Johnston County DA Shares His Vision for Law Enforcement and the Courts

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, our guest is Jason Waller, the brand newly appointed district attorney for Johnston County. We talked to Jason about growing up in Beulaville, North Carolina and going to Eastland High School. His time at Carolina, he’s a Double Carolina graduate, which of course drives us NC State graduates mad and his why he became a prosecutor, how he found out that that’s what he really wanted to do.

And found that that’s how he wanted to spend his career. We also talked to him a little bit about how he sees the DA’s office functioning and what he wants to do as the district attorney here in Johnston County. So if you’re interested in our new district attorney, or even what the district attorney does, listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. [00:01:00] Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have Johnston County’s brand new District attorney Jason Waller. He is here to talk to us a little bit about his background, why he became a lawyer, why he became a prosecutor, what brought him to Johnston County, why he wanted to be appointed by Governor Josh Stein, to be your district attorney, and what he will do in the next four years if he’s elected. In 2026 to a full term in this position. But before we get to that, I’d like to like you, ask you to like follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X, or any of the other social media channels of The Best Johnston County Podcast. The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for over two years. [00:02:00] So go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had most of the county commissioners, we’ve had now Congressman Brad Knott. We’ve had Chris Johnson, Johnston County Economic Development Director.

We’ve had Adrian O’Neal recently a a few episodes back talking about the Clayton Community Park and the new park in Four Oaks. If, if you love Johnston County, this is the podcast for you and we’re gonna continue bringing it to you and we hope you enjoy it. And you’d also do us a favor by giving us a five star review down below.

It will help us raise our visibility. Welcome, Jason.

Jason Waller: Nice job. Nice job.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s right. It’s pretty good. I got the water. Yeah, you got, you got through it. Yeah, we’re over a hundred episodes into this. I, that’s all I’ve learned to say that, so yeah.

Jason Waller: Congratulations

Jonathan Breeden: . Anyway, so yeah, no, it’s, it, it’s cool. it’s, it’s been a, it’s been a ton of fun and it’s gone by really fast.

You know, when I, when I got this idea and. I knew I had to hire somebody I hired Raena Burch to, to help me sort of put this thing together. I cannot believe it’s been two years and we’ve not run out a guest, and I’m glad people like you and other citizens of Johnston County are willing to come sit down and talk to me.

I’ve learned a ton. [00:03:00] Yeah. I’ve met so many great people. When I thought, when I started, I was like, I mean, who am I gonna get to come on as to be people I know and now. Most of the people that come on, I don’t know. These are people that have been referred to me, I’ve met in the community, that kind of stuff.

So it’s been kind of, it’s been kind of neat.

Jason Waller: And you’ve got an impressive list of people on there. And business community, legal community, yeah. Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and the point is to educate the public about Johnston County and all the good things that we got going on here. That was the point. A lot of the people in Johnston County.

Live here, but work in Raleigh.

Jason Waller: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, some 77% go to Raleigh every day. Right, right. And you know, and you, you may not remember this I know you came in like 2018, but back like 2009, 2010, if you were in the clerk’s office. The day after jury summonses went out and people got ’em, the phones just blew up because people didn’t know where the courthouse was.

Jason Waller: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: They had no idea. And the clerk’s office would spend all morning on that day after the jury notices went out telling people [00:04:00] where their courthouse was. These were all Johnston County citizens on the jury list. They had no idea. Right. And the clerks very smartly, some of which are still there, started to give directions from the outlets.

Because most people had been to the outlets, but they had not been to downtown.

Jason Waller: Coming up from Beulaville, North Carolina. We went to the pottery all the time.

Jonathan Breeden: No, you went to the pottery. Right? We went to the pottery. Right. And so, so the clerks that were there would, would start with the outlets and they would give directions back to downtown Smithfield.

From the al I 95, exit 95. And you know, it’s not that way now with waves and apple maps and stuff like that, but for many years, I mean, it was absolutely bonkers. At the clerk’s office, they, after jury notice, this went out. So anyway, so part of this is to try to educate Yeah. The public particularly the ones that, that, that, that work at Raleigh and, and just live here about their elected officials.

Jason Waller: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Which we had most of them on. And now we’re gonna talk about their courthouse. Mm-hmm. And, and their. District Attorney’s office. So state your name and what do you do?

Jason Waller: Jason Waller? My, my office is in [00:05:00] Smithville, North Carolina at the courthouse. So, but no, Jason Waller district attorney here in Johnston County.

