LUMBERTON — The midterm elections saw the arrival of the next generation of law enforcement leaders for Robeson County.
Among them is Matt Scott, who becomes the state’s first American Indian district attorney when he is sworn in.
A Pembroke native, Iraq War veteran and assistant district attorney, Scott and his campaign team worked for 18 months. Their efforts led to winning 58 percent of the votes cast in the May 8 and defeating Joe Osman. This led to garnering 62.37 percent of the general election votes and victory over Republican Allan Adams.
Scott will take the seat held by Johnson Britt, his boss now, and will work closely with Burnis Wilkins, who will be sworn in as sheriff in December. Wilkins replaces Kenneth Sealey, who has been sheriff since 2005.
“Matt is a very good and capable lawyer and prosecutor,” Britt said. “His responsibilities as an assistant district attorney focused on drugs and violent crime. That experience will serve him well as the district attorney in determining the path he wishes the office to take in prosecuting cases.”
Scott said he was raised by a strong family in a nurturing community, and it was a community of people from across the county that helped put him into office.
“I have my wife, family, including in-laws, and many friends to thank for their work,” Scott said.
Scott, who traveled far and wide to win voters over, thanked the people of Robeson County for their support.
“Robesonians have tremendous love for their home,” Scott said. “They have real concerns about the justice system here. People — races — want what’s best for the county.”
Scott said the long trek to victory was important, because it took him to virtually every corner of the county.
“The entire process was great, because I got to every community,” he said. “It felt good to win in places like Whitehouse and St. Pauls.”
The work by the Scott campaign paid off early, when he soared to a 6,000-vote lead after early ballots were counted. He did not celebrate early.
“When I saw the One-Stop numbers, I was still concerned,” he said. “That was great news, but there was a large turnout on Election Day.”
The lead narrowed, but not enough to help Adams, who won eight of Robeson’s 39 voting districts, mostly in the eastern edge of the county.
The national political atmosphere in 2018 may be described as contentious or even hostile, but Scott said civility ruled in the local election.
“I don’t remember any hostility on the part of voters,” he said. “People are concerned about the justice system in Robeson County, although they differ on how to fix it.”
Scott, too, is concerned about the justice system in Robeson County. Crime is too high, and the backlog of cases in District and Superior courts is daunting.
“We need strong enforcement of the law, but we need to be smart and efficient about it,” Scott said. “Incarceration is not going to solve our problem.”
“Our problem,” according to Scott, is drugs, specifically opioids. He said opioids are “the crisis of our age, an equal opportunity destroyer of the lives of rich and poor alike.”
Opioid addiction leads to heroin addiction, crime and contributes to the huge backlogs in the court system. Incarcerating people with addiction issues does not solve the problem, Scott said.
“We need drug courts like some of the other counties, that bring a treatment aspect for low-level offenses by people with drug problems,” he said.
The so-called war on drugs has been a failure, and a new approach is needed, Scott said. Some have called it a “liberal” approach, but Scott said it is a “smart” approach to a problem that is wreaking havoc on Robeson County’s health and economic development.
“Ultimately, it is a supply and demand problem,” Scott said. “We must deal with the supply side aggressively, and work to end the demand side.”
Scott said the drug crisis is not a problem that can be solved in Robeson County alone. State and federal resources will be needed.
Both Scott and Wilkins have worked on the federal side of the criminal justice system, Scott with the U.S. Attorney’s office and Wilkins with the U.S. Marshal’s Office.
But are they a team?
Wilkins, who once chased down every drug dealer and user he could find while working with Robeson County’s Drug Task Force, says, unequivocally, that he and Scott are on the same page.
“The sheriff and the district attorney need to have a close and productive relationship if Robeson County is to be a safer and more productive place,” Scott said.
“Listening to Matt, he talks just like me. Everything is on go,” Wilkins said. “Locking everyone up is not the answer. I don’t see it that way anymore.”
The answer is not leaving addicted people out on the streets, Wilkins said.
As for drug dealers, he said, “We need to have an aggressive approach to drug dealers.”
Wilkins and Scott sat down this past week for a lengthy meeting, and both men emerged optimistic about the future of their relationship and their ability to make change in Robeson County.
Britt is optimistic the pair will be able to get federal agencies on their side in the drug war. Since Operation Tarnished Badge, the Sheriff’s Office has been unable to participate in a drug-seizure asset program.
“Matt’s experience working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office will bode well for the county as he and Sheriff-elect Wilkins try to restart participation in the federal asset drug forfeiture program,” Britt said.
Wilkins was unopposed in the general election and has his team together. Scott is still celebrating two election victories and will get to work this week.
Scott, a graduate of Purnell Swett High, grew up a stone’s throw from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and went to summer camps there.
After attending N.C. State University, Scott went to law school at the University of Wisconsin and married his wife, the former Jessica Clark, between their second and third years. Jessica also is an attorney and a Robeson County native with deep family roots.
Family played a big role in Scott’s campaign, and he also used nearly every strategy available, including robo calls and social media outlets.
Community roots paid big dividends, and Scott credits one simple networking strategy as a key to victory.
“Everywhere I went, I told people that the best way to help me is the contact list on their cell phones,” Scott said. “I told them, ‘By the time you get back to your car, you can call five people and encourage them to get out and vote.’”
With an election behind him, Scott has a lot of campaign workers and a lot of people with cell phones to thank.
“I was blessed to have a group of people who worked very hard to help get me elected, and I’m thankful, he said. “At the end of the day, my job is to serve the public.”
