Attorney to challenge
Gore for DA’s position

By MIKE HELM

Alexis Jane “A.J.” Prease, a former federal prosecutor and native of the Smyrna community, announced Wednesday that she would file to run for District Attorney in the 13th Judicial District.

Prease will face 16-year incumbent Rex Gore in the Democratic primary May 2. The 13th District includes Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties.

Prease worked for Gore as an assistant district attorney from 1997 to 2000 and for the past five years has worked as a prosecutor under District Attorney Johnson Britt in Robeson County. She lives in her family home on a former tobacco farm in the Smyrna community.

Prease returned to Columbus County in 1997 to live with her mother, Chrissie White, the sister of Maxine Jordan and Eileen Gore. White died of leukemia in 1999 and Prease said she has “pretty much kept to herself” since then, putting all of her time and energy into her work.

“I have lots of energy and I’m not afraid of hard work,” she said. “I really think I have a mission and that this is where God is leading me in my life right now. It’s time for a change. This is a great place to live and I just want to make it safer. It is really amazing to think about how much we can improve our communities if we can get people working together for the good of all.

“I will focus 100 percent on doing my job and carrying out the duties of an elected DA,” she added. “I will not delegate the primary duties of an elected DA to assistants. I don’t plan to micro-manage but I will if that’s what it takes to get the office back on track. My home base would be Columbus County but I would travel regularly to Bladen and Brunswick counties.”

Prease said drugs are the biggest problem in Southeastern N.C. and the key to solving the problem is cooperation among authorities.

“It doesn’t matter how good your law enforcement is if there is a lack of trust and breakdown in communication between the DA’s office and law enforcement authorities,” she said. “The DA is the chief law enforcement officer. I believe we have a problem in this district. It shouldn’t be harder to get out of a traffic ticket in Columbus County than a cocaine possession charge.”

Prease is a member of the grassroots political organization Columbus County Citizens for Better Government (CCCBG).

“I started attending meetings of the Board of Commissioners and reading the law on taxes and local government. I began to spend more time trying to understand what was going on right here under my nose rather than reading about national and world affairs.”

Prease said she likes the non-partisanship of CCCBG.

“We need more people working for the good of everyone instead of getting hung up along party or racial lines,” she said. “I liked what I saw them doing. They loved Columbus County as much as I did. I found them to be sincere, hard-working people who wanted more accountability in county government. They were not the kind of rabble-rousers some people tried to portray them to be.

“I want voters to be informed and involved,” she added. “They need to know a lot about the person who makes the final decision on whether to prosecute defendants. The best law enforcement agents in the world can only reduce crime a minimal amount if they make arrests and the DA dismisses the cases before they go to court.”

Prease said she wants more training for law enforcement, especially in the areas of search and seizure and taking confessions, among the most common reasons judges dismiss cases.
Prease complained that too much emphasis is placed on moving cases through the court system quickly, rather than justice and the public safety.

“You can clear hundreds of cases quickly if you reduce felonies to misdemeanors or offer probation to a repeat offender who clearly qualifies for a prison sentence,” she said.

In Robeson County, Prease said she takes a different approach.

“My style of reviewing a case and my philosophy towards law enforcement and crime prevention is to review the case thoroughly, make a reasonable plea offer and if that is turned down, take it to trial,” she said. “In my department, when a case is dismissed, I send a letter to the investigating officer telling them why.”

Prease graduated from Whiteville High School, earned a bachelors degree from North Carolina State University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. After working three years as a federal prosecutor, she went to work for a large Washington firm and at the age of 37 retired with her then-husband, a native of a Clarkton, to enjoy a quiet life on the beach in Florida. The couple traveled throughout Central and South America.

“Sadly, my marriage didn’t work out,” Prease said, and she came back home.

Prease said she wants voters here to take notice of the Brunswick County case of Davina Buff Jones, a Bald Head Island police officer who was found shot in the head near Old Baldy Light House on Oct. 22, 1999. Gore ruled the case a suicide but in June 2005, the N.C. Industrial Commission contradicted that conclusion. This week, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Justice announced that new evidence supported the conclusion that the case was not suicide, according to a report in the State Port Pilot.

Gore’s suicide ruling denied the family estate, including parents Loy and Harriet Buff, benefits under the Public Safety Officer Benefits Act.

“I have followed that case closely because I was still a prosecutor in the 13th District at the time,” Prease said. “I think what Loy and Harriet Buff had to go through was a travesty on top of a tragedy. It is an extreme example of how victims and their families are treated (here). Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated example. Gore has had since June 2005 to review that case and hasn’t.”