Came on board on July 1st after Susan Doyle retired, after 16 years as the elected da, I believe 16 plus years and 30 some years total. So, yeah. It took over for her on July 1st of this year. And yeah, I’m honored, privileged to be the DA in Johnston County. I’m, you know, less than 90 days in, and I, it’s my dream job. I enjoy it.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, that’s great. That’s great. We’re recording this at the end of September of 2025. I don’t know exactly when it’s gonna run, so.

Jason Waller: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So by, by the time it runs, you might be up to four or five months, who knows. But anyway,

Jason Waller: who knows?

Jonathan Breeden: But you’re definitely gonna be the da at least through January 1st, 2027, right? We’ll see what the voters say next year. So what does the district attorney do?

Jason Waller: Well, I mean, first and foremost, you know, we’re in charge of public safety here in Johnston County. That’s our number one responsibility is keeping the people safe in Johnston County, [00:06:00] you know, I live here, my family lives here, and, you know, I wanna keep them safe as much as I want to keep your friends and family safe as well.

So you know, public safety’s obviously number one, but then we also like have the responsibility of running efficient courts, whether that’s in superior court or district court. We want cases moving through the system in an efficient manner. For victims, for law enforcement, for defendants, those cases need resolution.

And then as district attorney, I think it’s very important to develop relationships. Relationships with the defense bar, judicial staff, clerk’s office, and of course law enforcement. We work very closely with them. So, you know, those are the big three responsibilities, kind of my core principles that any decision I make I look to those core principles.

The district attorney himself or herself, and in my case himself we run a business much like you do as a manager of a law firm. We manage a firm, we run a business. I’ve gone from trying murder cases to [00:07:00] making sure the telephones are answered in a timely manner. Our air conditioning went out this morning in, in our office, so dealing with that, so, you know, that’s the biggest difference in terms of being an assistant DA versus being the district attorney, is you’re responsible for the whole county.

250,000 plus people now their safety, but you’re also responsible for that office and making sure it runs in, in a, you know, runs in a, in a good way, great way.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, now you have to deal with human resources. Yes. Vacation pay. You have a budget. You can, you can allocate that budget however you’d like, but you always need more positions than you have.

Budgeted, I’m sure. Always. And so you have to try to find as many efficiencies mm-hmm. As possible. You talked about your relationship with law enforcement. Yeah. Talk about how the District Attorney’s office works with law enforcement. I know that Susan Dole always had the meetings with the police chiefs.

I think you’re gonna continue that, right? Talk a little bit about how your office [00:08:00] works with law enforcement.

Jason Waller: Yeah. I mean, I’ve been a prosecutor for 19 years now. As an intern, when I first started this journey, I immediately recognized the relationship between law enforcement and a district attorney’s office and how important that relationship is.

I supervised a crash reconstruction unit over in Raleigh, and when I came to Johnston County. That was something that was very evident with Susan’s office is they, that she had a very close relationship with law enforcement as well. I have continued that. I take calls, all hours of the day and night from law enforcement advising them, working with them.

I go out the scenes, murder scenes, crime scenes, help them there. But it really works better if we’re all pulling in the same direction in terms of again, achieving justice in an efficient manner and keeping people safe. But I think the important thing to recognize too is we don’t always agree on everything. I may advise the Sheriff’s Office to do one thing and they may say, no, we’re gonna do it this way. And we have to respect each other’s [00:09:00] roles and responsibilities.

And when we have disagreements, I think respect. Is very important. And having built in relationships that know that, you know, even if we disagree, we’re all trying to get to the common good of serving justice, keeping the people safe and so forth.

So, we, you mentioned the meetings. We meet once a month with all the chiefs of the local agencies and Sheriff Bizel is involved and we meet at a. At, at a restaurant or something like that. And we go around the room and we say, Hey, what’s going on in for Oak? What’s going on in Smithville? What’s going on in the county?

And if anybody has any issues, we can bring that up and discuss it as a group to say, well, have you thought about this? Or How can we help here? And I, you know, that’s something we didn’t have in Wake County just to, that was my prior experience. We didn’t have that. And as soon as I got involved with those meetings, I said, Hey, this is a great thing.

This is collaborative. And then even since I took office, we’ve taken that a step further and we’ve established a dangerous offenders task force to make [00:10:00] sure that you know, there’s an imaginary line between Smithfield and Selma. So if somebody does, you know, shooting up a house in Selma and Smithfield has a case on that same per same person, we wanna make sure that those two agencies are talking to each other.

So that we can get that person off the streets and again, keep our public safe and that our office can be involved so that, you know, we don’t see a case that could potentially fall through the cracks if we don’t know about it. So it’s, it’s vitally important that we’re helping these, the law enforcement out and working together.

