Deferred prosecution: Former Assistant DA gets off easy
Published December 7, 2015
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, December 3, 2015.
“Membership has its privileges,” the commercial says. That certainly seems true in the case of a former prosecutor who just avoided a firm prosecution.
Prosecution will be deferred against Wendy Joyce Terry, a former district attorney in Davidson and Davie counties who was indicted in September on two counts of felony buying and selling offices, among other offenses, the Journal’s Michael Hewlett reported Wednesday. If she meets several requirements, the charges, which were related to Terry’s potential run for a Superior Court judgeship, will be dismissed. Terry, known for being a hard-charging prosecutor against defendants, won’t even be convicted of a misdemeanor in her own case.
We can’t help but wonder if someone from outside the legal community would have gotten off so lightly.
Serious charges have been taken lightly by the prosecutor who handled this deferred-prosecution agreement, District Attorney Tom Horner of Northwest North Carolina, and the judge who approved it, Nathaniel Poovey of Catawba County.
According to the indictment, Terry sent a text message on July 23 to Judge April Wood of Davidson District Court, offering to contribute $20,000 to Wood’s campaign if Wood convinced her husband, Lexington lawyer Jeffrey Berg Jr., to drop out of the Superior Court race to unseat Judge Theodore Royster. Royster is up for re-election in 2016, and Terry intended to run against him. Terry allegedly also tried to get Berg to run for a District Court seat instead of Royster’s seat and offered to pay Berg’s filing fee.
Garry Frank, the district attorney for Davie and Davidson counties, doesn’t play favorites. When he learned of the allegations in July, he put Terry, the wife of a Davidson District Court judge, on administrative leave as he requested an SBI investigation. Horner was appointed to handle the case. Terry resigned from the DA’s office.
Rather than plead guilty, she’ll be on supervised probation for up to two years. She will be required to perform 400 hours of community service and pay fines and courts costs of more than $5,000. She’ll have to stay out of politics for that time. If all is well at the end of two years, the charges will be dismissed.
The prosecutor’s office considered Terry’s lack of a criminal history and her years of service as a prosecutor, the Journal reported.
But allegations of tampering with the election process are serious business, especially for an officer of the court.
One of Terry’s attorneys says that Terry has maintained her innocence throughout the entire process, the Journal reported.
If that’s so, then the case should have gone to trial. Instead, the Journal reported, Terry was so hesitant to answer questions from the judge Tuesday that he had to tell her if she didn’t answer, he wouldn’t approve the agreement.
This case should have sent a strong signal that election offenses, especially on the part of officers of the court, won’t be tolerated.
This weak agreement doesn’t send that signal.
December 7, 2015 at 11:08 am
Jamie Farrell says:
Cover up and that is wrong and people talk of Democrats
