Latest / Voices of the Albemarle / Ep. 32: For Your Consideration, District Court Judge Candidates Jenny Wells & Kyle Jones

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Ep. 32: For Your Consideration, District Court Judge Candidates Jenny Wells & Kyle Jones · Voices of the Albemarle

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Voices of the Albemarle.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Izzy Kelly Goss, and today we will be starting a new series we're doing called For Your Consideration, where we will be having candidates who are up for election in November come to speak about themselves, their platform, and why they believe you should vote for them.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Today's episode will feature your candidates for District 1's district court judge, Judge Jenny Wells, and assistant district attorney Kyle Jones.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Their district covers Camden, Pasquatank, Chowan, Kuratuck, Dare, Gates, and Perquimans counties.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: In order to ensure adequate time for both candidates, these episodes will not feature a new segment at the beginning, but worry not, we will have plenty of other episodes coming out with new segments soon.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: That being said, I think we're gonna go ahead and get started with our interview with Democrat candidate Judge Jenny Wells.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hello.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Izzy.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: You guys are gonna be our first episode of this series, so it's really exciting.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: What an honor.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I'm really excited.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is a great way to get people informed and and well versed on their choices for the upcoming election.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm just gonna go ahead and kick it off.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping you can start by telling us a little bit about your background and how you you're the currently appointed district court judge and how you ended up in that position.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I was born in Elizabeth City and my family moved to the Outer Banks when I was two years old.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up in Kitty Hawk.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Dare County public schools, graduated from Manual High School, um, and then I went to Tulane University, undergraduate, and Campbell Law School.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when it was time to start my career, I decided to move back here to the place that I was from, be close to my parents.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, because I know this community has a real lack of lawyers as compared to places like Charlotte and Raleigh.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really important to me to serve my hometown.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I started as an assistant public defender uh in the Passwatank County office in 2014, March of 2014.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I transferred a couple of years later to the Dare County office because I lived in Kitty Hawk the whole time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I've served uh Dare, Curry Tuck, Camden, uh, and Passwatank as a public defender.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: After 11 years at the public defender's office, there came an opening on the district court bench, and I was encouraged to put my name in for consideration.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the way that process works is that all of the attorneys in your judicial district, which as you said is seven counties, seven counties in northeast North Carolina, all of the attorneys meet and they send five names to the governor for his consideration, and he can pick any of those five names, but they go along with the vote totals they've received uh from the local attorneys.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I won that vote.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was the recipient of the most votes, uh, which I'm so still just incredibly honored by that my peers picked me above anyone else.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so after a vetting process and interviews with the governor's office, I was appointed March 18th of last year to serve as a district court judge.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And you've been in the position ever since?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Really going on 18 months now.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yay.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: And now you are up for re-election to stay in the position.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but kind of going back to you went to Campbell, Campbell Law School.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: What about law was enticing to you?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like what drives your passion for that?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's not an easy thing to do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's not.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not easy to be a public defender at all.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: I it's hard to put a finger on it as long as I can remember.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've wanted to be a lawyer.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I even know what that knew what that was when I was young, but I I did somehow.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I've just always wanted to be.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Probably someone said to me, you know, you like to argue you should be a lawyer or something like that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I've always wanted to be uh in the public sector, serve public interest.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And as far as an underserved population, you know, clients of public defenders are are right up there.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: Right, absolutely.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, people who are involved in the criminal justice system and don't have the money to retain an attorney to represent them.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I thought about um a DA's office, but I decided that, you know, I just felt like I wanted to work with the public and work directly with the people that I was serving and help them.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so that's what kind of drew me to that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously you've been in this position for 18 months.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you have a feel for it, but was there anything in particular that was a really you've already said you really enjoy working in the public sector?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: But what was that driving force behind sitting down and saying, okay, I want to run for this position.