O'Neill pick roundly praised

Jim O'Neill, who was appointed by Gov. Bev Perdue to finish out the rest of District Attorney Tom Keith's term, comes in with a broad base of support.

O'Neill, 43, has been an assistant district attorney in Keith's office since 1997 and has built up a strong reputation as a fair and able prosecutor.

He announced two years ago his intent to run for district attorney in 2010.

Some may have been shocked that Perdue, a Democrat, would appoint a Republican to replace Keith, but David Freedman, a criminal-defense attorney, said it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"He's an excellent trial lawyer and a good judge of character," said Freedman, who has tried cases against O'Neill over the years. "He has great bi-partisan support in the community because of his professionalism and his abilities."

O'Neill declined to comment yesterday, saying he doesn't want to talk about his plans until after Keith leaves office Nov. 30.

Unlike with some other offices when the governor must fill vacancies, in this case Perdue was not required to choose a replacement within the same political party as the departing officeholder.

That means Perdue could have chosen a Democrat to replace Keith. But Perdue's press secretary said yesterday that political party was not a factor in the appointment and that Perdue considers O'Neill the best candidate.

"She's not looking at politics with these appointments," said Chrissy Pearson, Perdue's press secretary. "She's looking at the best qualified individual that would serve the community."

Perdue's choice of O'Neill gives him a head start in the next election for district attorney, because O'Neill can now run as an incumbent, said Nathan Tabor, the chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party.

"People always want experience," he said. "They want people who have done the job or have been close to the job. It gives a lot of credibility … for his campaign messaging."

O'Neill is the chief prosecutor for sex-offender registry violations and motor-vehicle fatalities. He also serves as legal advisor to law enforcement for first-degree murder cases and was the first dedicated domestic-violence prosecutor in Forsyth County.

He graduated from Duke University in 1988, where he played lacrosse, and got his law degree from New York Law School in 1993.

O'Neill is the head coach for the varsity men's lacrosse team at Reynolds High School and is a board member for several organizations, including Hospice and Palliative CareCenter and Exchange/Scan, a nonprofit organization that helps to stop child abuse.

No one else has publicly announced an intention to run for district attorney next year. Jerry Jordan, a criminal-defense attorney who unsuccessfully ran against Tom Keith twice, said he has not made any decision.

Michael Grace, who has practiced law in Winston-Salem for about 30 years, said that one of O'Neill's biggest challenges will be dealing with the aftermath of the Darryl Hunt case. Hunt was exonerated in 2003 after spending nearly 19 years in prison on charges that he raped and killed Deborah Sykes, a copy editor at the now-defunct afternoon newspaper, The Sentinel. New DNA evidence led to another man, Williard Brown, who confessed to killing Sykes.

"That 800-pound gorilla is going to be sitting around in his office every day," Grace said.

So will the controversy surrounding the case of Kalvin Michael Smith, who was convicted in the 1995 beating of Jill Marker, a manager at the Silk Plant Forest store off Silas Creek Parkway, Grace said. Smith has maintained his innocence, and a 2004 series in the Winston-Salem Journal raised questions about how police and prosecutors handled the case.

O'Neill is coming into office at a time when prosecutors don't get rewarded based on how many people they put away, Grace said. The new district attorney is going to have to figure out the best way to manage cases with limited resources, he said.

"Every DA has left his imprimatur on the office, some for the good and some for the bad," he said. "It has to reflect and it will reflect the man and what values he has."

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