Bye week helps Aces — 6B 482-4418 Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Steinburg arrested, charged with assault Incident occurred at Hertford political forum By PETER WILLIAMS AND REBECCA BUNCH Staff Writers Bob Steinburg, an Edenton resi dent and Republican candidate for state House, was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting the campaign manager of Democratic challenger Bill Luton. The misdemeanor criminal summons signed by Magistrate C.A. Woodard in dicates probable cause that Stein burg “unlawfully and willfully did assault Russell Haddad by grab bing him on back of the neck, try ing to take a cam- Steinburg era away from him.” Steinburg, 64, of Edenton, was charged with simple physical as sault and released, according to Officer Terrence E. Farley of the Hertford Police Department. The * incident happened during a politi cal forum at Perquimans County High School in Hertford. Steinburg said Monday that he was having a private conversa tion with Luton after the forum ended, “trying to get him to focus on the issues. I did admonish him in a spirited way” Steinburg said that he looked up and saw that Haddad had walked over and was taping their conver sation with a camera phone. “I said, ‘Look, I don’t want you taping this, it’s a private con versation,’” Steinburg said. He said that Haddad put the camera phone down briefly but then be gan taping again as he and Luton continued to talk. “I then said to him, I asked you to stop. The third time I asked him, I again said, this is a private conversation.” Steinburg said that he swatted at the camera phone several times to try and get it out of Haddad’s hands. He said that at that point, Haddad left the forum. “I don’t recall grabbing at his neck,” Steinburg said. “I do recall trying to push the camera phone away” Steinburg said that about 20 minutes later he was still at the fo rum talking with people when he was approached by a Perquimans' law enforcement officer and asked to step outside so that they could talk. It was at that point, Stein burg said, that he learned Had dad planned to file a complaint and that he was being charged in connection with the incident. Steinburg said that reaction to the incident had been posi SeeSTEINBURG, 3A Board mulls shorter terms > j Members would serve four years By REBECCA BUNCH Staff Writer The Edenton-Chowan school board plans to dis-' cuss a resolution at its Nov. 5 meeting that could lead to 4-year terms for its members. Currently, ? board members serve 6 j year terms. Should the school board :f approve the resolution, the ( next step would be for the resolution to be put before the county commissioners for a vote. Once the commissioners approved the resolution, : a bill would have to be in ! troduced in the next legis | lative session of the North Carolina General Assem | bly to make the change. The bill would pass through the education committee prior to being voted on by both members of the state House and Senate. Several members of the school board expressed support for the idea at I their Oct. 1 board meeting | on Monday night includ ing outgoing board mem ber Win Dale. “I think the 6-year terms discourage people from | running for office,” Dale said. Dale recently announced that he would not seek re election after completing his first six years on the board. He said at the time that he favored term limits and wanted to give others a chance to serve. • Three board seats are up for re-election this year — the District 1 seat cur rently held by Jean Bunch, Ricky Browder’s District 2 seat, and the at-large board seat being vacated by Dale. Dale noted that since he announced he would not seek re-election two candidates had registered to run for his seat but he wondered aloud if anyone would have challenged him had he chosen to seek See BOARD, 2A ©2009 The Chowan Herald All Rights Reserved Fair Days •