The voice of victims has been heard.
District Attorney Greg Newman has been removed from office in only the third case of its kind in North Carolina history.
Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin issued his order April 27, permanently removing the top criminal prosecutor for Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties from his elected office, finding Newman engaged in “willful misconduct in office” and “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute,” under N.C. General Statute 7A-66.
The decision was made nearly two weeks after a three-day removal hearing April 12-14 in Henderson County Superior Court.
In closing statements on the third day of the hearing on District Attorney Greg Newman’s removal from office, his defense attorneys said there has been no proven loss of trust in his office and that his misconduct doesn t rise to the level of willful.
Newman is facing removal from office under G.S. 7A-66 after a group of citizens filed an affidavit in Henderson County Superior Court on Feb. 11.
Judge Robert C. Ervin found grounds to continue proceedings under that statute based on willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the office into disrepute.
Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin did not make a decision April 14, the last day of the rare, three-day removal hearing of District Attorney Greg Newman in Henderson County Superior Court.
But in closing statements, independent counsel James Cooney III asked the judge to weigh the power of a district attorney and the “heft” of the men who spoke up for him – sheriffs, police officers, pastors and judges – against the power of alleged sexual assault survivors, bravely speaking their truth to Newman and accusing him of violating their constitutional rights.
Something, Cooney said, that the judge should take into consideration on Newman’s character, if not the misconduct in office for which he was under inquiry.
Warning: Story contains descriptions of sexual violence.
Grace Pryor thinks back with remarkable clarity to that murky, nightmarish night six years ago, when she was stumbling back to her dorm room at Brevard College.
Pryor, now 26 and an aspiring doctor of audiology, knew she’d had too much Bacardi to be driving home in the early morning of April 12, 2015. But she was alert enough to remember the alleged rape by two basketball players she called friends.
In addition to that trauma were the stinging words of District Attorney Greg Newman, whose job Pryor thought was to uphold justice.
“He told me five different ways it was my fault. The one that resonates most is he said it was because I was wearing a crop top and leggings. It was pretty horrifying,” Pryor said.