It’s something all the law enforcement agencies have been very excited about. I’ve put a couple of my senior adas on it and our investigator and we’ve already started working on a couple big cases.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s cool. I guess I forgot to ask you. We gotta talking about the stuff. I love talking to you.

I love talking to you. Right. But. Where, where did you grow up? Who are you? Where did this guy come from? Right. Where’d this guy from come from? I know, but they don’t. So where did this guy come from?

Jason Waller: Well, we mentioned the pottery a [00:11:00] minute ago. Yeah. I’m from Beulaville, North Carolina, which is a little bit east of here.

Our friend Rick Hester, he was on some of your podcasts. I saw I heard. He grew up around Elizabethtown and White Lake. Well, in Beulaville we went to White Lake as our resort destination. So, down east, my, my dad was with Farm Credit for many years, so we jumped around to Kinston, Goldsboro, Greenville, all those places.

And, but both my parents were from born and raised in Duplin County. And then my mom, she kind of, you know, her career began taking off in school administration. She worked her way up as a from social work to assistant principal to principal, and actually retired as a assistant principal over in Lee County.

So, super proud of her and her accomplishments, but they were all from Duplin County. And so that’s, you know, where I, where I came from. I gotcha. Then did you, did you go to D East Duplin High School? I went Eastland. Oh my goodness. We’re in the Panthers, right. So I know we’ve got a nice little rivalry going on with Princeton from time to time.

Jonathan Breeden: Yep. [00:12:00] They do. They do. And then, I know you went to Carolina. Did you go there for undergrad

Jason Waller: too? Yeah. Don’t hold. I know your, I know where your allegiances lie. But yes, I’m a double tar hill. I went to Carolina for undergrad and I went there for law school and. You know, I was got to the end of my undergrad career and I thought I’d go back to Bellville and help our, help our family run a gas station entire store and kinda looked at my grades and said, you know, I’m not done with the school yet.

And so I went on to law school. I. I interned my first year out first summer at a civil, civil firm, and decided that wasn’t for me. And then the next, next summer, under a third year practice rule, I worked at the Wake County DA’s office and it was, love it. First sight. Sight love. Love it. First sight.

Love first sight. It was, I just walked in the courtroom. First judge I met was the famous Yates Dobson.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. Yates Dobson.

Jason Waller: Yates Dobson.

Jonathan Breeden: What was he doing in Wake County?

Jason Waller: He was, he was as an sitting there as an emergency judge.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh man.

Jason Waller: Long story short, he had us all [00:13:00] introduce ourselves and I said, I’m Jason Waller from Duplin County from Belleville, and he stood up and said, I want there to be, everybody know there are now two people from Beulaville, North Carolina in this courtroom. So that was my first interaction with the judicial system of, of Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. Well, you know, that’s funny because I did a third year practice mm-hmm. In the Scotland County District Attorney’s Office.

It’s a great program. It’s a great program. It was great. It was great. It was more expansive than it is back then than it is now. But yeah, it was and, and. I realized I didn’t wanna be a prosecutor. Mm-hmm. Like, I just kept sitting there thinking, I just had the other mindset, you know? I was like, whoa.

Well what about this? And yeah, they’re the victim, but are they really telling the truth? Mm-hmm. And did the officers, did they check this? You know, and I, you know, and I was like, okay, I probably don’t need to be a district attorney.

Jason Waller: So you fell in love a different way, right?

Jonathan Breeden: I fell right. I just kept thinking, you know, ’cause I, I, I had this over, I went to law school because I had this over.

Arching sense of [00:14:00] justice. Right. And so to me, representing the defendants was how to get justice, not anything against victims like, but you know, like standing up for them, sort of you versus the world. You got all the states power and resources against your client who may or may not be guilty. Mm-hmm. Or they may be guilty, but are they guilty?

What they charged with, you know, people used to always ask me, how do you represent criminal defendants if you know they’re guilty? And I’m like. It’s not whether, you know they’re guilty, it’s what are they guilty of? Can the state prove it and these people have the same constitutional rights as anybody else?

Sure. And just trying to make sure the system worked the same thing you do. And, and you know, we don’t really do criminal defense here anymore. Mm-hmm. Unless it, it involves some sort of assault on a female connected to a domestic case and we don’t do a ton of those. But, but I’ve sort of gotten out of it, but I did, I did enjoy.

