THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
For Frank Roland Parrish it was a moment of personal triumph, and for a courtroom full of admirers it was worth all the tough past politicking to see him sworn in Monday as the Albemarle's new district attorney.
Parrish, 45, won an upset Democratic primary election last May when he beat long-time incumbent District Attorney H.P. Williams Jr. in the seven-county 1st Judicial District that covers Northeastern North Carolina.
``Thank you for coming,'' Parrish told Williams when the oath-taking ceremony was over in the Pasquotank County Courthouse.
``Good luck and good wishes,'' Williams said over a drawn-out handshake that was far more friendly than the primary campaign.
Williams in late September announced he would leave office on Oct. 1, three months before his term was to end. Parrish is unopposed in the November election and Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. named Parrish to serve out Williams' term.
In the primary on May 3, few expected Parrish, a former assistant under Williams, to beat his onetime boss. Williams had the support of established Democratic Party leaders and - in theory - the Democratic party machines in Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.
But Parrish emerged with 11,964 votes to Williams' 7,049 as the result of a grass-roots campaign organized by Parrish's friends.
Parrish became an assistant district attorney in 1979 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Campbell University School of Law. From his beginnings as a young prosecutor, he acquired something of a cult following among lawyers, sheriffs and other law-enforcement officials.
Shaggy and shy behind owlish glasses, Parrish looks more like a professor than a prosecutor. But his compassion for victims of crime as well as the perpetrators he sent to jail won him intensely loyal support from younger Democrats and civic leaders.
In an unusual award, Parrish was honored last year by a group of federal prosecutors who decided that he was the ``most considerate'' prosecutor in death-penalty cases in the Mid-Atlantic region.
``He is personal proof that compassion has a voice in criminal justice,'' said N.C. Deputy Attorney General Joan Byers who recommended Parrish for the award given by the National Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Cases.
When he decided to run for the DA's job last year, Parrish found himself suddenly buoyed by dozens of younger politicians, including numerous Republicans.
Overnight, an impromptu Parrish campaign committee began meeting over kitchen tables and on Albemarle street corners. Soon ``Elect Parrish'' signs blossomed like dogwood on front lawns. Piggy banks were emptied.
Old Guard Democrats fussed and fretted but there wasn't much they could do about it.
But when Parrish was sworn in Monday, everybody in the courtroom put their best faces forward, ignoring the legal solemnity of the moment and giving Parrish a standing ovation. by CNB