By Cash Michaels
Contributing Writer
In an extremely emotional five-paragraph handwritten letter addressing charges that he allegedly sexually abused a 15-year-old male teenager last summer, Cecil Brockman, former six-term Democratic NC House member from High Point wrote, “My life has already been ruined. The career and legacy that I have work (sic) so hard for, always trying to do the right thing taken in a instant because someone lied to me.”
In the November 4th missive, written prior to being released from jail on bail to the restricted custody of his mother, Brockman, 41, opined about the coming legal trials and tribulations he will soon be facing after being arrested in October on two counts of statutory rape, and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor under the age of 16.
“Why should I pay the ultimate price because someone wanted to grow up too fast? Why should I bare (sic) the entirety of consequence for another person’s lie?” Brockman rhetorically asked, before ultimately blaming the minor child he was allegedly involved with for most of his legal troubles.
“I keep trying to think of the red flags,” Brockman, who served in the NC House since 2015, wrote. “How I could have possibly known or figured it out. His father knew he was staying with me, a 41 year-old man and said nothing. When he came to me to stay with me in NC, his father knew and said nothing. He didn’t have or do any schoolwork. His best friend lived in another state with her boyfriend. He told me he was a legally consenting age and he looked the age he claimed. He was 6’1 muscular. And we met on an adult dating app.”
“I have paid severely for his dishonesty,” the former state house member continued. “I will never be the same.”
As if to cry for mercy, Brockman then relates how, if he is convicted, the punishment will be hard not just on him, but his family.
“My grandfather, the only one I have left, is in his 80’s. My mother, aunts and uncles are all in there (sic) mid 60s. I want to be there for them and spend as much time with them as possible. I spent all of my 30’s in public service. The thought of spending the rest of my life or 12 years in prison is unimaginable. Especially when I was the one that was lied to.”
Finally, Brockman shares how tough the whole legal ordeal has been for him so far.
“This amount of cruelty is unbarable (sic). I keep waking up and it’s a reality that I cannot change. I am so devastated, constantly hurt and sad. I do not know what to do. Praying God loves me and heals me.”
According to electronic evidence presented in court by Guilford County District Attorney Avery Crump, Brockman met the alleged juvenile victim by a dating app online last May, right before the alleged minor victim turned 15 the following month in June.
Brockman allegedly went to Atlanta to live with the minor, and both then moved to High Point in August.
The alleged relationship was unknown until, on October 5th, Brockman reportedly called 911 saying that the teenager had gone missing, and he was trying to track the child via a tracking app known as Life360. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Dept. initially responded, but eventually contacted the High Point Police, which ultimately got the SBI involved because Brockman was a state representative.
It was after the alleged juvenile victim was finally located, and the teen’s cellphone was recovered and examined, that 14 sexually explicit videos of “certain acts” allegedly involving Brockman, were discovered.
The alleged acts were reportedly from August 15th, according to arrest warrants.
Brockman was arrested on October 8th. The investigation is ongoing, with additional charges possible, according to D.A. Crump.
Since then, the Guilford County Democratic Party has voted to appoint a High Point city councilwoman to fill out the rest of Brockman’s term in office. This happened after Brockman resigned in writing, amid calls from top Democrats, including Gov. Josh Stein, to do so.
The resignation also took place hours after Republican House Speaker Destin Hall announced that he had selected House members for a bi-partisan committee assigned to examine the charges against Brockman, and recommend his removal if warranted.
Brockman is next expected in court is January 16.