Trying cases. Yeah. And cases, several cases to juries. That was a ton of fun. Very nerve wracking. But, but, but a but, but, but a ton of fun. Didn’t always get the best outcomes. ’cause [00:15:00] oftentimes your client was. Guilty. I’ve represented a guy who,

Jason Waller: not innocent,

Jonathan Breeden: right. Against Susan Dole when she was still the assistant da.

Mm-hmm. Right? Where my client’s fingerprints and the getaway driver his fingerprints were in the store and the getaway driver was there to say he drove him there and he, it was a, it was an armed robbery of a, of a convenience store in Selma. And he shot the guy in the head. The clerk in the head. The clerk lived, thank goodness.

Yeah. And my client got like. 18 years in prison, but for attempted murder. But I mean, he, he did do it. Mm-hmm. I did the best I could, but, you know, it was, it was what it was. You, you know what I mean? It was you know, we tried it and but, but, but the, the, the evidence was a little overwhelming against my client, but he wanted to try it, so I tried it.

Wow. And and I learned a lot from it and, you know, did some other jury trials over the years. Mm-hmm. So, I’m glad you found your car because like, I do think it’s, yeah, it is like that, right? Like I was in the DA’s office going, I don’t really wanna do this. And you’re in the DA’s office going. This is me.

This is it. Yeah. This is it.

Jason Waller: Right. And that’s the great thing about our judicial system, right? Right. Is we need people on both sides. We need people that will zealously advocate for their clients and [00:16:00] hold the state to, to its burden, which is what we tell all jurors, you know, beyond a reasonable doubt, state’s burden, whatnot.

So we need both people. It just, when I walked in that first day, I knew that I, I knew that I wanted to be a prosecutor and, and that’s where I, you know, where I came from and where I’ve been. I’ve been a prosecutor for, like I said, over 19 years now. It’s the only job I’ve ever wanted. I will, you mentioned externships.

Do any law students out there? That’s what I would advise is doing as many externships internships, because just like you, it showed you that you didn’t want to be a prosecutor. That’s just as important as showing somebody else that they do wanna be a prosecutor. So there’s Jason’s life tip for, well, and,

Jonathan Breeden: and you know, one of the other internships I did when I was in law school was with an attorney that did.

Real estate closings. Mm-hmm. And I was like, I don’t wanna do this. Yeah. That’s what I stood. Right. I stood

Jason Waller: at

Jonathan Breeden: a copier of that civil firm. I was like, this is not for me. Not, no. I was like, no. Like I, I don’t wanna do real estate closings. I wanna to be in a court. Right. I wanna try cases. Yep. You know, the great thing about family [00:17:00] law was I gotta try a lot more cases than I would’ve in criminal court.

’cause most time the criminal court cases work out. Mm-hmm. And you don’t do as many trials, but in family court you’re trying stuff all the time. And I just, I just wanted to try cases. I didn’t get to try that many cases to a jury, but trying ’em to a judge and, and I really. Enjoyed that. ’cause you just never knew what was gonna happen.

You dunno what’s gonna happen to court. I mean, you dunno what a jury’s gonna do. That’s, you dunno what a judge is gonna do. I mean, you’re doing the best you can, but you have no idea what

Jason Waller: they’re doing. Yeah. I mean that’s what I tell all of our, our young prosecutors. Be prepared, do the best you can. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you put in that jury’s hands and they’re the ones that are gonna make the ultimate decision.

And that’s, you know. That’s how we’ve got our judicial system set up. And is it perfect? No. But is it the best in the world? Absolutely. Because you’re putting it in the hands of your peers to decide how a case is gonna go.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, there’s no doubt about that. So you came over from Wake County. In 2018.

2018, right? Mm-hmm. And I was told when you got here, you were gonna be the next DA of Johnston County. I don’t know if anybody told you, but it was told to me that I’m glad it [00:18:00] worked out. Right? I’m glad it worked out. I don’t know if anybody told you, but they said No, they’re gonna bring this guy. He’s sort of a hot shot.

He’s gonna come over here and he’s gonna be our da. And I was like, okay, we’ll see what happens. You know? Yeah. So. So anyway, why did you come to Johnston County?

Jason Waller: You know, I had, I’ve been in wake since two thou, I started there in 2006 and I had just tried two capital murder cases. I’d tried the robbery of Walnut Creek, where over $400,000 was stolen after a Kid Rock concert and Tim McGraw i’d, I’d had two or three really big cases in a row and I kind of looked and I said, you know, I’ve done those big things and I wanna keep doing those things.

But I also enjoyed the administrative part of the job. I enjoyed the mentoring part of the job. And so in around May of 2018, I got a call from Susan Doyle and she had just lost some experienced people here in Johnston County and said, Hey, I need some experience. I need some trial lawyers to come over.