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: I want to try and keep this position.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was uh a daunting.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: It it was a quite a decision.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: People ask me all the time, um, you know, if I've thought about what I would do, if I if I wasn't victorious in the election.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the truth is that I've thought about that since literally the minute I was appointed, because this is my job.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's not something I'm doing, you know, on the side or or like a commissioner's race or something like that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um so, but I decided in the long run that this, you know, I think I'm good at it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was encouraged to put my name in, which is I'll to be a totally honest, it's not a thing I ever imagined for myself.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Really.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's not I didn't grow up thinking I would be a judge, even as a public defender.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I never really thought seriously about becoming a judge.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until someone that I would consider a mentor of mine reached out to me and said, I think you'd be really good at this.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think you should consider it.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I really started to think about it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that I am.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think it has been a learning curve for sure, because I only ever did criminal defense before.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And criminal law is I would say probably only a quarter of what we do on the district court bench.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I would also say that it's not even the most important thing that we do.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is probably uh deciding custody of people's children.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Something I take very seriously.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think I went off on a little tangent there.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, that was a great answer.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think that was great.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's also I think a good segue into my next question because, you know, like you just said, there are so many things that you do and and you take it very seriously, especially the custody of people's children.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, criminal law is incredibly important as well.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure everything you do is important, but what is the heart of your platform?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, everybody has that thing that that they sit down and they say, okay, this is the reason why I'm running and this is what I want people to know about me.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: What is that for you?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I am particularly, I just think that this job is something that I've found that I just feel like I'm very well suited for.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have a very even temperament.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I like the the person who's sitting here today is the exact same person that's in court.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I there's there's nothing about being in front of a courtroom or or or being in charge of of something that happens with people's lives that makes me act any differently than I already do.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I I take it very seriously, and especially in matters like child custody and protective orders, especially, you know, those are things that you need someone who's patient and willing to listen and willing to consider all different sides and not let any outside factors come into play, but but to judge cases just on the law and the facts in the case before them.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is a best a best position for me right now serving the public, you know, being the judge that I am and and taking those cases so seriously and and considering them.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to it's hard to articulate, you know, what really being a judge is why it's important to me or what it means to me.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have a feeling that if you want it for the robe and the license plate and people standing up when you walk into a room, that's not the right reason.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, and maybe you're not the best choice, but uh the those things are are nice.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice to get that respect.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice, you know.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've people treat me a lot differently than they treated me when I was a public defender.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's nice, but it also isn't the most important thing by far about this job.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: So uh and this may seem like a little bit of an obvious question, but I'm hoping you can put it into your own words because I think I feel like every candidate is going to see their roles and responsibilities at least a little bit differently.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is in your own words the role and responsibility of a district court judge?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think a big part of it is just listening and and being patient and even being kind.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I understood and I got a very good understanding of this when I was a public defender.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that court is second only to the hospital on the list of places people don't want to be.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're there as a victim or a defendant, or you're there fighting for custody of your child, or you're supporting someone you love that's fighting for custody of their child, or you're involved with social services court or juvenile delinquency court, you know, you're you're not having a good day.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I try, and I understand people are are overwhelmed and they have a hard time articulating things in that moment too, right?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're stressed out because it's a bad day.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so just trying to be patient with people, I try to be upfront about this is how court's gonna go today, because I don't want them to think that I'm unnecessarily wasting their time.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I try to be kind to them.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I, when I interviewed for this job, one of the vetters for the governor's office was a former chief district court judge out of Chapel Hill.
