Show #191 - Sherry Miller for Judge: A Local Perspective on Courts, Community, and Change

Peter Pappas: Well, everybody, good evening and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas in studio with Mrs. Laura Musler. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. And with Miss Sherry Miller. Hello. Good evening. Good evening. So ⁓ here at the cabinet, we're proud to be the only homegrown conservative talk radio show in the region. And we know this is the smartest hour radio. Our job is to give a voice to the conservatives of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and beyond. And this evening, we are hopefully going to see our long lost pastor Josh returning to the show. hopefully he'll, ⁓ just kind of drop in on us, guess. So, ⁓ Laura, what you've been up to in the last week or so, much, not much. you sure? Well, okay. Maybe I have a congratulations for you. do. I do. Yes. I got elected or, ⁓ as the first vice chair of the Cumberland County GOP, which is exactly technically where I love to be is not the guy that's in charge. ⁓ Cause I don't want to be held accountable, but I get to do whatever I I'll be right over here. ⁓ Y'all do here with the, yeah. Okay. Well, on voted first vice chair. ⁓ that was last Thursday. had the meeting here at the resource center and ⁓ we had what 38 or 40 people here. Seemed like it was a nice, attended meeting. first vice chair, congratulations. ⁓ I also had held my first Fayetteville Republican Women's Club meeting as the president. And that is the eldest. That is yes. It is the eldest, the eldest club. The eldest club. we are, ⁓ next year we'll be 55 years old in Fayetteville, North Carolina. So that's pretty exciting. And I, had representative Penny who is representative Penny, who is the majority whip. And he explained what that is. don't remember, but I mean, he whips up the boat, right? I I know, but he explained it like in detail. So I don't remember all of that, but he came up to me and gave me the best compliment I've ever received in my life. He said, I have been to hundreds of women's club, men's club meetings. He said, this was the best run and the most fun club meeting I've ever been to. I'm like, ⁓ yeah. Okay. He said, he'd stopped me and said, I'm telling you, I don't think the guy he didn't strike me as somebody that would blow sunshine. No. But I just yeah, you know, politicians. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, no, this was by far the best one. I was like, maybe what didn't you do like a campaign bingo? We played something. We played bingo. The idea is it's political bingo. So as the speakers are speaking, I please don't be offended if somebody jumps out and says bingo, because I put all kinds of political words in the buzzwords in the bingo. You know, Jackie Weyandmeyer, she's running for office and I put ⁓ some other woman, I don't know. And not worth mentioning. And ⁓ I had to get that in. But anyway, like whip and ballot and budget, you different words. I. Well, that plus take the pulse, you know, so you pay attention in the meeting. That's exactly right. So eating and chit chat with your friends, you pay attention. That's exactly right. I like your ulterior motive there. It was people's People focus. I would not be bought. So I was like, I don't want to be. Okay. Well, see for our next meeting we're playing, we're, we're having a fundraiser. It's called war chest and you go through all of your stuff in that you have stored through time, whether it's a hundred years older, you could have just bought it offline last week and you bring it in, we're to do a silent auction and the person that brings in the best item that brings in the most money will get a gift like a gift card to Baldi knows or something. Well, it's got war in the title. So I'll be there for sure. Right. That was pretty much my week last week. went to your meeting and then we had the XCOM meeting for the GFP, Cumberland County. ⁓ Bob Laverick is now our chairman. He sure is. He's a relative newcomer. He seems nice and even keeled. So we'll see how that plays out for the party. He's not jaded by all of us Republicans. He comes to this with a fresh perspective. Hi, Mario. And unfortunately on Friday, I laid a friend to rest. no. ⁓ attended a funeral and you know, it's. So I have a cousin that just had a heart issue. Like he's 57 years old and I just lost this friend. She's 52. Another heart issue, something congenital in her family. But you know, at New Year's I was at my mom and dad's house and my aunt was there and we were talking about my cousin, you know, it's like, ⁓ my God, he's so young. And I'm like, We're he's 57 years old. We're not the kids. mean, y'all are still here. Thank God, but we're not the kids anymore. 