So I came over and [00:19:00] interviewed with her and I told her, you know, I’m, I’m a trial lawyer. I love trying cases, but I also enjoy the administrative aspects of it as well, the mentoring aspects of it. And she said, well, you know, I’m. I’m getting close to, to retirement and hopefully, you know, if everything works out that yes, you can be, you know, the next DA here in Johnston County.

And that was, you know, that was very, I was honored that she said that. And so. I gotta thinking about it. And I was like, that’s a good path for me. I’ve done a lot over here. Let me take the next step in my career where I feel like I can help most people help young attorneys help victims on a bigger scale than just individual cases.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the individual cases are extremely important, but as the da, as a leader, you can, you can have policies, you can widen your net of helping, helping people, helping victims and whatnot. So it was extremely attractive. Offered to me and I took it and haven’t looked back.

Jonathan Breeden: Haven’t looked back. There’s no doubt. No doubt.

Have family law [00:20:00] questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: So let’s talk about some of the policies that you know, I think of what people think about the DA. You’ve got all this stuff going on now with Charlotte recording this shortly after that whole thing with the young woman and Charlotte that was killed on the metro and all of that.

I mean, you’ve tried two death penalty cases is that something that you will continue if you believe it warrants to ask juries to do here in Johnston County?

Jason Waller: Yeah, I mean, as you said, I’ve tried to, and I, you know, told you before it’s the hardest thing any prosecutor’s ever gonna do is stand up in front of 12 people and say put this man to death. And, but you have to have that conviction. If the law’s on the [00:21:00] books and your facts warrant that type of case, and that warrant, that kind of decision, then as the DA you need to be able to stand up and make that decision. And I’ve done that, I’ve looked at the people and said, you know, the facts are here.

The law is here. Find a death. Find a death verdict. Sign your name to it. And I tell them it’s the hardest thing they’re ever gonna do. But I’ve done it and I’ll continue to do it as long as that that law is on the books and I think it’s something that I learned along the way is there are some cases that are just so horrendous such bad facts.

I mean, obviously the case over, over here with the Jonathan Richardson case was just a horrendous set, set of facts. And I’ve tried ro you know, I’ve. One of the cases I tried over in Wake County, it was guys climbed up on the side of a building and stabbed a mother 18 times to death while her 4-year-old daughter was down the hall.

they pass a law or a constitutional amendment saying that we can’t do it. I think it fits on the books. Then we have a [00:22:00] responsibility to follow the law and. Pursue that in the appropriate cases. Now, in doing that, we make sure you as the DA are involved. You make sure, again, going back to relationships that we talked about earlier, that the victim’s family is on board, that law enforcement on board, it’s a, you know, at the end of the day I’ll make the call, but it’s a collaborative decision when you’re making that big of a decision.

So. I’ve been there. I’ve, I’ve done it. And it’s not an easy thing. It’s not anything that anybody needs to take lightly, but if called upon to do so, I’ll do it.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. People also wanna know about, you know, what the public knows is sort of three strikes and you’re out. Right. Which US lawyers know is sort of the habitual felon law in North Carolina.

Mm-hmm. If you’ve been convicted of th three felonies on different days, correct. And one, and they all took place after the prior conviction, correct? You gotta be over 18. You gotta be over 18 or two. At least two of ’em have, two of ’em would be over 18. Right. You could be indicted, habit habitual felon, which [00:23:00] severely enhances any sentence that you would receive on a lower level felony.

We won’t get into the technical stuff on this podcast. Right. There’s, there’s a lot. There’s a lot of weeds you can get into. Right. But, but it does severely enhance the sentence. Absolutely. I mean, pretty much end up with up to 10 years for just about anything in prison, depending on what, depending on what, depending on the record level, depending on what their record is.

Do you believe that, that that’s a good law? It is. The law. Is that something that your office is gonna continue to seek? Yeah. With you as the DA if it qualifies?

Jason Waller: Right. Again, kind of going back to the death penalty discussion, as long as that law is on the books, I feel like it is my job as the DA to follow the law. My very first case. In superior court was a guy broke into some houses under construction. He stole some windows and he was charged with breaking and entering and larceny, and he was a habitual felon. And that was my first case that I ever tried in front of a jury solo, and it was a habitual felon. So I’ve been trying habitual felon cases.

For over 16 years now since I’ve been in Johnston County, the last [00:24:00] seven I’ve, the cases I’ve tried have either been habitual felons or somebody’s been dead or seriously injured. So again, I’ve done it throughout my career and plan to continue to prosecute people as habitual felons. I think that’s the default in our office.