• 10:40
  unknown: Okay.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And he told me, um, basically promised me that anyone that comes in front of you, you'll look them in the eye, you greet them by their name, and you know, you make sure they feel seen.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what they did.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't, it doesn't matter what they did, that they still deserve to be treated fairly by the court system and by the process.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've made that a priority to do with everyone that comes in front of me, no matter what they did or what they're there for.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: That was a fantastic answer.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so two more questions for you.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we'll start with the first one.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: As currently appointed district court judge got as currently appointed district court judge, what is one major challenge that you've seen in this role that you've run into and and how did you end up handling it?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh a major challenge.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I so like I've said I I feel like I've developed this real respect for family law cases over the last 18 months.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was something that I never dealt with as a public defender.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and never dealt with child custody, family law and and things of that matter.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I've come to understand that those decisions can have longer lasting effects than almost anything else that we do.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And especially because I don't have any kids.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I we have three cats, my husband and I.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have three rescue cats.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we don't have kids, but and so when I'm put into a situation where I have to decide, you know, the future of someone's child, that's very daunting to me.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something that frankly I take home with me.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think about, you know, I continue to think about even after the case is over.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So all I know to do is luckily my other four judges are wonderful and they're always willing to talk to me and talk me through a situation, and I can go sit in their office or call them and say, Hey, what would you do in this situation?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just to make sure that I'm kind of on the right track.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just been a on a case by case, case-by-case basis.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I had one custody case where I it it literally made me angry.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I this the mom basically took the child.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, she was scheduled to have him and she refused to give him back to the dad, like enrolled him in school somewhere else.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then by the time he was able to get into court, she had not let him see or talk to this child who he'd had primary custody of since the child was born for months, missed the child's birthday.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I literally had to stand up and walk off the bench just to kind of like take a deep breath and take a moment because that, you know, just got under my skin.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: But we'd I'd work through it.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we set a new, like very definite uh visitation schedule.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I gave her hoops to jump through, and to her credit, she did that and she and she was able to regain some custody time with her son.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: But but just kind of working through difficult situations like that and not uh like letting it affect you personally and your sleep and your, you know, your my time at home is has been hard to work through.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Taking it one step at a time and sounds like relying on community and excellent.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And this is my last question.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, I think this is probably the most important.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: What is the one thing that you would say to someone who is maybe on the fence about voting for you?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would say that I'm the only person in this race who has experience as a district court judge who understands the the seriousness and the gravity of being and the honor of being in this position.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I take that very seriously.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: The state of North Carolina has paid for me to have more than 120 hours of training to be the best district court judge I can possibly be.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been in the job for 18 months, and I'm ready to keep going.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Come January 1st.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining us, and and thank you so much for public service.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Public service is what makes our country go round.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so thank you to all of our listeners for hearing what Jenny Wells has to say.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Her name will be on the ballot for the November 3rd election.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Early voting starts October 15th and runs through October 30th.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, at this time, we're going to transition over to our interview with Republican candidate assistant district attorney Kyle Jones.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: We are here now with Assistant District Attorney Kyle Jones, who is our next candidate in today's episode.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: We are very pleased to have you here.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm just gonna jump right in and have you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today as an assistant district attorney.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so I have been an assistant DA for 13 years.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: It was 13 years as of the middle of May.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: I was hired in 2013 by the then district attorney, Frank Parrish.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: I knew him really well.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, also an actor.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um and unfortunately, I was only there.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_04: I was hired in May, or started in May.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_04: September, I think it was the 22nd.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: He died unexpectedly.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so a lot of changes, you know, happened, and I've been there ever since.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_04: Uh prior to that, I was on the other side for a little while.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: I did defense for a little while when I first started after I passed the bar.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: I did criminal defense, like I said, and I did some parent representation in DSS court.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh looking back, I felt like I knew next to nothing, and you know, objectively probably did know next to nothing.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: But it was a good chance to learn.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: But being at the DA's office, the one thing that I have noticed, and the one thing that anybody notices as compared to being on your own is you start off, you're clueless, but there's 10 to 12 other people in the same hallway when you start that have been doing it longer than you.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so thankfully they're all there.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: You get a lot of experience very quickly.