What the city proposed
Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry sent a letter to Durham City Council and city manager Bo Ferguson on June 1 objecting to a proposed $313,493 cut to funding the city sends to the NC Administrative Office of the Courts. The reduction would shrink her office's staff by 10%, eliminating two assistant district attorney positions.
Those two attorneys work daily in District Criminal Court, District Traffic Court, and Juvenile Delinquency Court, which Deberry describes as the highest-volume courtrooms in Durham County.
Why the positions are hard to backfill
The jobs already pay $65,000 a year. Entry-level attorneys in the Triangle typically earn about twice that. Deberry wrote that her staff take the positions because they believe in the work, not for the money.
Timing compounds the problem. The positions are held by young attorneys, and the legal hiring market is active only once a year. Summer is not that season. Cutting the roles now would push those lawyers out with nowhere to land.
Higher caseloads for the remaining prosecutors would follow. Cases would take longer. Deberry put it plainly: justice delayed is justice denied.
What else disappears with the cut
The two assistant DAs are also central to the Durham Expunction and Restoration Clinic. Together, the DA's office and DEAR have helped thousands of Durham County residents restore driver's licenses and clear records, producing more than $2 million in fines and fees forgiveness.
That work returns money to the local economy, opens job and educational pathways, and lowers insurance costs across the county.
What Deberry is asking
Deberry told the council that hiring more police officers while cutting prosecutors is contradictory. The city recently approved a $16 million police technology contract, and she argued the two decisions pull in opposite directions.
She urged Ferguson and the council to reject the cut and keep funding the work before the FY 2026-27 budget is finalized.