That’s the expectation. If you’re a habitual felon here in Johnston County, you’re gonna be indicted as such, so. You know, we also have a duty though, as das and assistant das to, to do justice and be fair and reasonable. So we will look on, you have to also look at cases on a case by case basis and if there’s problems with the evidence or your victim’s moved away or doesn’t wanna proceed or something like that, there’s always factors that we can.

We can analyze or take into account. But we’re here to prosecute habitual felons and especially re repeat offenders. And that’s something that’s very important to me, and especially violent offenders. You know, we saw what happened in Charlotte. Again, a lot of the cases I’ve [00:25:00] tried are assaults and murders and stuff like that.

I’ve seen violent criminals, and those are the people that we need to aggressively prosecute that we need to make sure that your family’s safe, my family’s safe, that you’re in, you’re in home at night. You don’t have to worry about, you know, who’s coming in and that kind of thing. So that’s keeping the public safe is number one.

And prosecuting violent repeat offenders is a. Is a huge part of that.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, what about DWIs?

Jason Waller: DWIs, right. I mean, I mean,

Jonathan Breeden: you know. Some DA’s offices dismiss a lot of DWIs.

Jason Waller: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Our district attorney’s office has had ups and downs on having any DWIs they prosecute or whatever. I mean, what’s your thought on DWIs?

Jason Waller: Yeah. I mean, we’re gonna continue to aggressively prosecute DWIs as well. It’s you know, of course there are situations where, again, if you don’t, if you’re missing some evidence, if a witness has moved away or it ends up being a low blow or something like that, where we’re gonna use our, where you use our discretion again.

I saw, I think [00:26:00] there’s 20 some thousand five misdemeanors filed in district court the last fiscal year. So we analyze those cases, right? And we look at ’em and we’re gonna continue to prosecute DWI cases. That’s the law on that is pretty clear that if you’re charged with DWI and less exceptional circumstances, the state is basically ordered to proceed.

So we’re gonna keep on with the DWI prosecutions and we’ve established a DWI courtroom, which has greatly helped our numbers. I mean, I know if you being around you, you know that the numbers can go up and down. That DWI courtroom has helped tremendously. Efficiency has helped move those cases, which can be a very frustrating people thing to people about that kind of case hanging around.

So we’re gonna keep prosecuting DWIs and certainly that DWI court is a great benefit to us and. Moving those cases through the system right now

Jonathan Breeden: that we got [00:27:00] that through a grant,

Jason Waller: correct?

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Is that Grant been renewed because we, we have it and then it goes away. Yeah. And then it comes back. I mean, yeah.

I don’t know where it is currently.

Jason Waller: I, I met with the judge’s office, district court, judge’s office yesterday, and that grant is at least approved for I think it’s through September of next year. Oh, good. It is a grant position, but it will be around until about this time next year at least. And again, based on the numbers that we have seen and how.

Well, it helps move cases through the system. That’s something that we’re gonna, as long as I’m around, we’re gonna try and keep going because it helps.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, one of the things that Susan Doyle did a great job of, and I know you helped her do that over the last seven years, is we had the fastest moving docket.

Jason Waller: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: In the state right. At, at one point or, and definitely in the top two. I mean, I, I know you helped her do that. She, we were that before you got there. Mm-hmm. Is your intent to keep that moving? Like, I mean, I mean, it’s a lot more work to move these cases, but Yeah. She did a great job of that. I really, I, she was a great da.

[00:28:00] She did a great job of that.

Jason Waller: We so we’ve, we’ve interviewed a couple people for positions in their office already and one thing that I tell each lawyer interviewing for a position is good das can go in there and try cases. Great das can move a docket as something I’ve believed in my entire career and in superior court about three years ago we came up with a system it’s called a homicide status calendar, where.

Quarterly, we put all the homicides on a calendar from the oldest to newest, and we go in front of our senior resident Judge, judge Thomas Locke. Our office is there, my office is there, defense attorneys are there, and we have these administrative settings where we set cases for trial and that the case is expected that the case is either.

Tried or pled by that, by that court date that we set at homicide status. And we do that calendar and then to help out with custody cases, we do a custody [00:29:00] calendar case. And again, the same thing. We, we go by defense attorneys age of case. And again, we set trial dates and we started this, I started it about three years ago.

And again, in front of Judge Locke. And the first time or two we did it, it lasted all day. We did one. A couple weeks ago, and we were done by 11 o’clock because of how many cases we’ve moved, and that has been a huge help to us in Superior Court. We prioritize our violent offenses. Those are tried first, then people in custody, and then we start working our way down the.

