Democratic Senate candidate and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is being ripped as a “complete failure” after hundreds of inmates released under his administration as part of a COVID-era agreement were rearrested on new charges within two years.

This comes as Cooper is locked in a heated Senate race with Republican Michael Whatley that could help determine which party controls the chamber. A spokesperson for Cooper’s campaign dismissed the criticisms as “blatant lies from Republicans,” pointing to how the former governor fought the releases in court. The spokesperson also said thousands of prisoners were released during the first Trump administration due to COVID-19.

A Fox News Digital review of data from the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found that more than 560 inmates released during the Cooper administration went on to be arrested on charges of new offenses within two years of their release.

The agreement resulted in the release of 3,500 inmates over a 180-day period from February to August 2021. Among those released was Tyrell Brace, who was later charged with first-degree murder in the killing of young father Elante Thompson in Charlotte. Brace previously pleaded guilty to assault by strangulation and assault inflicting serious injury and also had felony larceny and breaking-and-entering convictions. North Carolina Department of Public Safety Adult Correction records indicate Brace was released months earlier than originally scheduled.

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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks during a North Carolina League of Municipalities meeting at Foothills Higher Education Conference Center in Morganton, N.C., on Nov. 8, 2024. (Andrew Nelles/USA Today Network)

Another released inmate, Daron Owens, went on to be sentenced in federal court to 10 years in prison for possession of a firearm by a felon stemming from a drive-by shooting months after his release that left a victim with gunshot wounds. Owens was released a month early.

Cooper’s Senate opponent, Republican Michael Whatley, ripped into him, posting on X that “Roy Cooper was a complete failure at keeping our communities safe.”

“Victims’ families deserve answers,” he continued, adding, “Why did Roy Cooper allow these dangerous criminals back on our streets?”

The mass release stemmed from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the North Carolina NAACP, ACLU and other groups, which argued that crowded prison conditions during the pandemic put inmates at unconstitutional risk. The plaintiffs initially pushed for the release of thousands more inmates. But the state ultimately settled the case in early 2021, agreeing to reduce the prison population through expanded early releases, parole reviews and other measures, resulting in about 3,500 inmates being released.

The move has been criticized by Republicans as one of the largest mass prisoner releases in the country. At the time, Cooper’s administration emphasized that the releases would focus on non-violent offenders, though officials later acknowledged that individuals convicted of violent crimes were also included.

Court records show some inmates released during the period had extensive felony histories, including crimes involving assault, sexual offenses, kidnapping and offenses against children.

Data reviewed by Fox News Digital found that from a sample group of 1,180 prisoners, 48 percent, 566, were later arrested on charges of new offenses. From the sample group, 20 percent have been convicted.

Besides Brace and Owens, another individual released was Jimmie Speight, who was convicted of indecent liberty with a child and failure to register as a sex offender and was released just under nine months early. In 2023, he was sentenced to more than 32 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Another, Kyshuan Norrell, who was convicted of manslaughter, was also released and has since been sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.

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North Carolina Republican Senate candidate and former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley speaks at a primary election night watch party in Charlotte, N.C., on March 3, 2026. (Erik Verduzco/AP)

Whatley campaign spokesperson DJ Griffin drilled into the former governor over these releases, telling Fox News Digital that “Roy Cooper has blood on his hands.”

Griffin posited that Cooper’s “dangerous decision to release thousands of convicted felons during COVID has resulted in the deaths of 19 North Carolinians.”

“Now, victims’ families say he is solely to blame for these deaths. All while Cooper refuses to take any responsibility for his actions,” said Griffin.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) also piled on Cooper, calling the releases “INSANE,” in an X post, adding, “Roy Cooper must answer for this.”

Bernadette Breslin, a national press secretary for the NRSC, told Fox News Digital that the agreement amounted to the Democrat having “aided and abetted the release of thousands of violent criminals onto North Carolina’s streets,” adding, “Cooper’s soft-on-crime policies are too dangerous for North Carolina families.”

In response, a spokesperson for Cooper’s campaign dismissed the criticisms, telling Fox News Digital that “these blatant lies from Republicans have been fact-checked for months and found to be false.”

The spokesperson said that “after Roy fought against these releases in court, North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked to similar criteria President Trump used a year prior when his administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to COVID-19.”

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9, 2025, alongside photos of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska and Decarlos Brown Jr., who is accused in her killing. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

“Keeping the public safe is Roy Cooper’s top priority, which is why he refused to commute sentences when outside groups asked him to during the pandemic,” the spokesperson continued.

They added, “While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served time in prison for multiple counts of felony child sex crimes to a powerful position within the North Carolina Republican Party.”

Harvey West Jr., a registered sex offender who served prison time for child sex crimes, later held leadership and committee roles within the North Carolina GOP during Whatley’s tenure as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. Whatley has said that West “was elected on his own,” according to the Washington Examiner.

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This comes as North Carolina leaders have faced scrutiny for high-profile murders, such as the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska. Republicans have alleged that the man charged with Zarutska’s murder, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., may have been one of the inmates released under the COVID agreement. However, Cooper has denied this as a “lie.”