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and now, fast forward 13 years, I'm the second most senior assistant DA in the office.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's crazy.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: So now I'm looking around like who do I go to, you know, with questions, and the it it you know, it's kind of dwindled.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: So now hopefully people are coming to you with questions.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then sometimes I don't know, a lot of times I don't know.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I gotta look to the one person that's senior to me, which is Kim Plaine, and she knows everything.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes, yes, I I know her as well.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Just acquaintances through through my job.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: I meet a lot of people doing this.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um so kind of going back to a little bit about your background, mixed with my next question.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Where did you go to school?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Did you initially set out to to go into law?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: What about law was like enticing to you?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: I went to Broquimas County High School, graduated in 2003, I then went to East Carolina, which is probably your nice thing when I went to high school, you're asking me when I went to college.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_04: Went to East Carolina, graduated in 07.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_04: Really did not know what I wanted to do.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I was kind of into politics, and then when I graduated, uh it was a matter of not being able to do anything with a bachelor's in political science.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like, well, I guess I'll go to law school.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I had an aunt that kind of pushed me in that direction, thankfully.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I had not been the most studious person in the world, so I did not end up going to a top-tier law school.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so I ended up going to Liberty in Lynchburg, Virginia, which I'm glad I did.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: The kind of crew that I met there, I'm still friends with.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: We're still in a group chat to this day.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_04: We all play fantasy football together.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm getting killed this week.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I got one player tonight, and I'm probably still gonna lose.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but that was pretty much it.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: The lack of the ability to do anything else with the bachelor's in political science.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like, wow, I'll go to law school.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: So I did.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_04: I interned at the DA's office the summer after my uh first and second year.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh learned a lot, thought I'd you know want to do that as a job when I got out, and uh that's what I ended up doing.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it kind of just fell into your lap, but obviously you are still in it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: How many years later?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: 15?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: 13 at the DA's office.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: I've been practicing law.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I was only on the other side for maybe eight months, so between 13 and 14.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: 14.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, to have that kind of longevity, you've got to have something about law that once you really got into it, it it really clicked.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said, the internship.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: But but was there anything else that kind of you were like, I'm really passionate about this aspect, and it it kind of drove you into staying into law?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you realize pretty early on once you start in this job in this district that the boss, and it has been this way since Frank.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, the boss lets us do as far as deciding on the disposition of cases, what we think is just.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_04: Some offices are very policy heavy.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: They've got, you know, a chart, a graph, whatever that dictates what they're gonna do on any given case on any given day, be it speeding, serious assault, you know, uh something like that.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but for us, the boss has always let us uh decide what we think is just, as with any office, it all you know, sort of rises and falls on the facts anyway.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but thankfully, Frank did, Andy Womble did, and now Jeff Cruden does let us do what we think is just as far as a disposition, how we want to resolve a case.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: And that goes a long way with me to know that the boss trusts us to decide these things, that's a good feeling.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um kind of nerve-wracking because it sort of goes the other way.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_04: You don't want to embarrass them, and I certainly have felt that way towards all three bosses.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um but you certainly enjoy helping people.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_04: We meet a lot of victims of crime, of course.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I mean innumerable.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_04: In my 13 years, I've done district court in all seven counties, and the way it works, we are assigned to superior court in one of these seven counties, and I have done superior court in all seven.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know how many other DAs of the office have done all seven, but I've done all seven.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so you kind of slide around, you get to see that certain counties are heavier with respect to some crimes and others, Pasqual Tank.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh more serious assaults, larcenies, that kind of thing, uh, a little more violent crime than, say, Camden, uh, for example, which is where I'm assigned now.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, that's and the legal community is pretty tight-knit.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: That is a big aspect of job enjoyment as well.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: So if you practice here, at least in the criminal law realm versus somewhere else, like a bigger city, both from what I hear, you know, from others as well as my own experience here in you know, in other places, I think it's more combative from one side and uh the other.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: But here it's really collegial.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: We all get along.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, we have a job to do.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna go into court and do what I think is the in the best interest of the state, in the best interest of the victim in a case where applicable, and the defense attorney is gonna do what they're hired to do, which is represent their client zealously.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: But it is important to me that you still be able to get along and you know, act professionally.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_04: And in this district, we certainly do that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_04: And the judges are the same way.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_04: They're all all five, including Judge Wells, are wonderful to uh deal with.