DEADLY DRUGS A FOCUS
WILSON — District Attorney Jeff Marsigli said he worked toward two main goals in 2023: establishing a district-level court to dispose of low-level felonies and overseeing the first prosecutions under North Carolina's death by distribution law ratified in September.
Marsigli, sworn in on Jan. 1, 2023, has completed his first year as head of the state's 8th Prosecutorial District, which includes Wilson, Nash and Edgecombe counties.
The DA said he and his staff have worked to improve communication, interoffice and intraoffice, with law enforcement, judges and clerks.
"Of course, coming in as the new guy, building the trust with everybody has been a big part of year one," Marsigli said during an interview from his office at the Wilson County Courthouse.
The district has 22 assistant district attorney positions, 19 of which are filled. There are six ADAs in Wilson County.
"Hopefully, we will have all of our ADA slots filled by April," Marsigli said.
Marsigli said he has 25 administrative staff slots and one vacancy among them. The district has a total of 47 positions.
DEADLY DRUGS A FOCUS
Marsigli said he intends to be personally involved in prosecuting the district's first death by distribution cases.
The new law has stiffer sentences and fines for defendants convicted of trafficking in heroin, fentanyl and carfenanil and modifies the death by distribution offense to include the unlawful delivery and ingestion of certain controlled substances that proximately causes a person's death.
"I think the first two charges were right here in Wilson so far, although there is another one coming in Wilson and there are a couple in Nash," Marsigli said.
The DA said that's concerning to him because the people who are dying are the young folks.
"The people 17 to 25 years old is really the range of the people that are dying, so we are really working hard on trying to get that," Marsigli said. "We are hoping that if we charge some of these that eventually, in the future, we can start climbing the ladder with the folks who are charged to try to find out who's actually pressing these pills and distributing in our community."
Distribution of deadly fentanyl-laced pills is what Marsigli said has to be stopped.
"I have teenage kids myself," Marsigli said. "It is not just hitting certain areas of the community. It is hitting everybody, and everybody is getting touched by it. I am really trying to get that message out and hopefully try to stop this flow of fentanyl and stop these kids from dying."
FELONIES HANDLED IN DISTRICT COURT
Marsigli said he has worked hard to institute a new program where less serious felonies can be handled at the District Court level to help with efficiency and help move more cases.
Historically, felonies have been handled in Superior Court. N.C. Chief Justice Paul Newby has advocated a new arrangement in which Level H and Level I felonies can be assigned to District Court.
Examples of H and I felonies are cases involving illegal drugs, particularly instances where a charge of selling drugs gets reduced to possession of the drug or a case where a possession of a firearm by a felon charge gets reduced to an obstruction of justice charge. Some property crimes and some felony larcenies and breaking and entering cases will be included.
The DA said judges and clerks are all on board with this new system that will begin in January.
"It takes everybody to do this," Marsigli said. "I am real excited about that. Of course, it is something that I have wanted for a long time. It's not just about me. I don't get to come in and just do whatever I want at any time. We have to get a lot of folks to agree, so I am really pleased that we have agreed and now we are just going to have to figure out the best way to get it rolling and get it going."
SECOND-YEAR FOCUS
In the coming year, Marsigli said he will focus on victim treatment and victim relations.
"That is something that is a problem in the criminal justice system in general," Marsigli said.
He said his staff has worked to improve victim relations within the district attorney's office by changing the office's structure.
"Basically right now, we have staff that's assigned to certain courts," Marsigli said. "The problem with that in some ways is that oftentimes, the victim in one case may have to talk to three different staff members during the course of their case, so we are going to change that a little bit."
In the new arrangement, he said, every ADA will have a staff member assigned. When a case is referred for prosecution, the same ADA and the same staff member will work on the case from beginning to end.
"That way, the victim will have one point of contact or two points of contact, and we hope that will help," he said.
Marsigli said there's currently no mental health treatment offered to victims while their cases are pending other than a program that provides money for medical bills.
Mental health treatment is particularly important if the victim is involved a sex offense-type case, he said.
Marsigli said it's important that victims have access to treatment, as it sometimes can take two or three years to resolve a case.
"The victims get pushed to the side until we can get to court and do it," he said.
MOVING CASES
Marsigli said the district is moving more rapidly on disposition of felony cases.
"We had moved 600 more than were filed, so we are making progress," Marsigli said. "There are about 2,200 still pending." Marsigli said the average age of a felony case is only about 8 months old.
There were about 18,000 cases at the District Court level filed in the last fiscal year, and the office disposed of about 2,500 more than were filed.
"A lot of those are traffic tickets, speeding tickets or traffic stuff, so they move way faster," Marsigli said. "We tried 59 trials, so I was happy with that. And this is our whole district, not just Wilson. You are only talking about one trial session per month, so you are looking at 36 to 40 trial sessions in a whole year. So to try 59 jury cases in that time I thought was very impressive."
Marsigli said if the district can get 300 felony cases a year done in District Court, that might reduce the Superior Court docket by 100-150 cases or so.
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