Jerry Braswell seeking superior court seat
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 10, 2016 1:45 AM
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Jerry Braswell
Candidates for judge can say any number of things about themselves when running for office, but the real litmus test is to talk to the people who are in the court system, says former District 8-B Superior Court Judge Jerry Braswell.
Braswell wants to reclaim the District 8-B Superior Court judgeship he lost to Judge Arnold O. Jones in 2008.
But to get a chance at doing so, he will first have to survive a March 15 primary with Jones and Goldsboro attorney Will Bland.
Nonpartisan elections, such as ones for judicial office, require that at least three candidates file to trigger a primary in which voters will select their top two candidates to face each other in the November general election.
"Get their opinions on what kind of judge Jerry Braswell was," he said. "How did he deal with the people that came before him in court? Was he fair? Did he treat everyone the same regardless of whether they came from Walnut Creek or Lincoln Homes? Was the scale of justice applied fairly and equably to everyone? Did he treat individuals in his courtroom with the respect they ought to be treated with? Was he forthright?
"Was he honest in his dealings with everyone? Did he work as a team player with the other players in the court system? I think if you ask those individuals those kinds of questions ... I think they would give you the kind of answer that will persuade you to vote for Jerry Braswell. I think with my breadth of experience it certainly qualifies me, I think, to assume that responsibility and be the kind of judicial administrator that I think Wayne County, the voters and the citizens of this county deserve."
Braswell invites voters to compare his court and the kinds of efficiencies he brought to the court system, and the effectiveness in how the jail system was handled to others.
"I think that is important because that is a tremendous cost to the county, having defendants awaiting trial," he said. "You need to understand how all of that works and impacts how our dollars are spent."
Braswell, 63, is native of the Rosewood community and grew up in Goldsboro.
A 1970 graduate of Goldsboro High School, he received bachelor's degrees in business and political science from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
He received his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Braswell also is a graduate of the national Judicial College and has taken a number of judicial courses across the country.
While at Morehouse he attended the Navy's Officer Training School and served in the Reserves. He entered active duty after receiving his law degree serving as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
He did duty as both a defense attorney and as a prosecutor.
He returned to his hometown about 1982 and practiced law for a time with Louis Jordan before opening his own office.
Braswell was a Wayne County commissioner from 1988 to 1992 and served in the state House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999.
Prior to the end of his last term in the House, Braswell received a gubernatorial appointment as a special Superior Court judge.
He held that position for just over a year. He was first elected as the District 8-B Superior Court judge in 2000. He served until 2008 when he lost his re-election bid to Jones.
He has since been back in private practice.
"What a judge does in Superior Court is to make sure that the court system is operating at its most efficient level that it can operate," he said. "You not only have to know the law, and that is important, but it is the administration of justice. The administration of justice, I think, entails the ability to understand all of the different components of what makes our system work.
"I think you acquire that skill by having experience in the courtroom, both on the criminal side and on the civil side. I have been a trial attorney for essentially all of my life. I have handled everything from juvenile cases to first-degree murder cases."
On the civil side, Braswell said he has experience in domestic work, contract work, real estate work, and civil litigation from district court all the way up to federal court.
"I think having that vast experience and knowledge of not only the law, but how our court system operates, is essential to be able to be the type of effective Superior Court judge that I think Wayne County needs," he said. "I have the experience. I did it (serve as judge) for almost 10 years.
"The advantage of having experience is one thing -- you have track record. So people can see what you have done. So I encourage the voters, if they want to know what kind of judge Jerry Braswell will be, you can ask the people who are in our court system what kind of judge was he."
Braswell said that when he was the presiding judge that Wayne County was consistently in the top 10 in the disposition of cases.
People enter the system all of the time and the court must be able to process that work, he said. A judge has to work with the district attorney's office, the clerk, the probation office, lawyers and others, he said.
It is important that court official realize they are all on the same team, and that is why a good working relationship is important, he said.
He said that many people do not realize that Superior Court judges ride a circuit and actually hold court in several different counties and can even be called to preside in other parts of the state.
Braswell and his wife, Beverly, have a daughter, a nurse, who teaches at a Houston, Texas, college. He also has two stepchildren and twin grandchildren, a boy and a girl.
He is the son of Herbert Hoover Braswell Sr. and the late Ethel Braswell.
Braswell has served on numerous boards including the Boys and Girls Club, Salvation Army, Mental Health, public library, Wayne Opportunity Center and was a member of the first board of directors for the Goldsboro Family Y.
He is a member of Mount Zion Disciples Church, where he was a trustee for several years.