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: So speaking of Judge Wells, she's currently appointed, um, and you are running against her.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And like you said, nothing, nothing unprofessional about it.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone seems pretty courteous and to enjoy being around each other.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: But more specifically about the position, when you decided to run, what made you sit down and look at this position and look at everything that you were gonna have to do and go, I want to do this, I'm going to start this campaign.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_04: I had been considering it for a while.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, a lot of prosecutors, once you've been in it for a while, some are career prosecutors, like my boss is.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he's been doing it more than 30 years.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but I had been considering it a while.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_04: Some will go into defense and some will, of course, go on the bench.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_04: I'm trying to think.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_04: Of our current five district court judges, Travette, Davis, and Moreland, three of them were prosecutors.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: And then of our two Superior Court judges, both were prosecutors.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, Judge Womble and Judge Reed were were both prosecutors.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I had been eyeing it a while.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so, as with so many other things in life, it's about timing and opportunity.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_04: And so when Judge Barnes, who occupied the seat the first 30 years of its existence, because it was created in the mid-90s, right?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_04: And then he was appointed to that, uh, when he I word kind of got to me that he was considering looking at the door.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I had uh some conversations with him, with some of my work colleagues, people in my office, uh defense attorneys, other people that I respect, mentors of mine, uh, and talking to them about it.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: So the day that Judge Barnes announced his retirement, uh I sent in my campaign paperwork.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_04: I overnighted it, matter of fact, to the state to start raising money.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_04: Funny story, if I may.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, of course.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I don't think it's any secret.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: If she's done this already, maybe Judge Wells has alluded to.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: We know each other very well.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_04: We have worked across the courtroom from each other our whole careers.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the entire 13 years, we've never gotten into it once, which I think that's a testament to both of our uh personalities.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's a you know, it's 50-50.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: But in our profession, that is maybe not an accomplishment.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_04: That might be a miracle.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so I had a beta, I was beta testing a version of whatever the next Apple operating system was on the iPhone at the time.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: This is fall of 2024.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: And it started, if you've got it now, you'll see that it will take AI or use AI to summarize your emails and text messages and stuff like that.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so Judge Barnes sent out, or he had his secretary, he drafted the letter and then had his secretary that works in the judge's office uh or legal assistant send out the letter to the members of the bar.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I want to say her name was Lynetta Evans.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: And so I see it on my phone.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, I have been looking for this, anticipating it, just don't know when it's gonna come, and it was kind of gonna dictate, you know, when I made my next steps.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: And so I I remember seeing the email and it summarized it as Lynette, Lynette Evans announces her retirement.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: So please, as with anybody that's used AI, it is not perfect.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_04: Certainly that you know iteration was not.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: And so, all due respect to Miss Evans.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_04: I saw the headline or the summary and I just deleted it.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then it was uh the next day, maybe I was in a training, I think, and it was Judge Wells that text me.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: She said, Did you see Ed Judge Barnes' announcement?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, What announcement?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: She was like, He's retiring.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, What are you talking about?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I saw the one where Lyneta, uh uh Mr.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: Evans was, and she was like, No, that was Edgar's or Judge Barnes's.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Oh crap.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I went and can I say crap on him?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: So I went and found you know the email and reread it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh, sure enough.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, glad you guys have that line of communication.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's that's par for the course.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: So that's how our entire careers have been, how well we get along and how well we've always gotten along.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: Especially I feel like when it comes to campaigning against each other, you don't want to have someone you absolutely cannot stand.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: Just makes for a not fun race for everybody.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: I could not imagine doing this and just it being rancorous, nasty.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: I I would want no part of it.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: Anybody that has dealt with me in my career in politics knows that's not how I operate.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: Or you know, anybody that works with me professionally knows that that's not how I operate.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_04: And the same is true for Judge Wells.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's actually a great segue into my next question, which is what is the heart of your platform for this for this seat?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: What is the one thing that you really are proud of, which obviously being being courteous with everyone, um, but but the one thing that you're like, this is what I'm running on, this is what I'm running for?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's harder when you are a judge or running for a judicial seat to have a traditional platform because at the end of the day, the goal is you want a judge that's fair and impartial, and you want a judge that knows the law.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_04: So, as far as an actual platform, as boring as it may be, that's about as far as mine gets.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we she and I, we are very different people.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: We spend our careers on opposite sides of the courtroom.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: We are different, you know, from the ideological perspective.