IFN Staff
A current candidate for a seat on the Iredell County Board of Commissioners and a former candidate for Statesville City Council have been ordered to pay $1,000 to a private investigator for work he did after last fall’s city council race.
Ron K. Mann, a private investigator and owner of Derecho Investigations & Security Consultants, filed a claim against Angela W. Matthews and Braden C. Zittle in Iredell County Small Claims Court on January 15. Matthews is currently running for a seat on the county commission. Zittle finished third in a race for two at-large seats on the Statesville council in the November 4 election.
In separate statements, Matthews and Zittle claimed that the court filing was an effort to extort money from them.
“I know this is politically motivated because Mr. Mann clearly insinuated as much in an email to Ms. Matthews and I in an attempt to settle this without us going to court,” Zittle said in a statement. “His intention is to defame and cause reputational harm and I intend to pursue a resolution to that end.”
“It’s wrong to extort and use politics to try to get money out of someone,” Matthews said. “I’m innocent here.”
In the complaint filed in Small Claims Court, Mann sought $1,000 from Matthews and Zittle for “private investigation work into an election matter.”
The goal of the investigation, Mann said in an interview, was to determine if James Pressly, who finished second in the Statesville at-large race, actually lived outside of the city limits, which would have disqualified him from running for a seat on the council. Presumably, if Pressly was disqualified, Zittle would have been elevated to second place, resulting in a two-year term on the council.
According to Mann, Matthews contacted him on November 13 — nine days after the election — and wanted a quick investigation to determine where Pressly lived. She assured him that “the client” would pay him the required $500 deposit, which Zittle subsequently did through an online banking app, Mann said.
After Mann had completed his investigation, but before he provided the results, Matthews contacted him and tried to call off the investigation, the investigator said.
When Mann told Matthews that she and Zittle owed him an additional $1,000 for the background check and surveillance work he completed, Matthews said she would not pay, according to the investigator.
Zittle, in his response to Mann’s complaint, sought the return of the $500 that he paid Mann, and he also denied requesting, authorizing or accepting investigative services from Mann. Zittle also denied authorizing Matthews or anyone else to act on his behalf to secure investigative services. For the November 1 – December 31, 2025, campaign reporting period, Zittle did not disclose any payments to Mann or his agency, according to Iredell County elections records.
During a court hearing on February 12, an Iredell County magistrate ruled that Zittle and Matthews had entered into a verbal contract with Mann for his services. The magistrate entered a judgment and ordered Matthews and Zittle to pay $1,000, plus interest, and $186 in court costs.
Matthews and Zittle have both filed notice to appeal the judgment to District Court.
For the record, Mann determined that Pressly lives in the City of Statesville.
While I cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing legal matter, I do want to address a factual inaccuracy in the way this situation has been presented.
Under North Carolina law, if a candidate were found not to reside within the municipality they were elected to serve, that individual would be ineligible to hold the seat. In that circumstance, the position would not automatically be awarded to the next highest vote-getter. The vacancy would instead be filled by a vote of the remaining members of the council, or the State Board of Elections could determine that a new election was necessary. There was therefore no guaranteed or direct personal benefit to me, and any suggestion otherwise is incorrect.
I respectfully but strongly disagree with the magistrate’s ruling, which is why I have exercised my right to appeal to District Court. I am confident that a full review of the facts and the law will provide the appropriate outcome.
Out of respect for the legal process, I will not be offering further detailed comment at this time.
As I have read story after story about the involvement of shady characters like Angela Matthews, Mike Kubinec, etc. and various other Republican political figures in Iredell County going to great lengths to defame, discredit, disrupt the effective operations of various government entities; it seems voters in the county would begin to realize this isn’t leadership and deliver election results that encourage them to crawl back under the rock they crawled out from under.
I cannot fathom what kind of morally bankrupt character would support Matthews. How many times does she have to be a proven loser? It is time or her to pack up her clown show, Kubinec and Klum included, and go home. They are all a disgrace and serve the best interests of no one.