March 24--Late Monday afternoon, Belville Mayor Jack Batson carried a printout of an email into the local magistrate's office and declared that he wanted to file a criminal complaint.
The message in his hand, sent by none other than one of the town's commissioners, warned the mayor that next time he snapped or lost his temper, "you may likely find your words rammed back down your throat and, along with your new teeth, pulled out of your rectum!"
What followed was the standard three-step process that unfolds thousands of times each year in magistrates' offices across North Carolina: Batson filled out a one-page form, listing his complaint. He put his hand on a Bible, swearing his claims were true. And then, the magistrate issued a warrant for the commissioner's arrest.
The next morning, the commissioner responsible for sending the email, Joe Breault, was met at his front door by a sheriff's deputy and hauled off to jail.
The dispute between Batson and Breault has added fuel to a long-running debate over a state law that essentially gives neighbors the ability to arrest neighbors.
While felony charges can only be levied after authorities conduct an official investigation, North Carolina is among a handful of states where private individuals may take out misdemeanor warrants without any involvement from the police.
"It's awful easy to do," Batson recalled, describing his first experience initiating criminal charges. "The whole process may take 10 minutes, and there's no cost involved in it."
Several high-profile cases around Southeastern North Carolina in recent years have drawn opprobrium to the practice, not least because the charges are frequently thrown out after the accuser fails to appear in court or a judge deems the accusations frivolous.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges alike, unhappy with a system that allows arrests on wafer-thin grounds, have escalated calls for the N.C. General Assembly to pass legislation reigning in the state law that gives individuals powers more commonly reserved for law enforcement.
In most states, police must carry out a criminal probe before someone can be placed in handcuffs.
"It's a distinctive feature of North Carolina law," Jeffrey Welty, an assistant professor at the UNC School of Government, said about the so-called self-initiated warrants during a telephone interview last year. "I haven't surveyed all 50 states, but if we're not unique, we're pretty close."
State Sen. Thom Goolsby, a Republican who also works as a defense attorney in Wilmington, said the issue topped his agenda and, if re-elected, he hopes to introduce a bill during the General Assembly's next long session.
He was waiting for input from law enforcement officials on how best to prevent meritless warrants without completely stripping people's ability to initiate criminal charges.
"I'm trying to figure out how to go about it because we need the ability for citizens to act, take action for a crime they want prosecuted," he said. "I think that does empower citizens, but it also empowers people who do the wrong thing. So I feel like we need another check and balance there."
Acknowledging the law's vulnerability to abuse, local magistrates and prosecutors have adopted policies to lessen the burden on the court system and try to prevent innocent people from being swept up by vexatious allegations.
For example, the New Hanover County District Attorney's Office requires accusers to sign a document agreeing to appear in court and cooperate with prosecutors trying the case. If they fail to show, the prosecutor dismisses the charges.
Chief District Judge J.H. Corpening said the district attorney's office has also struck an agreement where New Hanover County magistrates will not issue warrants against teachers, police officers or public officials, all parties particularly susceptible to unfounded allegations, absent an official investigation.
Despite the safeguards, critics contend the allowance is still prone to exploitation.
Rebecca Blackmore, a district court judge in New Hanover and Pender counties, said the New Hanover County courthouse is so inundated with self-initiated warrants that it reserves a district courtroom on Mondays to handle the caseload. And there are often 200 cases on the day's docket.
"They're kind of a thorn in the side of district court," she said, adding that law enforcement expends untold amounts of resources to serve the warrants and follow the case through court. "They're labor-intensive, and not very often are they grounded in law and fact."
North Carolina's law has become a national issue on multiple occasions.
One case in 2003 grabbed extensive news coverage when a Kure Beach woman drew a warrant against Ben Affleck, accusing the Hollywood actor of threatening her.
Then-New Hanover County District Attorney John Carriker dismissed the charges after authorities could not find evidence Affleck ever met the woman. Carriker said that at time the episode offered "a very good example of why people shouldn't be able to take out a warrant without any kind of police investigation."
The nation has also turned its attention to North Carolina in cases involving Jenelle Evans, the celebrity mom from Oak Island who gained fame for starring in MTV's "Teen Mom 2." She has been the subject of several warrants over the last year and a half, many filed by individuals.
Her attorney, Dustin Sullivan, said most of the charges have been dropped, but not before Evans was booked into jail and her mugshot appeared in national news outlets.
"She's obviously extremely upset every time it happens because she knows she didn't do anything wrong," Sullivan said. "She's accused of doing something she never did, over and over and over again."
Although such charges are frequently quashed, the accused face being stuck with an arrest record not easily erased. The charges might show up when applying for college, a job or even an apartment, a lingering black mark they can't readily shake.
While Batson said he felt compelled to draw a warrant against Beault because the threats were escalating, he acknowledged the mechanism for filing criminal charges is abused.
In particular, he said he has of cases where young women hold the possibility of arrest over their boyfriends' heads as punishment if they misbehave.
"That's the big threatening point," he said. "They shake in their boots about that."
Batson did have to put his hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth when he took out the warrant, though he also brought a copy of the email Breault had sent him for documentation.
"It didn't really require that," he said. "They just took your word for it."
Brian Freskos: 343-2327
On Twitter: @BrianFreskos
Copyright 2012 - Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.
