A North Carolina town was rocked after its married mayor was caught on camera scampering around town hall in the dead of night without any pants on after sneaking a woman into the building, a lawsuit has claimed.
Mooresville Mayor Chris Carney, 54, is said to have ushered local journalist Jaime Gatton inside the building in October 2024 after midnight.
According to a lawsuit filed by former IT employee Jeff Noble he had spotted the two after noticing the mayor’s swipe card being used to access the building at irregular hours and decided to probe further.
It is unclear what Carney and Gatton got up to in the city hall – but Noble says Carney was wandering the hallways of the building with no pants on.
According to Noble the two remained inside the building for four and a half hours even after local police responded when motion detectors were triggered.
At that point Gatton retreated into the mayor’s office and hid, Noble said, with officers not searching the office or the surrounding area.
Noble said he reported his discovery to his supervisors in the city IT department saying he believed it was a security breach, a misuse of municipal property, and violated mayoral ethics.
In his suit, he claimed that Carney and other officials actively worked to suppress the surveillance video and worked against him before he was fired him from his job in July of last year.
Mayor Chris Carney, seen here, was allegedly seen on surveillance cameras inside Town Hall in the dead of night without any pants on
Carney and Gatton are said to have remained inside the building for four and a half hours, with police attending after they are alleged to have tripped motion sensors
Carney admitted to being inside the building on that evening, telling the Iredell Free News in December of 2024 that Gatton has been a friend of his for 20 years.
According to Carney him and Gatton, seen here, had went for a margarita before he became unwell
He told the outlet he was out for dinner that same night and had drinks with a town commissioner and his aides before meeting Gatton for a margarita at a bar.
After deciding to leave he claimed he felt sick and decided he couldn’t drive home, opting instead to go to Town Hall to pick up a cell phone.
Carney said Gatton went with him as she was concerned for him, telling the outlet that as he entered the building: ‘I got worse, I got dizzy, I felt nauseous.’
He claimed that the prescription medication for anxiety he was taking coupled with the drinks he had consumed had made him sick.
According to Carney the two decided to stay inside the building for several hours until he felt safe enough to drive home.
‘I felt I was doing the right thing and not driving impaired. I came here because I thought it was a safe place’, he told the outlet.
According to his profile on the town’s website, Carney is married to his wife Francie and they have three children, Rachel, Maddie and Will.
Carney is pictured here alongside his wife Francie in an image shared to social media
Carney and his wife have three children and live in a home worth $400,000 in Mooresville
Former IT employee Jeff Noble, seen here, he had spotted the two after noticing the mayor’s swipe card being used to access the building at irregular hours and decided to probe further
The couple reside in a comfortable 4-bedroom home near a lake in the town with an estimated value of $400,000.
When contacted by the Daily Mail on Wednesday, his wife Francie immediately hung up the phone.
In his lawsuit Noble is seeking damages for lost wages, benefits, emotional distress and reputational harm.
Noble told WBTV this week after filing suit that when he discovered the footage he ‘was absolutely shocked’.
He added: ‘Why would we go to a public building and engage in this type of behavior, it’s mind boggling. I couldn’t believe it.’
Just last month, Carney posted to his own Facebook page claiming Noble has a history of ‘threatening public officials for personal financial gain’.
He said: ‘These claims are being made by an individual who is a pro se plaintiff in a lawsuit involving the County, as well as other public entities and individuals.
‘It is important to clarify that this individual currently has an active warrant for their arrest and has a documented history of using social media and email to pressure and threaten public officials for personal financial gain.’
Mayor Carney and Gatton were approached for comment.
