Incoming Wake DA asks county for $600K for more prosecutors, mental health court

Incoming District Attorney Wiley Nickel is calling on Wake County to fund additional prosecutors to combat “serious and growing” public-safety concerns he says are being fueled by severe understaffing in the DA’s office.

In a news release Monday, Nickel details a $603,000 request aimed at adding more assistant district attorneys and legal assistants, as well as funding a local supplement for public defenders. The money, he wrote, would also help create a full-time mental health court in Wake County, which he said could help better serve cases amid a “growing mental health crisis.”

“Wake County’s justice system is being pushed to the breaking point,” Nickel said in the release. “This is not just a staffing issue — it’s a public safety issue. Victims have to wait years rather than months for justice, cases are backlogged, and repeat offenders stay out on the streets much longer.”

The request is in line with Nickel’s campaign promises while running for his seat earlier this year. The former congressman has long raised alarm at staffing differences between Wake and Mecklenburg County, which is smaller than Wake but has twice as many prosecutors: 94 to Wake’s 44.

The Wake DA’s office is currently operating with 0.36 prosecutors per 10,000 residents, the lowest statewide ratio, Nickel said. And according to the release, Wake prosecutors handle roughly 2,400 cases per ADA, more than double Mecklenburg’s 960 cases per ADA.

Those staffing levels, Nickel said, put added strain on local jails and courts, with Wake County having one of the longest stretches for disposition in Superior Court criminal cases, a median of 440 days.

In the Wake County jail, inmates are sleeping on floors, The News & Observer previously reported, a symptom of overcrowding in detention centers that county officials blame on staffing shortages in prosecutors’ offices, courts and state prisons, forcing inmates to stay in jails for longer.

“This is not simply a staffing issue — it is a serious public safety issue,” Nickel wrote in a letter to Wake County Commissioner Chairman Don Mial. “At current staffing levels, cases will fall through the cracks. That’s not hypothetical — it’s inevitable.”

Along with the proposed $603,000 appropriation, which would start in January, Nickel requested an additional $168,826 from the city of Raleigh for two added ADA positions and two legal assistants and $84,413 from Cary and Apex respectively to hire one ADA and one legal assistant.

“This shared local partnership would begin to close a serious public safety gap while following models that have already proven successful elsewhere in North Carolina,” Nickel wrote in the release.

A cluster of violent incidents in recent weeks, specifically in Raleigh, have raised concern among some residents, but officials maintain that crime is trending down.

Calls for a mental health court in Wake County have also grown louder, after the killing of Ravenscroft teacher Zoe Welsh in her home in January and public, online discussions about a Raleigh man who’s been convicted of crimes more than 40 times but keeps returning to downtown streets.

When individuals are involuntarily committed, they’re usually released once they’re determined not to be a danger to themselves or others, which doesn’t guarantee long-term commitment, The N&O previously reported.

Current Wake County DA Lorrin Freeman previously told the N&O that Wake doesn’t have the staffing for mental health courts that the neighboring Orange and Durham counties have. But the county does have a mental health deferral program coordinated with the DA’s office, the public defender’s office and Alliance Health, she said.

“We have, for a long time now ... tried to incentivize people getting treatment and staying compliant on their medication by taking those lower-level offenses and using it as kind of a carrot to get those cases dismissed if they will comply with treatment,” Freeman told the N&O last week.

As of Monday afternoon, Wiley’s proposal had not been factored into the county’s draft budget, County Manager David Ellis said.

The Board of Commissioners must adopt a budget by June 30 ahead of the new fiscal year and will consider proposed changes in the coming weeks.

‘Whose responsibility is it?’ outgoing Wake DA asks

Freeman — whose term ends in December — says her office has typically measured the office’s workload by a nationally approved metric that also considers the types of cases and allotted time per case flowing through a given office, noting a seat belt violation isn’t as time-consuming as a homicide case.

Wake County’s crime per capita remains low, she said, adding that Mecklenburg faces more violent crime and homicides than Wake. But she said as Wake County grows, it is gradually seeing more violent crime, which she said adds to the demand for more resources.

“I’m grateful for any support for our office in obtaining the resources we need,” she said. “It is unquestionable that Wake County, if you look statewide and to our staffing in comparison to other districts and the national standard, we are behind and we need to catch up.”

Freeman’s office has also taken strides toward filling the shortages during her time as DA, she said, with the county currently funding four positions within the office. But she said she’s “reluctant” to place the burden on the county for filling the gap within the DA’s office as Wake juggles other areas in need of funding, like the public school system.

Staffing proposals have traditionally gone through the General Assembly for approval, she said.

“No question, we need additional resources,” she said. “But the question becomes ‘How do we best move forward to catch us up and whose responsibility is it?’”

Nolan Wilkinson contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 6:20 PM.

Faith Wardwell

The News & Observer