Brown had been arrested at least 14 times prior to the killing and previously served time in North Carolina prison after a 2015 armed robbery conviction. He was released from custody in September 2020.

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

Reference #18.c5d07868.1778506395.428a603e

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.c5d07868.1778506395.428a603e

Former Playboy Bunny Holly Madison is pulling back the curtain on what life was really like for her under Hugh Hefner’s reign.

On Kristin Cavallari’s “Let’s Be Honest” podcast, Madison claimed that there were “weird” group sex nights and that she believed the Playboy Mansion felt “cult-like” with everyone fawning over Hefner.

Madison told Cavallari that the group sex nights began with all the Playboy Bunnies taking turns having sex with Hefner, explaining, “Then the girls who weren’t active with him were kind of like acting like they were active with the other girls, but not really.”

Holly Madison revealed what it was really like for her living in the Playboy Mansion. (Denise Truscello/WireImage)

Madison continued, “It would be like kind of silhouetted, because you’d have like these giant screens of porn going, and it would be just girls, like, talking s— with each other. And it was a really weird scene and nobody liked it and everybody tried to just get it done as fast as possible.”

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Madison told Cavallari that when she started off as a Playboy Bunny, she was required to go out with Hefner (and later have sex with him) twice a week. However, once production began on the reality series “The Girls Next Door,” the girls stopped going out with Hefner.

“We stopped, not that we wouldn’t ever go out if it was like a special occasion, but we stopped those regular club nights where we’re going out every Wednesday and Friday, because we were so busy with the show, and he loved the show,” Madison said. “He was, like, high off the show. It gave him new relevance, like the ego boost.”

Holly Madison was known as one of Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriends in the early 2000s. (Denise Truscello/WireImage)

“So, he didn’t really feel the need to, like, ‘Oh, I have to do these compulsive sex nights to make myself feel wanted and relevant,’ I think,” she continued.

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Madison said elsewhere in the podcast that when she began as a Playboy Bunny, her situation was not as competitive or catty. It wasn’t until the reality show began that she felt the transition into a different kind of environment.

Sheila Levell, Hugh Hefner and Holly Madison are seen in a scene from a 2003 commercial. (Getty Images)

“It was definitely coming mostly from Hef, also from the other girls, because before, it was just me, Bridget [Marquardt] and Kendra [Wilkinson]. There was like a rotating cast of six other slots and nobody got along,” she said. “It was super competitive.”

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Madison claimed that Hefner enjoyed engineering drama between the women and “liked to kind of play two different teams against each other, so he always felt fought over and he could always get his way, and we couldn’t like, you know … unionize against him.”

Kendra Wilkinson, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt were the stars of “Girls Next Door.” (Jamie McCarthy/WireImage)

“I was like, ‘Oh s—, he’s been like engineering this the whole time. F— that,'” Madison said.

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Madison said that Hefner was used to his “cult-like” following from people. According to the former Playboy Bunny, people fawned over him “so they can, like, stay on the party list.”

Holly Madison poses with Hugh Hefner at the launch party for season three of “The Girls Next Door.” (Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

Madison became associated with Playboy in the early 2000s and moved into the Playboy Mansion around 2001. She was widely known as one of Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriends from about 2001 to 2008. During that time, she was also featured on “The Girls Next Door” (2005–2009), which documented life at the mansion, though she left both the show and the Playboy lifestyle in 2008.

Hefner, the founder of Playboy, died in 2017 at age 91. He passed away at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles from natural causes.

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The failure of Congress to provide funding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and, specifically, to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had real world consequences — our country and its borders were less safe during a time of war, and the men and women in law enforcement were left to wonder if they would receive a paycheck while their lives were on the line.

The fact is that protecting our nation’s homeland doesn’t stop, and neither should DHS’ officers’ paychecks. Were it not for the extraordinary measures taken by President Trump and his administration to pay these employees, this crisis would have been even greater. These officers, and our country, are fortunate we averted any disaster or lasting damage.

Finally, Congress has voted to end the shutdown after a grueling and agonizing 76 days. It is thanks to the continued efforts of President Trump and his administration that the spending measure reached his desk and was signed into law. However, this bill still leaves immigration enforcement agencies like ICE and CBP unfunded because of partisan policy disputes. In order to rectify this issue, Congressional leaders are turning to budget reconciliation, a process that began with the Senate’s recent passage of a budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 33. This is the first step in the reconciliation process that will allow Congress to fund our immigration enforcement agencies.

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The appropriations process has been wrecked by partisan policy fights, which is a grave disservice to our nation. If the House can pass the Senate resolution, we would be on track for President Trump to sign it into law by 1 June. Any changes to the bill as written would require it to be returned to the Senate, creating an unacceptable delay and putting the entire process at risk. We are calling on every single member of Congress to pass this reconciliation bill and fund every part of DHS as soon as possible. Delay is unacceptable.

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It is said that we must learn from history or we are condemned to repeat it. We must remember this lesson — leaving DHS unfunded for over 70 days is unprecedented and frankly, shameful. It was also dangerous and should never happen again