Federal Magistrate Sanctions Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s Office of Public Safety

This week, Federal District Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers II officially sanctioned the North Carolina Department of Justice and Sonya Calloway-Durham, an attorney with the Public Safety Division, for violating the federal rules of procedure.  

In the opening of his order, the federal judge wrote, “Few groups have so persistently tested the patience of this state’s federal judiciary as the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Public Safety Section. From Manteo to Murphy, North Carolina’s federal judges have chided, criticized, and chastised its attorneys for disregarding court orders and the federal rules. Yet the Public Safety Section’s problems persist. Its persistent disregard for the authority of the federal courts and the rule of law is deeply troubling.” 

Numbers said that the Calloway-Durham violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, with a frivolous filing to dismiss the case. In his ruling, Numbers explained, “NCDOJ  leadership described recent efforts to improve the Public Safety Section’s performance. But they made no attempt to show that exceptional circumstances existed here. This too seems to stem from the fact that they did not know the standard the Court would apply. So the Court holds NCDOJ jointly liable for Calloway-Durham’s conduct.” 

Numbers order four specific remedies for this failure to follow the federal rules: 

• First, he formally admonished both Calloway-Durham and the NCDOJ> 

• Second, the Court required that an attorney co-sign all of Calloway-Durham's filings in federal court to confirm compliance with Rule 11. 

• Third, the federal judge referred Calloway-Durham to the State of North Carolina Bar for investigation for a possible disability. 

• Finally, the judge ordered Attorney General Jeff Jackson to prepare a report outlining the steps he will take to address the Public Safety Section’s deficiencies.  

Tim’s Take: This order hints and speaks to a broader problem with Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s management of the critical Public Safety Division. Jackson is a career politician with no executive experience. It will be interesting to see if he is up to the task of remedying the serious mismanagement at this critical department. For this to happen, Jackson would need to take his focus away from his favorite activity: suing the Trump administration.