09/18/2025
Separate from the civil complaint against former Summerfield Town Manager Scott Whitaker and finance officer Dee Hall, earlier this month Summerfield's lawyers gave the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office the results of its internal investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Whitaker and Hall. It's part of ``the process of referring the potential criminal matters to law enforcement,'' according to a town statement.
Before releasing the information to the sheriff’s office, Summerfield lawyers requested permission from the court. The court granted permission Sept. 10, according to a statement by the town.
The court sealed the civil complaint Sept. 8, nearly six weeks after Summerfield requested that it be sealed to protect personnel information and several days after news organizations obtained and reported details of the complaint before it was sealed.
There’s ``no fixed time’’ for a judge to sign an order sealing a complaint, according to Joseph Laizure, assistant professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government.
``As for how long it takes, it depends on a number of factors,’’ Laizure said in a recent email. ``If the parties agree on an order, they can propose it to the court, and the court may sign it if the proposed order is grounded in the facts and well-founded in the law. If no order can be agreed on, the court can consider the motion at a hearing or on written arguments of the parties.’’
He added, ``orders are only effective once reduced to writing, signed by a judge, and filed with the clerk.’’
