SMITHFIELD -- District Court Judge Joseph Setzer said Thursday that he won't allow Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle to reactivate 33 illegally dismissed drunken-driving cases.
Setzer's decision brings to a close a ticket-fixing scandal that shook Johnston County's legal community. Doyle said she doesn't plan to pursue the cases.
Setzer denied Doyle's request on the basis that she used an invalid procedure to reactivate the cases. He said the "motion for appropriate relief" Doyle filed is supposed to be used after a verdict; the illegally dismissed driving-while-impaired charges were never heard in court.
"A dismissal does not support a motion for appropriate relief," Setzer told the courtroom, which was filled with defense attorneys and the DWI defendants. "The state did not file the proper motion."
Also, Setzer said, the procedure Doyle chose is limited if it's used more than 10 days after a verdict and can relate only to sentencing matters after that time.
Because the request was thrown out on procedural grounds, Setzer said he couldn't consider Doyle's main argument. She said in court last month that because the 33 dismissal forms were filed after Assistant District Attorney Cindy Jaeger left office they were never really dismissed and should still be considered pending cases.
Jaeger was sentenced to up to four years in prison this year for her role in the ticket-fixing scheme, and several defense attorneys and a court clerk also were convicted.
Doyle said that she had spent months consulting law books and legal experts and that the procedure she chose was the only way the cases could possibly be brought back.
"The problem we were all faced with was that this is a unique issue with no case law to go by," she said. "I certainly was disappointed; however, I have the utmost respect for Judge Setzer."
Several local lawyers, including George Murphy, the Democrat Doyle faces in the November election, said trying to reactivate the cases was a political move.
"I can only conclude that the timing of her action is a political ploy to keep the matter before the public in the coming election," Murphy said last week.
Doyle countered that she had spoken of her plans long before an opponent filed to run against her; also, the case files were only recently returned by state investigators probing the ticket-fixing scheme, she said.
'Extremely relieved'
Frank Wood, an attorney representing one of the DWI defendants, said he wasn't surprised by Setzer's ruling. "I didn't think there was any way he could grant it the way it was presented to him," Wood said.
Defendant John Hubbard, a coffee barista and recovering alcoholic from Smithfield, said he was just pleased to have a charge from 2007 finally behind him for good.
"I'm extremely relieved," Hubbard said. "I feel like I can continue with the progress I've been making, and I don't have to continue being a burden on the taxpayers."
Wood said the judge's ruling will finally bring the issue of the illegal dismissals to an end.
"Hopefully, this will be the final chapter in that whole scandal," Wood said. "This whole scandal has really rocked our system to its core. The longer this goes on, the longer it takes us to move forward."
