E-mails between Yadkin County officials and a judge who was prodding them to build a new jail show that county officials had repeatedly asked the judge to intervene and help quell opposition to the jail’s location.
In November 2007, then-County Manager Eric Williams wrote Superior Court Judge John Craig III and Judge Ed Gregory, the senior resident Superior Court judge for the judicial district that includes Yadkin County. County commissioners voted 3-2 in November 2006 to build a new jail, but one commissioner, Brady Wooten, has continually opposed plans to build the $8.2 million, 150-bed facility about four miles from the courthouse.
“Is there anything either one of you could offer (or be willing to entertain doing), which you think could reconfirm the judicial mandate that we proceed along the steady and thoughtful course we are working so hard to travel?” Williams asked in an e-mail. “Is it possible the entire Board, Sheriff Cain, County Attorney Jim Graham and I could be summoned before one, or both of you even, to explain why these obstructionist efforts continue?”
Craig, who summoned commissioners before him in December 2006 over the need for an adequate jail, told Williams there wasn’t a legal or judicial reason to hold another hearing.
“A court hearing with the aim of chastising Mr. Wooten for his obstructionist tactics would be inappropriate,” Craig wrote. “On the other hand, let me know if he attempts to lie down in front of a bulldozer at the construction site.”
Craig said Williams tended to be chatty in his e-mails, which Carolina Journal obtained in a public records request.
“Eric would get mad about things commissioners would do and call me and get me to do something,” Craig said. “A lot of times it wasn’t appropriate for me to do anything.”
Williams, now the city manager in Smithfield, didn’t respond to a phone call or e-mail seeking comment for this story.
Kim Clark Phillips, a former commissioner, wrote Williams in November 2006 about Wooten wanting to meet with her.
“I may agree to meet under very, very clear and stringent requirements,” Phillips wrote. “If he fails to go along with those, I suppose I’ll have no choice but to discuss that with judge Craig. No more roadblocks from anybody on our progress toward a new jail. Period.”
Craig mentioned Wooten in a December 2007 e-mail to Phillips.
“I must admit privately that I despise demagoguery and attempts at political tyranny,” Craig wrote. “I was inspired to take action because the former chairman ‘threw down the gauntlet.’”
Yadkin County still hasn’t built a jail because of political opposition and delays from lawsuits by opponents who would like to build a smaller, cheaper jail in the county seat of Yadkinville or remodel the existing jail.
State Rep. Darrell McCormick, a Republican from Yadkin County, said the majority of the county opposes building the jail away from the courthouse.
“It was a bad idea, and they were going to force it down the throats of the county,” McCormick said.
For years, the state Department of Health and Human Services has been citing the jail for deficiencies ranging from inoperable toilets to fire safety problems. The agency shut down most of the jail last August because of plumbing problems, with many cells lacking hot water.
Craig scheduled a hearing last month about the county’s failure to build a jail, telling commissioners he could fine them, remove them from office, or jail them until they agree “to properly carry out the duties of their office and get the jail project underway without further delay.”
His comments alarmed Wooten and Kevin Austin, the county commissioners who had opposed the jail site. They hired attorneys to represent them at county expense. Craig canceled the hearing after commissioners agreed to move forward with plans to build the jail.
“If it hurt their feelings I’m sorry, but they just needed to know how much inherent authority the superior court had,” Craig said.
Austin said the e-mails show bias by Craig. Austin’s family company, The Austin Company, is across the street from the jail site and was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit with the county over the jail.
“I think they show clear intent of Judge Craig to further the jail process including intervention in any way, shape or form that he could possible do,” Austin said.
Craig said he didn’t orchestrate anything with county officials.
“I don’t go around looking for fights with people like Brady Wooten,” Craig said. And in a follow-up message, Craig asked, “Is it really ‘activism’ to make the commissioners fulfill a core function of county government, one that goes to the heart of the efficient administration of justice?”
Phillips said she was embarrassed Craig needed to be involved in helping the country try to get a jail built.
“It’s terrible that these guys delay this and find any excuse and say that there’s a conspiracy,” Phillips said.
Yadkin County resident Larry Long said in December that he filed a complaint with the state Judicial Standards Commission about Craig. Long said recently that the commission told him it found no wrongdoing by Craig. The commission wouldn’t confirm this.
Narley Cashwell, the attorney of counsel for the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, said judges clearly have the authority to direct officials to provide adequate jail facilities if a grand jury has found problems. But it may be out of line for a judge to give specific instructions to county officials. He would not comment on whether Craig’s actions were appropriate.
“The issue of whether a new jail has to be built or the jail remodeled may well be the discretionary call of the county commissioners,” said Cashwell, a former Superior Court judge for Wake County.
In 1989, an Alamance County judge ordered the county to provide an adequate courthouse with specific instructions about the number of courtrooms and square footage. The state Supreme Court, threw the order out, holding that “it intruded on the discretion that properly belonged to the commissioners.”
Opponents to building a jail outside Yadkinville have also questioned why Craig heard a lawsuit challenging the rezoning of the jail. Craig, who found the rezoning was proper, said it was just a coincidence he heard the case.
He said that if a jail is built he probably won’t be there for the opening.
“I’m sorry that I’ve made the people of Yadkin County mad,” Craig said. “If they ever get the jail built, I probably won’t go to the groundbreaking for fear someone would take me out with a deer rifle.”
Sarah Okeson is a contributor to Carolina Journal.