The newest public defender office in North Carolina recently held a swearing-in ceremony for its staff of four new assistant public defenders.
The ceremony took place at 2 p.m. on Oct. 11 in Superior Court, Courtroom 2 of the Johnston County Courthouse, with the Honorable Paul A. Holcombe III presiding. In attendance were members of the local criminal defense bar, staff from the D.A.’s office and family members of the new criminal defense attorneys.
A. Traynham Dorn, the Chief Public Defender for District 13, was sworn in on July 1, 2024. And the office began taking cases October 14.
The Johnston County Public Defender Office was the eighth and final office to be established by the 2023 Appropriations Act, which expanded the reach of public defense by calling for eight new public defender offices to serve more counties in North Carolina.
Here are some details about the new assistant public defenders serving Johnston County:
Ryan Haigh’s start date was Oct. 11th. He has 18 years of work experience. Most notably, he was the Associate Legal Officer for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in the Netherlands up until he accepted this position. Most of his work experience comes from working at the DOJ as a Special Prosecutor for the Attorney General’s Office.
Mary Ann Matney started working in Defender District 13 on September 3rd. She graduated from Campbell Law in 2017. She was an Assistant Public Defender in the Office of the Territorial Public Defender in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands for five years. After that position, she accepted a job at Campbell Law as the Director of Competitive Advocacy. She left that position to come to work at the Johnston County public defender office.
Aries Brinson started work with the Johnston County team on September 13th. She graduated from Howard University School of Law and was a private attorney handling criminal matters in Wayne County at the Law Office of Aries Brinson, PLLC. She worked at her firm since its inception in 2019, up until she took this new position.
Kate Bock started working with Chief Dorn on September 3 as a legal intern. She attended the University of North Carolina School of Law, and having just joined the State Bar, she will serve as an assistant public defender for the Johnston County office. She was sworn in as an attorney licensed in North Carolina on Oct. 1 in Johnston County District Court.