New Hanover County District Attorney’s Office adds new prosecutor role for violent gang cases
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County District Attorney’s Office is adding a new position to help charge and convict violent gang members.
The new prosecutor role to specifically handle gang-violence cases is being added after New Hanover County Commissioners approved a $117,000 grant for the DA’s office to add the position.
Assistant District Attorney Brad Matthews will be stepping into the new role.
District Attorney Ben David says Matthews will work specifically on cases that involve active gang members, and work closely with task forces, the US Attorney’s Office and multiple law enforcement agencies.
“We say that if everything’s a priority, then nothing is, and our priority has always been violent crime and career criminals committing the vast majority of them, and when you’re talking about gang members you’ve hit both of those categories. So this is not new to prioritize cases, but what is new is to have tenure prosecutor in my office has handled our drug load for years and really understands the flow of how these cases come in,” said Ben David, New Hanover and Pender Counties District Attorney.
David says he believes this new position will help address people’s fear of retaliation when reporting gang-related crimes… and further address the gang-related case load.
“With the roughly 5,000 cases we have every year that are felonies, and 20,00 that are misdemeanors, even some of the 50,000 that are traffic tickets, and if we see active gang member who we believe is committing crimes of violence in the community, that prosecutor will be at their first appearance, whether they’re on video from being in our jail or meet them wherever they might be in-person to try and treat these cases seriously at the earliest possible stage,” said David.
David also says he hopes the new prosecutor position will deter many gang members from committing crimes.
Brad Matthews is slowly transitioning into his new role, still serving in his role as assistant district attorney with the DA’s office drug team.