Down the ladder to other offenses. And, but prioritizing those dangerous offenders cases has, I think, made a huge difference in the courthouse.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I mean, I know that, that they’ve done a good job with COVID and everything. Yeah. I mean, not getting the murders down. I mean, we pled some murders. You tried a couple murders?

We tried a couple murders last year. I tried two last year. Right. Tried the one with the lizard Lick Towing son. Correct. That was my case. [00:30:00] That was, that was really sad. Sure. You know, I met that young man when his father’s TV show was really popular. Right. We used to have the Strawberry Festival out here.

They would come and do personal appearances for us and we didn’t even have to pay him, which was great. ’cause they were getting a lot of money to do appearances when their show was really popular. Yeah. I met that young man when he was 10 or 11. Several times. I, I don’t know what happened. I mean, I read what happened in the news, but, and, and I know he was into probably some stuff he shouldn’t have been in.

But, but, but I just remember thinking. What a nice young man is. What, how, what a nice young man Ronnie Shirley was, and to have that murder happen out here in Cleveland, no less, right? Not

Jason Waller: far from him.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Not very far from here. You know, it’s just at a vigil for somebody else who got killed. Right. You know, it was just really, really sad.

I mean, I, I. I think Justice was served with that trial, but you know how many murder cases we have now? Is it like 30 or 31?

Many?

Jason Waller: No,

no, it’s, it’s much less than that.

Jonathan Breeden: It used to be that many.

Jason Waller: No well, it may have been, but it’s less than that now. I apologize.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Jason Waller: I don’t wanna throw out a [00:31:00] number.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jason Waller: But it’s, you know, we’re in the close to 10.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay good.

Jason Waller: That is what I would say.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jason Waller: That’s, again, we have that calendar and we were done before 11. And a lot of the cases on that calendar are also like accessories and vehicular homicides too. But again, I don’t wanna give you an exact.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, that’s fine. But it’s a lot less than what I thought.

it, it,

Jason Waller: it would be in 10 to low to low tens Okay. And so that’s a, you know, again, credit to our office, but certainly credit to law enforcement being out there and, you know, investigating matters and preventing matters.

Jonathan Breeden: Are most of the murders since you just had that calendar resolved within two years?

Jason Waller: It’s real close. I mean, it’s close to two years. I, think that’s our goal. And, you know, talking about the Shirley family, right? you know we meet with the victim’s family almost immediately, and we give ’em an idea of, hey, if this goes to trial. It is a long process that we’ll be there for them. We’ll advise them on along the way, but it is a long process and you can imagine, you know, [00:32:00] the range of emotions that families go through.

Right. There was another young lady involved in that case that she’s, she’s paralyzed. Correct. She got paralyzed and so working with her over a couple years and then just seeing her do a direct examination during that case and almost like just watching her. Feel empowered was, was, you know, the whole courtroom was in tears watching her go through, go through that direct testimony and how she handled that case.

And it’s huge credit to her. And that’s, you know, as a prosecutor, as a da, as an assistant da, that’s what you, you know, you can’t, she’ll never walk again. Right, right, right. She’ll never walk again. But at least on that day, she was empowered to, you know, take part of her life back and, you know, working with victims like that is that that’s why we do what we do.

Jonathan Breeden: Well that’s, that, that’s great. And I’m glad there are people that do what you do and I’m glad there are people that represented defendants. Sure, yeah. Like I used to do. Right. ‘Cause that’s how the system works. Yeah. So you are I mean you’ve [00:33:00] announced your running for a four year term for this office, correct?

The primary is in March of 26, the general election’s in November of 26th. Mm-hmm. You’re a Republican, I believe I am. So if there is a primary you’ll be on the Republican primary ballot in March of 26th.

Jason Waller: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: What do you want the citizens to know about you and why they should elect you to a full four year term in this position?

Jason Waller: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a lot of the things we’ve talked about. You know, I’m strong conservative, believe in law and order. That’s what I’ve done on my entire career. You know, there’s a lot going on with the bail bonds and stuff like that. I absolutely believe that violent repeat offenders should be held in jail and waiting trial.

You know, every case has its circumstances that, again, we’ll review, but we don’t want people on the street that are repeat offenders or committing crimes while they’re out on bond and whatnot. So that’s kind of the public safety and really focused on dangerous offenders and establishing that task force again, like on the efficiency, like I’m somebody that believes that our [00:34:00] court systems should run as smoothly as possible, both in superior court and district court.

