Damon Chetson, candidate for Wake County District Attorney
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Candidates for Wake County District Attorney
Lorrin Freeman, the incumbent, and Damon Chetson are running for Wake County district attorney in the Democratic primary election. Jeff Dobson is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Get to know the candidates with our 2022 Voter Guide.
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Name: Damon John Chetson
Age: 49
Political party: Democrat
Campaign website: www.DamonforDA.com
Occupation and employer: Attorney, The Chetson Firm, PLLC
Education: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Law Degree (JD, 2009); University of Pennsylvania (BA, 1994)
Elected offices held: N/A
Please list highlights of your civic involvement: Pro Bono Lawyer from 2013 onward for Moral Monday/Poor People’s Campaign protesters arrested during Rev. William Barber’s campaigns at the NC General Assembly; Defense Lawyer for various protesters who have marched as part of protests against Confederate monuments and police violence (George Floyd); 2020 Democratic National Convention Delegate
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Attorney Joe Cheshire, Attorney Thomas C. Manning, former North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Richard Elmore
What are three things you want to accomplish in the next year, and how do you plan to accomplish them?
▪ End the death penalty in Wake County.
▪ Stop prosecution of adult use quantities of marijuana/cannabis.
▪ Dramatically expand deferral and mental health/alcohol/veteran treatment programs in our court system.
What about your experience makes you the best person to be Wake County’s next district attorney?
Having been a criminal defense attorney and Board Certified Specialist in State and Federal Criminal Law, I have more trial experience — more than 25 jury trials — to keep Wake County safe from violent crime, and a vision of a transparent criminal justice system to hold corrupt or violent police accountable and ensure fairness in our criminal justice system.
What does the District Attorney’s Office do well? In what areas does it need to improve?
For 30 years, Wake County under Colon Willoughby had an excellent reputation. Unfortunately, the current Wake County district attorney has failed to provide leadership. As a consequence, the office has had one of the highest staff turnover rates since 2018 of any DA’s office in North Carolina. The current elected DA has failed to attract a diverse office that represents the entirety of our community. And she has pursued counterproductive policies — such as the death penalty, and a backward-looking approach to misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses — that has resulted in a backlog of violent crime cases pending in the justice system that delay justice for victims and defendants.
Has the Wake County DA’s office done enough to attract and retain Black, Hispanic and other diverse prosecutors?
No. The Wake County District Attorney’s Office has failed to recruit a diverse team, and has failed to retain highly qualified prosecutors of color, many of whom have left for other positions in state government.
What role does and should the Wake County DA’s office play in stemming violent crime?
By focusing on the vigorous prosecution of violent crimes, the Wake County District Attorney’s Office should make our community safer. It has failed to do so. In the last two years, the Wake County District Attorney’s Office has lost an alarming number of first-degree murder cases. One of two things are true: either the prosecutors have tried to convict innocent people, or prosecutors have failed to convict guilty defendants, making us all less safe.
The Wake County DA’s office should also expand the number of people who are eligible for mental health and addiction treatment programs, because addressing these issues early is a proven method of reducing violent crime over the long run.
What is your stance on the death penalty?
I will not seek the death penalty: it is an enormously costly process that Wake County juries routinely reject even though the current Wake County district attorney sought the death penalty more frequently between 2015 and 2020 than any other DA in North Carolina.
Should former Raleigh police detective Omar Abdullah who oversaw criminal investigations that resulted in trafficking charges on fake drugs and a $2 million settlement by the city of Raleigh, face criminal charges?
After nearly two years of an investigation, the Wake County district attorney has failed to release information to the public so that the community can know whether Detective Omar Abdullah was criminally culpable. Fourteen of our fellow residents were imprisoned for a combined total of 2.5 years of time on false charges. The Wake County district attorney knew about this issue as early as February 2020, and yet failed to act in a timely fashion to drop charges, release falsely imprisoned people from custody. It is a travesty, and a stain on our criminal justice system.
What is your definition of transparency and how do you plan to apply that to your office?
Transparency requires timely release of comprehensive information that does not otherwise violate individual privacy rights or governmental requirements, such as the integrity of ongoing investigations. The Wake County District Attorney’s Office fails in this regard by lacking even a public-facing website that provides such basic information as number of cases it handles, the disposition of cases, the requirements of diversion or treatment programs, the success or failure rates of the office’s programs. As a consequence, the citizens of Wake County are left in the dark about such basic facts as the success or failure of the office’s prosecutions. I would create a public-facing dashboard to share this valuable information with the public.
Does Wake County do enough to ensure that people charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes aren’t being held in jail because they can’t post bail?
The News & Observer published a story in November 2020 noting that Wake County was the least effective during COVID at reducing its jail population as compared to neighboring counties. A new bail policy implemented this month in Wake County has some hopeful that people charged with nonviolent crimes are not held simply because they can’t post bail. Some critics are concerned that the new bail policy may not result in much of a change. I remain hopeful that, with new leadership in the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, we can reduce the enormous cost and damage of holding people charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes in pre-trial custody.
