State v. Hardison

*506 DIETZ, Judge.

*723 Defendant Judy Hardison owns a business that repairs water lines in Pamlico County. In November 2012, a family friend of Hardison mistakenly broke a public water line after driving over it with a heavy truck and then joked with Hardison about "creating a job for her." This gave Hardison an idea: she began paying the same man to break other water lines in the county so that Hardison could repair them at the county's expense.

Law enforcement discovered the scheme and convinced the man working with Hardison to wear a wire. After recording incriminating conversations between the…