JUDGE BROWN RETIRING

T. J. ROYAL
Staff Writer

October 27, 2008 11:25 am

— After more than 30 years on the bench in courtrooms across Eastern North Carolina, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Frank R. Brown of Tarboro will retire Friday.
Brown, 72, retires as the head of the state Judicial Districts 7C and 7B, which covers all of Edgecombe and Wilson counties.
Judge Milton F. "Toby" Fitch Jr. of Wilson will take Brown's position as senior resident superior court judge, with Tarboro attorney Walter H. Godwin appointed Friday by Gov. Mike Easley as the newest superior court judge.
Godwin will serve his term through 2010. Brown said if he had retired on or before Sept. 5, Godwin would have stood for election on Nov. 4.
To celebrate Brown's retirement, his portrait will be hung in the Edgecombe County Courthouse's superior court room at 4 p.m. on Nov. 7. A reception will be 5 p.m. at Stack's Restaurant the same day.
Thursday, Brown's portrait will be unveiled at an invitation-only reception, from 6-9 p.m. at Edgecombe Community College's Mobley Atrium.
Brown said he didn't set out for a career as a judge. As a teen attending West Edgecombe High School in the early '50s, Brown had aspirations of a political career, and he figured that becoming a lawyer was his quickest route to the Legislature.
In 1953 and 1955, Brown got a taste of government when he worked at the state Legislature as a page. After graduating high school in 1955, he received the Morehead Scholarship and attended UNC-Chapel Hill until 1961, receiving his bachelor's law degrees.
Without the Morehead Scholarship, he said he likely wouldn't have been able to attend UNC-Chapel Hill.
For a while in college, Brown worked at a record store on the corner of Walnut and he worked as a clerk at a local bank, and the two were married May 1, 1965.
After getting married, Brown stayed with Weeks and Muse until the end of 1970. On Jan. 1, 1971, he was appointed assistant district attorney in the 7th Judicial District. Less than six years later, on Nov. 11, 1976, he was appointed district attorney. Less than 15 months later, on Jan. 27, 1978, Brown was appointed superior court judge of the 7th Judicial District.
In January 1983, he succeeded the late George M. Fountain as senior resident superior court judge of the 7th Judicial District.
Now that he is retiring, his wife, who retired as director of the Edgecombe Community College Foundation, said she hopes her husband will have a chance at a "more-laid back" lifestyle.
Brown said he will stay on as a recalled judge, likely working in the court's administrative offices around "once a month." He'll get to keep his second-floor office in the Edgecombe County Courthouse, too, which he feels he deserves after more than 30 years as a judge.
Even though he'll still have a role with the court system, Jo Ann Brown said her husband hates to quit, saying she knows he is still a capable judge.
She felt it unfair for U.S. Supreme Court Justices to be able to serve life-terms, while North Carolina requires its judges to retire.
Outside of court, Brown said he enjoys doing his own yard work, with his wife taking care of their flowers. The Browns are also avid travelers, who, Brown said, will likely take more short-range trips they were not able to while they both worked.
Jo Ann Brown said she hopes to go on a riverboat trip up the Mississippi River, which she said they have not done yet.
Frank Brown also said they would be able to go to all of their six grandchildren's activities, including soccer, football, basketball games and dance recitals.
The Browns have three children and six grandchildren. Son Ed Brown is an attorney in Wilson; daughter Cindy Berry teaches in Wilson County and lives in Rocky Mount; and daughter Terry Culpepper is a housewife and lives in South Carolina.
Brown swore his son in as an attorney in early 1993, an occasion he keeps close by with a newspaper clipping at his courthouse office.
For most of his professional career, Brown has kept Pat Lancaster as an administrative assistant. Now Lancaster, 77, will retire Friday along with her boss.
Lancaster said while working for Brown, he never expected "more from others than he expected of himself, so I always admired his work ethic."
She said he has been consistent and very thorough in his decisions, but that the quality she admires in Brown is "his fairness in the way that he treats others."
Brown has also drawn positive comments from prisoners, with letters from them and their families saying he helped turn their lives around.
Recently, a man who was given a long sentence around 20 years ago, for an armed robbery as a teenager, sent Brown a birthday card. Brown's birthday was Oct. 15.
In the card, the man wrote that he felt he would fare better when he saw Brown smiling in court.
Another man, given a long sentence by Brown for second-degree murder when he was only 16, wrote him saying that he learned more as a person while in prison that during his "life of freedom."
