‘Something major’: Wake DA partners with nonprofits to clear people’s arrest warrants
For the first time in a while, Nikole Leggard doesn’t feel like she has to live looking over her shoulder.
That’s because the fear of going to a jail for a minor traffic violation from over two years ago is now gone. The Wake County District Attorney’s Office agreed to remove an outstanding arrest warrant from her record, thanks to a new partnership between the DA and nonprofits focused on criminal justice reform.
“I’ve been living on the edge for the last year and a half,” said Leggard, 42. “This going to be helpful to me ... being able to clear this without having to be arrested or without having to go through the whole jail system to get bail or bond out.”
Leggard’s warrant stems from failing to appear in court after receiving a citation for a rolling stop in 2019. Her request for a new court date was denied in early 2020, just before the pandemic shut down the courts and prevented her from fixing the situation, she said.
“I can’t afford to lose any time off work to turn myself in to be arrested,” said Leggard, who works full time in addition to looking after her two children and her own mother.
Leggard, who lives in Fuquay-Varina, is one of about 45 successful applicants to the first “warrant clinic” being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Macedonia New Life Church on Rock Quarry Road in Raleigh.
Alternative solutions for crime
The effort is being organized by Orchid Bloom, a Raleigh-based nonprofit focused on assisting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, as well as the national organizations Black Voters Matter and Growing Real Alternatives Everywhere.
At the event, warrants in Wake County for non-violent misdemeanor charges without a victim will be recalled, while other individuals will get court fees reduced, or receive new court dates — a small effort to help “cut down on mass incarceration,” said Orchid Bloom founder Surena Johnson.
The DA’s office agreed to process warrants on a case-by-case basis for up to 100 people, though only 45 of about 160 applications were approved, she said. Conditions for applying include not having a felony attached to a misdemeanor charge.
Wake County DA Lorrin Freeman as well as three county judges will be present at the warrant clinic to process applicants’ cases, and pro bono attorneys will connect with clients who need representation in court.
Johnson says jailing people for non-violent misdemeanor charges is costly not only for families but for taxpayers in general.
“It costs us more to have people incarcerated than it is to just have alternative programs for those who are facing arrest,” Johnson said.
For these reasons, she says the warrant clinic is “something major” for people who don’t have the money to bail out of jail or to pay for court fees or legal representation.
Johnson said the warrant clinic is helping mostly Black and Latino people who face the most inequities in the justice system, which she used to be a part of as a former corrections officer at the Wake County Detention Center.
North Carolina jails Black people three times more than white people, and Native Americans more than twice the rate of whites, according to federal data organized by the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York think tank.
The event’s organizers are in talks with the DA’s office about setting up more events. Orchid Bloom is also working to identify the total number of warrants for non-violent crimes in the county, Johnson said.
“We welcome the opportunity to work with these community partners to give people who face minor criminal charges the ability to avoid arrest and other penalties because of missed court dates,” Freeman said in an email. “Individuals who have signed up for this event in advance will get to see our courts come into the community to serve them. This is just one way we are working to try to build trust in the judicial process.”
Future warrant clinics are in the works this year as the model’s effectiveness is observed, Freeman said.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
