THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509100050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
District Court Judge J.C. Cole was scheduled to hear 150 cases Friday.
And that was a light day.
``Today is not bad,'' the First District adjudicator said during a brief lunch break at an Outer Banks diner.
``We finished all the `not guilty' pleas already. We'll be able to start the trials this afternoon,'' the judge said, after ruling on dozens of assaults, drunk driving citations and divorces. ``The case load here is heavy - as in all the other counties in our district.
``On Wednesday, I had 278 cases in Currituck. There were 180 on the Perquimans docket Thursday,'' Cole said. ``Down here, it just seems crowded all the time.''
In the seven counties that comprise North Carolina's First Judicial District, 9,812 criminal non-motor vehicle cases were filed in District Court during fiscal year 1993-94. Three judges heard 84.5 percent of those cases. The rest never made it to court.
One district attorney and seven assistants prosecuted the proceedings - and all those from the Superior Court as well.
``We have experienced a really significant increase in the number of criminal case filings this year,'' District Attorney Frank Parrish said from his Elizabeth City office last week. ``It is not unusual at all not to be able to conclude all the cases scheduled for a single day of court.
``Many cases have to be continued,'' said Parrish, who worked in the D.A.'s office for 14 years before being elected district attorney. ``We just can't get to them. This kind of thing occurred before. But it's happening much more frequently now. There used to be days when we concluded court by lunch. Now, that's no longer true. And I don't think we'll see those days again.''
In the past 10 years, Parrish estimated, the number of cases has doubled on the dockets of District courtrooms in the state's First Judicial District.
This summer, he said, prosecutors handled an average of 200 cases each day. Sometimes in winter months the load eases slightly. But several early summer cases have yet to be scheduled - despite help from retired and out-of-district judges.
District Court Judge Edgar Barnes, who has been on the First District bench for three months, says he is scheduled to rule on 180 to 200 cases each court day.
``About 20 to 25 percent of those cases never show up. But three or four contested cases can take up the whole afternoon,'' Barnes said. ``An assault with even one witness can take an hour or more. Speeding tickets last three or four minutes each.
``I don't feel rushed,'' said Barnes. ``But I'm aware of the inconvenience continuing cases we don't get to can cause. People have to take two days off work and drive two hours from Virginia Beach to get here. In the summer, at least half the time we never get through the calendar. There's just too much.
``All of us try to get as many people out of the courtroom as quickly as possible,'' the judge said. ``There's not pressure to plea bargain. But no court in the country could hear every case that came before it.''
Senior District Court Judge Grafton Beamon said he is well aware of the overcrowded docket. ``It's the same in Currituck and Perquimans as in Dare,'' said Beamon. ``Hopefully, we'll be adding some sessions next year. Already, we've added two Thursdays of criminal District Court each month in Dare from April through November. But there are still days when we can't finish the docket.''
For Dare County, Beamon said he is considering increasing court session schedules to every Thursday next summer - in addition to the existing Tuesdays and Fridays. In Perquimans County, he said he might add a court session each Wednesday. In Currituck County, he is hoping commissioners will build a new courthouse.
``Right now, Currituck only has one courtroom. So each time Superior Court meets, we have to cancel our sessions,'' Beamon said. ``We just added Judge Barnes this summer - as a fourth judge. That will surely help our caseload.
``We're a high volume court, yes,'' said Beamon. ``But the big city courts still push through more cases a day than we do.''
On June 3, a teenage boy broke the screen and front doors of Virginia Cochran's Kill Devil Hills vacation home and went to sleep in the back bedroom. A neighbor called Cochran at her Chesapeake house and alerted her about the Outer Banks Goldilocks. Police arrested the boy - still in bed - and charged him with breaking and entering.
Late last month, the boy - who had a previous record - received a suspended sentence in Dare County District Court as part of a plea bargain.
Cochran said he should at least have been made to repay her $1,000 home repair bill.
``The thing that bothered me more than anything else was that the judge and district attorney had more than 150 cases that day. They were so overworked, no one could get any justice,'' Cochran said. ``Everyone was just so busy they couldn't get to it all.
``I don't think that we got any justice in our case because the dockets are so overcrowded. The people don't have time to hear or consider everything. I'm so frustrated, I just feel like screaming.''
Parrish agrees that justice is often adversely affected by the sheer volume of cases judges and prosecutors have to handle.
``I think our resources are severely taxed,'' Parrish said. ``The prosecutors just don't have time to meet with everyone thoroughly. It's difficult to do proper preparation and get all the background work you need to. Plea bargaining is a thing that is done, in most cases, because of the need to dispatch an optimum number of cases - quickly.''
Barnes said he did not feel like the heavy caseload coerces prosecutors, defendants or attorneys to negotiate plea bargains. But plea bargaining exists, he said, ``to help keep cases flowing through the courts. That won't have a negative effect on the administration of justice - so long as all the parties are informed about their options,'' said Barnes.
``A lot of times, it's in everybody's best interest to work out a plea bargain - even the victim's. People need to put things behind them and move on. . . . An added court day every three or four months would certainly help alleviate the crowded dockets - and the need to keep continuing cases.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
93-94 FILINGS
Source: North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB