This DAs’ group wields influence in NC legislature. Now it could get more lobbyists.

A bill that could soon be on the state Senate floor would allow an increase in lobbyists for the Conference of District Attorneys, a group whose director is married to the group’s current lobbyist.

Even with a single lobbyist, or liaison, the prosecutors’ group already wields influence in the General Assembly. Multiple measures have been proposed in the current session to benefit the group, from the increase in lobbyists to a taxpayer-funded pension.

At the same time, the DAs’ group is also pushing for stricter rules for the process of reversing wrongful convictions.

The current executive director of the Conference of District Attorneys is Kimberly Spahos, who is married to Chuck Spahos, a liaison who lobbies for the conference, according to state lobbying records.

She makes $147,142 per year, and Chuck Spahos makes $144,602 per year, according to Office of State Controller data analyzed by The N&O.

Allowing for more lobbyists

House Bill 193 would increase the number of liaisons allowed for the group from one to as many as four, though the group’s president said there are no immediate plans to do so.

Conference of District Attorneys President Ernest Lee told The News & Observer on Wednesday that the bill wouldn’t necessarily add liaisons for the agency, but that it wouldn’t have to go through the Administrative Office of the Courts if it chooses to do so. That would not mean additional hires, he said.

“It simply allows for the designation of existing personnel on an as needed basis,” Lee said.

Most agencies don’t have to seek permission to appoint liaisons, he said in an email, so the bill puts the agency on the same footing.

HB 193, which also includes other changes to courts, has sailed through committees with little to no discussion after being presented by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Sarah Stevens, a Mount Airy Republican and the House speaker pro tem.

Among other proposals that have come to the surface in this year’s legislative session:

▪ House Republican budget leaders removed a provision in their budget proposal that would have moved the group’s executive director into a more lucrative pension system reserved for judges and other high-level judicial employees. The pension payout would have cost taxpayers more than $642,000 and was removed after The News & Observer wrote about it.

▪ A new law allows the conference to provide legal counsel and advice to district attorneys and their staff. It also exempts this counsel from public records laws. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed House Bill 116 into law on June 9. It had passed the Senate unanimously.

▪ Earlier versions of that bill provided that the executive director of the conference receive longevity pay, which allows district attorneys and others to receive yearly bonuses that increase with years in service.

In late April, when longevity pay was under consideration, The N&O tried to reach Stevens by emailing, calling and stopping by her legislative office but was unsuccessful. The N&O emailed Stevens on Wednesday to ask about the lobbyists bill.

Why pay and benefits are under consideration

Also in late April, Spahos forwarded an inquiry about the pay and pension provisions to the group’s executive committee, which provided Seth Banks, president-elect of the conference and DA for the 35th Prosecutorial District, to answer questions.

Banks said Spahos already receives longevity pay due to her role as a resource prosecutor.

A resource prosecutor is a former assistant district attorney “who has left the employment of the district attorney’s office to serve in a specific, time-limited position,” with the conference, state law says.

“Our effort in HB 116, or I think the legislature’s effort in HB 116, was to codify current practice,” Banks said in late April, when the pay provisions were still included in the bill.

The bill, said Banks, was also meant to recognize Spahos’ status, “essentially, as a peer with the director of IDS.”

The North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services provides legal representation for defendants and others. The director, who receives longevity pay and the enhanced judicial retirement benefits, prepares and submits the proposed budget for the agency, maintains financial records for the office and more.

Meanwhile, the Conference of District Attorneys is made up of the state’s elected DAs, who meet twice a year. The director is responsible for developing programs and materials and consensus-building, according to the conference’s website. They do not receive judicial retirement benefits and receipt of longevity pay is not codified in state law.

Other people who are part of that retirement system include judges, district attorneys, clerks of superior court and public defenders.

Banks said there’s “an equity issue” as Spahos’ position “is similar to the IDS position, and other appointed positions” that qualify for the enhanced retirement benefits.

“The executive director of the Conference of District Attorneys, it’s a big role,” he said.

The N&O asked Banks on Wednesday about the latest provision adding more lobbyists for the conference. He deferred to the president of the conference, Ernest Lee.

Pension payout that was removed

Under the budget provision considered earlier this year, Kimberly Spahos and future conference directors would have been moved into the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System from the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System, according to an actuarial note from the Retirement Systems Division under the State Treasurer’s Office.

After reporting from The N&O, the provision that would’ve allowed Spahos to receive enhanced retirement benefits was removed as part of a technical corrections amendment at the end of a several hours-long Appropriations Committee meeting.

Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat and former judge, told The N&O in March that state employees have a certain retirement system that they contribute to, and a judicial retirement benefit “is almost twice as much.”

“It’s a very preferred retirement, but it’s for judges. It’s for elected DAs, it’s for the chief appointed public defender ... people who have been elected, and (those) who have tremendous responsibilities in courtrooms,” she said.

“This particular position is a Conference of DAs who meets twice a year who oversees or coordinates 40 DAs. So for that type of job to be in judicial retirement is an outlier from all the other positions.” Morey said.

In late April, in regards to HB 116, Morey said, “here we go, again, with a special paragraph, benefiting one person in one state position.”

“I just see suddenly these special extravagant benefits are coming out in our statute for one person,” she said.

Wrongful convictions bill moves forward

Another bill that involves the conference could significantly lengthen the timeline for cases to determine whether the state wrongfully convicted someone, detractors say.

The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, created by the legislature in 2006, reviews criminal cases in which there may have been a wrongful conviction. DAs prosecute those cases.

Three judges consider evidence at a hearing and then vote whether the person is innocent. The vote must be unanimous.

In the hearing, “all credible, verifiable evidence relevant to the case, even if considered by a jury or judge in a prior proceeding, may be presented,” says state law.

Under the bill, which passed the Senate rules committee Wednesday, the North Carolina Rules of Evidence would apply, which are stricter.

Democratic Sen. Natasha Marcus, during a committee meeting Tuesday, questioned the need for these changes, asking whether the “commission has been finding people to be innocent wrongly in some way? Or why are we changing the way in which they’re currently operating?”

Republican Rep. Reece Pyrtle, the bill’s main sponsor, replied that the legislation follows conversations with stakeholders, and would “provide that as early as possible, district attorneys (are) confronted with new evidence that provides innocence or that undermines the evidence that was relied upon for the conviction, act to see that the defendant’s case is resolved appropriately.”

It’s “leveling the playing field for the district attorneys,” he said.

Since its inception, 15 individuals have been exonerated through the innocence commission’s process or as a result of its investigations. It has also confirmed guilt in 10 cases, according to it’s website.

There’s already “a very high burden” for evidence, said Bradley Bannon, past president of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, who said he represents people who claim to be innocent.

“If the rules of evidence were made to apply at this stage, they would extraordinarily lengthen both the pre-hearing process and the hearing process itself,” Bannon said.

But Lee, the conference president, wrote that using the rules of evidence would “create consistency in the state when these panels conduct hearings.”

“As to the allegation that this would lengthen the time to conduct a hearing, I would point out that historically these cases rarely go all the way to a three-judge panel,” and when they do, the bill “would provide for a full and thorough hearing of the evidence in each case,” Lee wrote.

Chuck Spahos told lawmakers the conference supports the change and that “if you’re going to undermine the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence, then you should do it with admissible evidence.”