57 is still pretty young to pass. Yes, ma'am. I'm looking right at you when I say that, but, um, you know, that's, mean, I don't feel a day over 56. There you go. So, but yeah, definitely not a fun way to end the week, but that's, uh, that's what I was up to. So, well, Laura, let's start with some housing. Oh yeah. This one, it's going to cut across party lines. President Trump is proposing a ban on large institutional investors, hedge funds, private equity firms to keep them from buying single family houses. mean, simply during COVID families were competing with Wall Street for starter homes. Right. And it won't force investors to sell what they already have, but it would stop future large scale purchases. ⁓ And so that distinction, guess, matters. So the reason why this is making everybody resonate and feeling it. Families are asking, you know, why am I bidding up against the cash offer back by a billion dollar fund for a three bedroom house? And there was, there was a lot of that during COVID. A hundred percent. Yep. Supporters argue that the love this levels the playing field. So, ⁓ for first time home buyers who can't wave inspections or close in 10 days or whatever the stipulations of the contract are. Okay. Well, pragmatism, reality check. Okay. This doesn't build more houses. It doesn't fix zoning. It doesn't. lower interest rates. This is a demand side correction, not a supply. So it's going to correct how much people are demanding, but it's not going to give us more supply of homes. And you remember last week, I think I circulated that realtor clip that said to cure the housing crisis, we'd need two and a half percent interest rates to get back to 2019. So go ahead. Well, that's where the critics push back. They argue institutional investors still own a relatively small share. of single family homes nationally. So this may not do much to move the prices. but policies, they're not going to have to solve everything to solve something. mean, housing already isn't a pure free market. think about this, the government does shape it through zoning, subsidies, monetary policy, like interest rates. Yep. But it's also worth noting that the industry responds. The National Association of Real Tours hasn't endorsed the ban. Right. Surprise. Right. They've suggested incentives to encourage investors to sell existing homes back to home owner occupants or owner occupants instead. So that tells you something. Even if the realtors that we acknowledge, there's a supply imbalance and I'm one of those pesky realtors as well, but there's an imbalance between the investors and the families. just, the realtor is going to have a hard time agreeing on the method of how, do I get that investor to sell back to the, to the pool? Okay. this lands with the independence. ⁓ because of who proposed it, ⁓ it sounds fair. But hold on just a second. I know why the real tours ⁓ promoting selling it back to individuals because they want to sell as many houses as possible. ⁓ they're selling them to the big industries and then they're wanting to make a profit. So they're going to sell these houses at a higher dollar. So they're selling the same house twice. ⁓ of course they're going to. endorse them selling back another house as opposed job is to move the dirt as a realtor. That's it. Moving from one to the other. So no matter if this idea ultimately becomes law or not, I mean, it puts a spotlight on a question the voters are already asking. Who is the housing market really working for? It should be working for individuals in my humble opinion. Well, North Carolina, we're the fastest growing state or one of them. ⁓ And I want to point this out, Charlotte, Raleigh and Triangle have seen rising investor activity, first time home buyers increasingly priced out. How many times have you seen listings from the triangle and you're like, really? That's a million dollars. Yes. And my son and I were just going over his budget because he's getting ready to, he just got a brand spanking new job. He's going on the road trucking ⁓ he's going to make actually make bank. ⁓ ⁓ we're so excited. And he's like, well, what about housing? I'm like, ⁓ you come stay with us for the first two years because he's only home on weekends and bank all of that money. And that's what you're going to need for a down payment. And you're still going to be, you're still going to need $250,000. Yeah. It's increasingly difficult for young folks to get that American dream. mean, what we grew up in, I think we all either have gray or covered it in this room. ⁓ you know, we definitely saw generational wealth passed down. saw our parents being able to buy houses and wages haven't kept up. That's correct. With the inflation. And I do think that these private equity companies were a lot to blame for a lot of what we dealt with in Corona. Okay. you had people offering, if it was a hundred thousand dollar house, they were offering 120. Right. And that's the line you got in. So definitely we're going to see some relief, hopefully, because young people can't afford it. No, they sure can. And we talked about last week, the 50, did we talk about the 50 year mortgage? Yeah, we did. That's not a good thing. That is a bad idea. You're going to pay for that house twice. Um, so, especially in a town like ours where they're