Family connections, ethics force new Buncombe County Clerk to step down before swearing in
ASHEVILLE - Plans for a longtime assistant court clerk to take the reins as Buncombe County Clerk of Superior Court have been upended due to a conflict with a close family member working at the office, and a new pick has been chosen.
The Citizen Times reported in February that longtime assistant clerk Ryan Stone was Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg’s pick to replace Steven Cogburn, who told the Citizen Times that he is retiring from the position due to health issues. Stone was due to be sworn in on April 1.
In a March 14 email to the Citizen Times, Stone said he told Thornburg that he learned of a problem after he “disclosed to the Administrative Office of the Courts a family relationship with an existing employee in the office,” who is a first-degree relative, and who was hired a little over a year after Stone first joined the office.
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“The Administrative Office of the Courts responded by informing me of the Ethics Acts and Employment Limitations policy, of which I was not aware during the application process,” Stone said in the email. He learned that the family member’s continued employment would not be allowed with his promotion, he said.
New pick is local public defender, daughter of former clerk
Thornburg’s new pick for the office is Jean Marie Christy, according to a news release published by the Buncombe County Bar on March 14.
Christy, 31, is an assistant public defender and the daughter of former long-term Superior Court Clerk Robert Christy, who served in the position before Cogburn.
A former trial attorney, Cogburn was appointed to the job of overseeing court functions in 2009 and served for 14 years. He, his brother U.S. District Court Judge Max Cogburn Jr., and other family members have transferred hundreds of acres to the state to create a state park, and received more than $7 million for the land.
Christy graduated from Reynolds High, she said, and is a Buncombe County native.
“I do have familiarity with the system,” she said, noting that some of her favorite childhood memories were spending time with her father at the courthouse, and that she had worked as a public defender in Buncombe County for the last three-and-a-half years.
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Not everyone has as fond of memories at the courthouse, she acknowledged, and a big part of her new job will be ensuring that the building, filled to the brim with paperwork, is not “daunting” to visitors.
“Sometimes people are coming to the courthouse for something fun, like a wedding,” she said. “But then, a lot of times, there’s been a death in the family, so they’re going to the estates department.”
Clerks – though rarely given the same attention as prosecutors, notable defense attorneys or judges – have immense responsibility in the legal system, ensuring that reams of information are kept and easily accessible.
Records moving online
The job is going to be especially important in the coming months as Buncombe County plans its transition to digital records, something that Christy said could aid in making the courthouse more accommodating. The transition is being organized largely by the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, and is part of a phased rollout across North Carolina as a whole.
“I think, broadly speaking, on the whole, it’ll make the court system much more accessible because some things, maybe, you could do from home instead of having to come to the courthouse directly.”
Wake, Lee, Johnston and Harnett Counties took their court records online Feb. 13 in a pilot program. Users are able to submit court documents to the clerk online, pay filing fees, search case information, view documents and more, according to a news release from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.
In February Stone told the Citizen Times that the plan, if everything went well, was for the transition to begin before the end of 2023. That timeline was still the plan, Christy said, adding that she was still learning more about the transition.
She’ll keep the community informed if plans change, she said.
“Ms. Christy is a respected attorney, works hard to ensure access to our justice system for all citizens, engages technology and prioritizes efficiency,” Thornburg said in a statement with the news release announcing his decision. “Her talents are well-suited to ushering the Clerk’s office into the future and overseeing the transition to ECourts, the North Carolina Court System’s new online document preparation tool.”
“I wish her well with it,” Stone said. “I think she’ll do a wonderful job.”
Christy expressed gratitude to Thornburg for the opportunity, and to Stone for help in the transition.
She is due to be sworn in April 1.
Update: This story has been updated with the correct amount of money the Cogburn Family has received to date from the state for their land.
Ryan Oehrli covers public safety, breaking news, courts and other beats for the Citizen Times. Comments? Questions? Tips? Send them to coehrli@citizentimes.com or 252-944-6816. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Change of plans for next Buncombe County court clerk, judge says
