019s Archdale office, which houses much of its bail bond regulatory division<\/a>. She worked as an analyst, a position that made use of her experience as a probation officer and her master\u2019s degree in criminal justice.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when things began to go south, she said. Men greatly outnumbered women in the office, and many of those employees were former Guilford County sheriff\u2019s deputies or local police officers, she said. It felt to her like a \u201cgood ol\u2019 boy\u201d network.<\/p>\n After she reported that some staff in Raleigh were not obtaining required information as they approved the renewal of bail agents\u2019 licenses, Taylor found herself isolated from her co-workers, she said. She texted Causey that her supervisors had stopped handing her cases of complaints against bail agents to work.<\/p>\n In November 2021, her husband caught COVID-19 and nearly died. He spent three months in the hospital, some of it in an induced coma. But some in the Archdale office weren\u2019t taking the pandemic seriously, she said. One co-worker walked in during that time saying she had tested positive. Taylor said her husband\u2019s brush with death triggered the post-traumatic stress disorder she first experienced from a traumatic childhood.<\/p>\n