A lady wrote Brown to thank him for doing "God's work," that her son was working for God after he entered prison.
"I've gotten lots of letters from prisoners over the years like that," Brown said.
Many other community members say they have felt a positive influence from Brown's time as judge.
Tarboro Police Chief Robert Cherry said before he became chief in 1996, he hoped it would be Brown presiding over drug cases he dealt with in superior court.
"He controls the courtroom, and I respect him a lot. He took his job serious, and he was real strict," Cherry said.
"You could hear a pin drop in his courtroom," Cherry recalled about his times in court with Judge Brown, who earned the nickname "Send 'Em Down" Brown from law enforcement.
Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight called Brown someone who has "always taken his job very seriously, and makes good, sound decisions.
"He has very high morals, a highly ethical person, ... (and) He will be missed by everybody, especially in the law force community," Knight said. He added that he has enjoyed working with Brown over the years.
For the Sheriff's Office, Brown said he introduced a pre-trial release program back in 2006, for people accused of felonies. He waives the bond if they are found not to be a flight risk and agree to return for their court date, Brown said.
Brown added that Knight "likes the program," as it has saved the county several thousand dollars from not having to keep prisoners before their trial date. Brown said 60-70 people have been through the program each month since it began.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Steve Graham said Brown was the presiding judge of his first jury case back in 1983.
"I felt like from the first time I ever tried a case with him, I felt I could learn a whole lot from him," Graham said.
During some very bad homicide cases he has prosecuted, Graham said he felt fortunate to have Brown on the bench, because of his knowledge of the law in such a case.
"If you've got to try a very tragic case, you want a judge that's going to conduct a great trial, and that's what he does."
As a friend and a mentor, Graham said Brown is the "kind of individual who welcomed you coming by" his office to talk about law and legal issues.
"For me and a lot of us, it's not like retirement is going to bring a halt to the friendship, or the professional relationship we've developed," Graham said.
"I'm glad he's not 'here today, gone tomorrow,'" he added.
District Judge John Covolo said that for prosecutors with the district attorney's office, Brown set the tone for how they conducted their cases. Covolo, who worked as a prosecutor in Wilson County for 16 years for the district attorney's office, said attorneys were prepared and got down to business because Brown expected them to.
"To so many of us, he's been our legal father. We've learned what's important, how to try cases. He's a tough task master, but he's a great man, a good man, and he teaches you a lot," Covolo said.
Outside of court, Covolo said Brown shows compassion for his colleagues, as well. After he had a bout with bladder cancer, Covolo said Brown was very supportive as he went through it.
Jo Ann Brown said that when a family member died recently, her husband left her three brand new shirts on the bed because he knew it would cheer her up.
And echoing his wife's feelings, District Attorney Howard Boney said that Brown is a "perfect example of why we should not have mandatory retirement for judges.
"He's the judge par excellence, (and) in my opinion, one of the finest, if not the finest in North Carolina," Boney said.
He said Brown served as a mentor to him, one he had gone to many times for advice and counsel.
"Selfishly, I hate to see him leave the bench. I feel like he certainly has the skill and capacity to continue. He's a judge you can trust to try the hardest cases and get it right," Boney said.
Phil Carlton, a Pinetops lawyer and former state supreme court justice, said Brown and he were friendly adversaries growing up and as attorneys.
Their rivalry was in basketball growing up, between Carlton's South Edgecombe and West Edgecombe. Carlton then went to the law firm of Bridgers and Horton in the mid-'60s, while Brown was with Weeks and Muse.
Carlton said that for Brown to have served as superior court judge, "the county is simply in good judicial hands. And you're going to get just results all the time."
He called it a source of pride to have had Brown on the bench in Edgecombe County, especially since he followed George M. Fountain as judge.
"The two of them have just made Tarboro the prestigious judicial seat for this whole area of the state," Carlton said.
"We've just been very blessed, and it will be hard for someone to fill those shoes, frankly."

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