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um as far as a platform, the one thing that I talk about is just my uh experience in the courtroom.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: When you are a prosecutor, you get a lot of training very quickly when you start.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: And then throughout your career, you are managing a caseload of just boo-goodles of cases, pardon the word boogoodles.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so you it is different than being on the other side.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: That being said, being a public defender is one of the most thankless jobs that I have ever seen.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: And thankfully, we've got a good crew of them now, and certainly the same was true when uh Judge Wells was there.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um it is a noble profession.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: I remind everybody that might want to poo-poo on it.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_04: John Adams was a defense attorney, you know.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: So don't, don't, you know, down talk that job.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but one thing that I bring up when I'm talking is the experience outside the courtroom, too, just in terms of talking about who I am.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: So uh for 12 years, I was a county commissioner in Brookwimmans County.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, that's true.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh now, can anybody that's county commissioner go be a judge?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the thing that I would point to as relating to this campaign is every time, so I ran first in 2012, then again in I ran for re-election in 2016, then 2020.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm proud to say that each successive time on the ballot, I got more votes than the last.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: So what I point to is when I asked the public to give me a job, I am confident that I know that I can do it and I know that I can do it well.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_04: And with respect to that job at least, uh, the results would show that people approve of the job that I did.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: I was the chairman of the board when I was 32 in 2017.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_04: I was the chairman of the Admiral District Jail Board for a while.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh just in terms of what I've also done outside of the office.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Grace and I attend New Hope Church.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a laylear there and I'm on the board of trustees.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: Grace sings in the choir.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, Grace didn't run for office, though I am.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but she does have a beautiful voice.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: She sings in the choir, and because she can, I cannot, so I sit my butt in the pews.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, that's uh so as far as platform, boring as it may be, all that I will promise is that I'm gonna be fair and impartial, and that I know the law.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um because being a district court judge, you encounter a lot of everyday folks in probably the worst thing that they will go through, certainly that year for many, the worst thing they'll go through their whole life.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think it's important uh to have somebody that has experience on both sides.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that is a good thing.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, that's all I got.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think that's a great answer.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um experience is a great again, great segue.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're giving me all these great segues.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Everything is is kind of flowing into the next one, um, which is the sign of a great interview.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: So as district assistant district attorney for the last 13 years, and I feel like this really relates to, you know, uh what may come if you are uh elected to this seat.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: What is a huge challenge that you've run into and and how did you handle it?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure there are many challenges that come with your job.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: I know that's a that's a really kind of a vague question, but what challenge you run into as an assistant DA.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh people I would say uh as with most jobs can be the most difficult.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh people we encounter on the victim side, a lot of them have been through something traumatic.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and it's the first time they've ever been through anything traumatic, and they don't know how to process this.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: Some go to counseling, some don't.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so a lot of times uh just dealing with people um who have been through something very difficult uh can be challenging.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but shoot, just dealing with anybody.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you all we deal with defendants as well, just with speeding tickets, and you never know what you're gonna get on any given day.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: I know how I treat people, and frankly, I would tell you, I think that is why I've gotten where I've gotten professionally.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's not because I'm the greatest legal mind in the world.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_04: I think I'm just average, but I think it's because of how I treated people.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: Frankly, I think most, if you ask most of the lawyers on our district, they will tell you the same thing.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um but challenges.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the human element is certainly the most complex and proves the most difficult.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, you've got we deal with law enforcement officers too, that these days at least are often treated poorly, uh oftentimes not, but sometimes treated poorly by by defendants and sometimes by others.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then just navigating all that when it gets to the courtroom.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I will say, as we've hired somebody new in our office, and I've seen many new folks come in over the last 13 years, and something that I experienced too is when you are prosecuting in district court, it is multitasking hell.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_04: Pardon my French.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: No, absolutely.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_04: So last week I was doing curry tuck and it was almost 200 cases on the docket.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so we just walk in and you are rapid firing calling cases because in our district, at least in criminal court, the DA kind of runs the courtroom in terms of the flow of things.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: It's obviously the judge's courtroom, but we, the prosecutors, kind of run the show as far as the flow of the day.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_04: And uh when you got 200 cases, it's rapid fire.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: You have to be able to multitask and learning the job, that was the hardest thing to learn, multitasking.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I developed like my own little system.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_04: A few years ago, we switched from physical files to digital files.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I had to kind of adapt my system for that.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: But I I think I'm one of the swifter prosecutors.