If you come in with an expired registration, like we wanna do our best to get you in and out of there as soon as po as soon as possible. You’re not a criminal if you have an exp you’re not a criminal, right? If you have an expired registration. So we want you to feel like that we are, you know, doing what we can to help you through the system.

And then again, I, I have strong relationships with. Law enforcement. I have strong relationships with the people around the courthouse, the judicial staff, the clerk’s office. You know, one of the, here you ask, you know, some people on this podcast like what they’re proud of. I was extremely proud of the people that w or made.

It was a great feeling to me for the people that back me to get this position. Again, law enforcement, defense attorneys, you know, across the board, support was very, very, very. Touching to me, humbling. I don’t know what the right word is, right, but it meant, it meant the [00:35:00] world to me. And so them helping me get to this position means the world to me.

And then on the other side of that is what I wanna do each and every day that I wake up and go to this job is. Do my best not to let those people down, you know, to continue to keep the public safe, to continue to work together, to continue to work on relationships. ’cause as I said, you know, we all have different viewpoints that we’re coming on.

You know, it’s an adversarial system. But if we’re working together, pulling in the same direction, I think it benefits the people of Johnston County the most. So

Jonathan Breeden: I, I agree with you 100%. I go a hundred percent. Last question we ask everybody on this podcast, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Jason Waller: I’m not gonna break your streak.

No. It’s the people. It’s the people. Everybody says the people, right? It’s, it’s the people. What I have, you know, being over here for the last seven years. People in Johnston County take a tremendous amount of pride in where, in where they live. You know, they say, John, I’m from Johnston County, and they mean it.

I like that the people of Johnston County [00:36:00] have each other’s backs, right? You, you put your, put your car in the ditch, somebody’s gonna come help you. They, you know, pick up the phone, call your friend. But what I also like about the people at Johnston County is they’ll be like. Well, you were dumb for putting your car in, for putting your car in the, in the ditch.

They’re very direct. They, they speak their mind, but I, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. So no, it’s a great place to live and work. I really appreciate our courthouse community. That is huge. Other counties don’t enjoy the same benefits that we do in terms of, again, working together and that kind of stuff.

I’ve been in another county where. There’s a lot more court cutthroat that people were, you know, looking out for number one and all that kind of stuff. And here in our Johnston County courthouse, I really believe that, you know, by working together, people are interested in, in the greater good. And I also like all the, develop the, the, the managed growth of I see in Johnston County.

You know, revitalization of downtown Selma, of [00:37:00] downtown Clayton, you know, all those things are great. We enjoy our time here and living and working here, and it’s, no, it’s, it’s fantastic place. It is a fantastic place. There’s no doubt. I’m glad you moved over from Wake County. I’m glad that I came up to the pottery, all those That’s right.

Jonathan Breeden: All the pottery. Right. Who knew you ended up being the DA here when you were in Duplin County, but how could people reach out to you or find out about your campaign?

Jason Waller: Sure. I mean, we are, we’re still in the very like. Beginning stages of all that. I just said, you know, if people have questions about me, they can, you know, stop by the courthouse, you know?

Right. We’re okay. We’re, we’re, we’re doing that kind of stuff. I’m very open, ask law enforcement about me, ask defense attorneys about me. They may one, one of one of our prominent guys calls me tough, but fair. So fair.

Well, and that’s what you wanna prosecute me. That’s what I want. That’s I want.

Right. We don’t need this liberal stuff. You know, you know the lady in Durham, I think they said dismissed 80% of firearms by a felon. That’s not me. I don’t, I don’t think Jason Waller’s gonna be dismissing a bunch of firearms by a felon. That’s not me.

That’s not the Jason Waller I had to deal [00:38:00] cases with. So anyway, tough, tough affairs.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well that’s good. That’s good. Well, we’d like to thank our new district attorney for Johnston County, Jason Waller for coming and being on The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Like you can reach out to him. His office is right there in, in the courthouse in downtown Smithfield, and you’ll be looking for his campaign website if you just search Jason Waller. By the time this episode comes out, I’m sure that website’s gonna be up and live. He’ll have more information about him and what he wants to do. He will be on the ballot in for the primary ballot in March of 26th if he has opponent. And then he’ll be on the general election ballot in November of 26 where he’ll be seeking his own four year term. He is currently finishing out. The four year term of Susan Dole that runs till January 1st, 2027. As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it and give us a review down below, a five star review down below. We’d much appreciate it, and you’d also could tag us in your Instagram stories. The Best of Johnston County. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to [00:39:00] you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.