Members of the Cary Town Council for years were aware of former Town Manager Sean Stegall’s link to a hotel that was at the center of a drug investigation, according to a former town official. She says newly released police documents indicate that he may have misled elected officials about why he was at the hotel.
Police records released this month linked Stegall to a 2016 investigation into a motel where police suspected drugs were being sold. Police documented seeing a vehicle belonging to Stegall outside the hotel. Police connected the car to Stegall after running the license plate, and officers followed the car to the Stegall home in Cary, the report said. The report doesn’t say whether Stegall was the driver. He never faced charges.
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Stegall, who resigned last year amid questions over town spending, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Longtime Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said Thursday that the records were presented to the council for the first time on Feb. 5. “These documents are concerning and raise many questions — questions for which we don’t have answers,” Weinbrecht said in the statement. “And we won’t speculate on what happened nearly 10 years ago in the absence of facts and further evidence.”
Former Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson told WRAL on Friday that Stegall told a select number of council members individually about the incident in or before 2023. According to Robinson, Stegall told them he was flagged down by a woman who needed help, and he followed her back to the hotel. But before he entered the hotel, he told Robinson, he realized that it was a place he shouldn't be and he left.
The police records released this month indicate that the driver of Stegall's car appeared to walk into the storage room of the address that was under investigation, and that the driver appeared to meet with the investigation's target. There were about 15 minutes from when the vehicle arrived at the location to when it left, the records indicate.
After seeing the newly released documents, Robinson alleged that Stegall misled council members about the incident. “Sean Stegall lied to the council members and told us that he was in that location because he was trying to help someone,” she said Friday. “Because we trusted him, we believed his story.”
Stegall disclosed his involvement to other council members, Robinson said, but she couldn’t recall who those council members were. She said he was disclosing it because he was worried that “something might come out” and that he didn’t want her to be surprised.
She said Stegall disclosed that police were investigating the location but didn’t say if there was a police report about the incident. Robinson said she would have looked into the incident further had she known there was a police report. “I didn’t ask that because I trusted him,” she said. She said she didn’t know if any other council member investigated it further.
WRAL asked Weinbrecht on Friday when he first learned of the incident. He responded: “I have nothing to add to my statement,” referring to the statement he issued Thursday. That statement said the documents “were presented to the council for the first time on Feb. 5,” but it didn’t say when the mayor or other council members first learned of the case.
A town spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to questions about who in the town was aware of Stegall’s disclosure to council members and when they learned of the disclosure.
Stegall resigned as town manager late last year after questions arose about his spending of town money. Records indicate that Stegall spent thousands of dollars at a four-star hotel during a conference in Texas in 2023. During Stegall’s tenure, the town also paid more than $1 million for land near Cary Elementary School against the recommendation of the assistant town manager and without the knowledge of every town council member.
An independent audit released this month found material weaknesses in the town's internal controls over financial reporting. The state auditor and the Wake County district attorney have initiated separate reviews of the town’s financial reporting.