selling their houses every three, four or five years, cause they're getting stationed somewhere else. They're going to have zero. They're going to be upside down. Not only am I have zero equity, but they're going to owe money to close. think if the prices stay where they're at, the soldiers, when they come here, they're not going to buy houses. They're just going to stay in apartments and leave because A lot of rentals here were like the soldiers first house when they first got stationed here, they retained it, they moved someplace and they came back, bought another primary residence and they kept the original one as a rental. So I don't think that activity is going to, going to continue. Now I did find an article from the Hill. It was a pinion. So I don't want to put too much, ⁓ stock in it, but it is a pinion. Everybody's got one. So it's talking about the. peak of the pandemic, almost 5 % of homes were purchased by institutional buyers. That doesn't sound like a but that is a lot. So that's 5 % of the market that was competing with me and you. So I like this guy reference, Milton Friedman. You know who that is? I do. ⁓ Economist? Yes. Very, very matter of fact kind of guy. Did you see any of his videos, Sheri? ⁓ No. No, he's... They're, they're being re-uploaded and circulated like on TikTok and all the, it's very, he's very dry, he is so matter of fact, very smart. Yes, definitely. ⁓ so, well, look, ⁓ any input on this Sherry, you know, like, ⁓ how does this affect you and your family? ⁓ The housing? Yeah. Well, ⁓ I've been pretty fortunate. ⁓ been able buy my first house. And then I bought my second house and I'm renting my first house. And I've been fortunate because I did it during the time when the interest rates were low. Right. And we didn't have all these investor. Right. How many postcards do you get a week saying we'd like to buy your house? Well, I get a lot of text messages. Oh, do you? Okay. Like, oh, we drove by this location and wondering if you're interested in selling it. know you don't look old enough to have children, but do you have children? Yes, I have a son he's 22 and I just turned 60. So thank you so much. You're my best friend. I know how to bribe the judge. ⁓ Well, let's let's talk about before we bring her for her. about your 22 year old son? How does he feel about owning his own home? Well, I don't even think that's on his radar. He is a ⁓ junior rising senior at UNC Greensboro and he's majoring in biology and he's probably going to go on to grad school or hopefully med school. Yes. So I don't even think that's on his radar. He's just into his studies. Well, and if he's going in to be a MD, then he might actually have a little more means to do so. still, it doesn't matter. I you never know. Yeah, you never know. before college debt, though. Well, yeah, that's that's another consideration. Well, see, we were lucky we were able to do our 529 So at least his undergrad is paid for. Nice. Yeah, but see the colleges went on a big shopping spree when the government said, Hey, we'll loan money for education. They just, was like, everybody was asleep at the switch and they, these, cost of education, I mean, tenfold what it was. the government gets involved in anything, it's not a good a good job of it when they get involved. I, what I wanted, I've mentioned before that this year I want to kind of focus on the judicial branch of our government this year. ⁓ And something I thought it was, I joke with people, I mean, this is very non-Republican, but I'm worried about the absolute most vulnerable people that deal with our court system. Okay. The people that are going to be in family court, the people that'll be in, ⁓ you know, for custody or domestic violence or- Why is that non-Republican? We care about people just because we don't have- I'm just trying to- Okay. Cause you know, I get called certain things and it's like, well, if you're going to call me a fascist or whatever, I'm just going to, you know, I have to show you I'm not. So, you know, I'm non Republican in this way. If that's they think a Republican is, that's not what it is. Hi Bambi. Yeah. I just want to say hi Bambi. So what I learned is you have the two level court system, district and superior. Both are trial courts, but they handle very different types of cases. So the key difference is that in district court, there's no jury. with this is this you can interject at any time. This is me and Chad GPT playing research. Okay. Um, so district court will have no juries handles most of your misdemeanors family law. And it's a faster pace, more like a turn and burn, I would guess. Well, I can't imagine family court would be turning burn. would think traffic court is more turn and burn. Okay. Misdemeanor court family court is very involved in, uh, it could be. quite a lengthy process depending on the circumstances of the family. So yeah, it's a whole different scene. But is no jury's kind of like an absolute in district court? Right. cases are done by a trial, which is a judge on the