John H. Carrington

John H. Carrington (born 25 October 1934) is a Republican former member of the North Carolina General Assembly who long represented the state's fifteenth Senate district, including constituents in Wake county. He headed a major company in the evidence-collection and security business.

Carrington was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he enlisted in the United States Army in 1953 and served as a paratrooper during the Korean War until 1955. Following his military service, he completed his high school education in 1957 and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Widener College in 1962. Professionally, Carrington rose to become CEO of the Sirchie Group, a company specializing in evidence-collection gear for police and top-dollar security products for businesses. He was first elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1995.

In 2005, Carrington was charged with illegally exporting evidence-collection gear to China and took a plea bargain in December 2005 to felony charges in which he has been fined $850,000. One of his companies also took a plea agreement in the matter.

The law was altered to allow such exports a few years later. Many large companies have had to make files to track their resold goods to avoid penalty. The charge was for rape kits, finger print imaging kits, finger printing powder kits, and other evidence collecting products, etc. The effects were not sold directly to China, but were resold without the explicit knowledge of Carrington. Paper handling and documentation were handled badly by Carrington. However, under the law this circumstance was not an exception and a guilty plea was submitted.