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_04: I think Judge Wells would would I tell you that as well.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of that's experience, just having to do it over the 13 years and being able to adapt and learn what works and what doesn't.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so do you feel like these challenges that you have will, the way that you've overcome them will transfer over into becoming a district court judge?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what I have leaned on with multitasking, the only way that you learn from that, that element in district court is just do it repeatedly.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: But I would lean on something I said earlier about how when I need help, I kind of look down the hallway, like somebody please help me.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: I my personal motto is to have a healthy skepticism of your own opinion.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: And uh so if I were to win and become a judge, I would see myself, because I do not know everything, I could see myself leaning heavily on the other judges in terms of stuff that I would not know.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: I would avail myself of every resource I possibly could to learn the job.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I would certainly lean on the other ones too.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_04: We've got uh Judge Wells is good, but and and uh the other four are good as well.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the most senior will not be there either way.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: He's running for Judge Travett's running for superior court.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: So he's not gonna be a district court judge.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: If he's still around, I mean I could text him regardless, but um if he's still around, I would certainly lean on him.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_04: Judge Amber Davis, I would certainly lean on um just because they are so knowledgeable.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: They've both been doing it 30-ish years.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um And that's actually similar to what Judge Wells says, is you know, like relying on that community and and having that sense of community to to go to when it comes to dealing with more difficult cases.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: That's right, and and us two being smart enough, thankfully, to know that we don't know everything.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean that's that's huge.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_04: You see people in the profession sometimes, not necessarily judges, but who don't have that skepticism of their own opinion, of their own abilities, and uh it's not always pleasant to deal with.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't serve them well in the long run.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is my final question.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and I think it may be one of the more important ones.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: What is one thing that you would say to someone who is looking at this ballot and is on the fence about who to vote for, specifically whether or not they want to vote for you?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_04: Do your research.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: It is the the way that I look at it, it is not my job to educate them on to educate the voters on the difference in us because I refuse, like I'm not gonna say a single negative word about Judge Wells.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: I will not allow anybody that's campaigning for me to do the same thing.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: I've had to corral a couple people on social media.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: I've contacted them like, hey, I need you to edit that post because that's not how we're doing things.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and thankfully they were kind enough, you know, uh, you know, to take the stuff down.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but what I would tell them is that it is important, though you may not think so.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_04: Judicial races are probably among the most overlooked for sure.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I suspect the county commissioner races probably get more local attention, and your average voter can probably kind of grasp it a little better.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_04: But your average voter probably doesn't realize that, you know, again, child custody, DSS court, small civil actions, criminal court, that we touch all that the district court touches all of that.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so what I would tell them is just that this stuff affects a lot of lives.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_04: Please do your research on both candidates.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_04: There is enough that is out there that you can get a feel of what both of us are about and make an informed decision.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_04: So that would be my request.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_04: Just do your homework, inform yourself, and then uh everybody's not gonna vote for me.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: If I win, it's not gonna be with 100% of the vote.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: And everybody shouldn't vote for me.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't agree with me, ideologically, I'm not your guy.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: And so the most important thing is just that people are informed about all races, particularly the judicial races, because they tend to get a little bit uh less attention and people don't know the names.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: So just do your research, do your homework, and walk in the voting booth informed.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_04: I would say go vote early because you might get sick.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that happened to me one time and I've never forgotten it.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_04: I ended up being able to vote on election day, but I was like, never again.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: Never again.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going early.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Early voter all the way.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that way something happens.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_04: And there are innumerable things that can come up on election day.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_04: So why chance it?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_04: Go early and vote and get it over with.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, speaking of, early voting begins October 15th.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: So make sure you check for your your local polling in Pasqua Tank.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: It is going to be at the Board of Elections.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and yes, thank you so much to Kyle Jones for joining us today.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Be courteous to your board of election staff.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Be courteous to your board of elections staff.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: They work very hard.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, thank you so much to Kyle Jones and to Jenny Wells for joining us for this episode.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: We hope that this has been informative to all of our listeners.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: Please stay tuned soon for another episode coming next week of For Your Consideration at Voices of the Albemarle.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: We will be having Ernest Cartwright and Timothy Stallings Jr.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: on to talk about their race as County Commissioner at large candidates.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you again to all of our listeners and to Kyle Jones and Jenny Wells.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: And happy though.