bench making the decision. Most criminal courts aren't recorded. But family court is recorded. So yeah. Okay. So why are they not recorded? in criminal court. Because in district court, usually when you appeal, ⁓ I think ⁓ it goes to superior court criminal and then superior court is the court of record. Okay. And then in superior court, ⁓ if you appeal it, then it goes to the court of appeals. So I think that's the route for criminal district. But for family law, we go from district family law and then if we appeal it, goes to the court of appeals. Straight around superior. So think that's the big difference. So it's not really superior. ⁓ Not to family court. Yeah, right. Okay. Okay. So those were the key differences that I found. So a district court judge makes decisions that immediately affect families, controls courtroom tone and efficiency, handles emotionally charged cases. I think family thing would be charged. and you're interpreting statutes, not policy preferences. Okay, so. I'm a dunce when it comes to courts. I'm very rarely involved in courts. me that they're not recorded. Why? You mean district court? Like criminal? Why? Okay. So district court would handle evictions and stuff like that, right? If it's appealed from magistrate court? Yes. Okay. And I don't believe those courts are recorded either. No, they're not. I know they're not. But when you appeal from magistrate court, Is it a brand new trial that you get in district court? Okay. So at that point, they not have a ⁓ court reporter? No. You don't, don't believe there's a transcript or well that now I have an issue with that. I you meant like recording, like we're recording. think if they started recording magistrate court, they would discover, ⁓ some very biased decisions there just from me being there as a landlord or tenant rep for real estate. ⁓ they could maybe not like the cut of your jib and be like, man. So I'm understanding as most civil court is recorded. So I'm not familiar with the magistrate court, like, um, if you have, um, uh, in civil district and you're disputing, you know, uh, a contract, you know, you contracted with someone to install your roof and they did a bad job and, the money amount is not enough for superior. So you're doing it in district court. I think that's a court of record. So most civil, think is, just, so my, my issue and you know, as people talk to us and send us info about what's happening, where and when, you know, if you get evicted, let's just probably assume that you're not in the best financial situation. You appeal it and, and you pay, I'm sure there's a fee to refile for district court. And I think if you get a judgment, I'm like, if you decided in. the lower court, the magistrate court, have to pay whatever the judgment is as a bond, like some kind of like in order to file forward, don't you? I'm not sure. I don't think so. cause when I ⁓ one of my properties up in ⁓ ⁓ he disputed it and he had to put up what he was. had to put that amount of money aside. Okay. That makes sense. And maybe you do, ⁓ my, my issue is when it goes to be a bench trial ⁓ district court, ⁓ Is that case being heard or is the judge taking purview or taking privilege to say, we're going to, what's your reason for filing? ⁓ no. Dismissed. Yeah. Well, like, and if it's not recorded, then we can't hold our elected judges accountable. Right. That's what the court appointed. We have, ⁓ court watchers. I volunteer as a court watcher. Okay. Well, I'll go watch. It's open to the public. Most of the courtrooms are open to the public. But we're not allowed to record while we're in there. We're not allowed to have any electronic devices or anything that which is an issue to me. That's true. But like domestic violence court, you know, that's definitely recorded. ⁓ So this is not like ⁓ a systemic problem. mean, there's certain places where it is recorded because it is a concern of being accountable. OK, because I mean, like traffic court, you know, you're pleading. Improper equipment pay a court cost move on now. We are ⁓ all digital so there is some recording like the clerk is recording the what the judge ruled directly into the computer or You know task it to the judge or whatever but as far as you know recording where you get a transcript of Someone testifying in a DUI trial, right? I don't believe that happens at the district court level. Okay nowadays with AI that transcribes everything. Why not? Look, we just now got e-courts. mean, that was the last what year I think it was. yeah, we're technology. And remember we've had auditor Bullock on and he talked about how the one thing he did is he exempted the auditor's office from using the state IT department because it was so horrendously bad because now he's able to have like Azure, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure. it's a color Azure, whatever, ⁓ servers and clouds and stuff like that, because he just didn't want to mess with the state there. They're behind. we just now got to eat courts. Let's give it a minute for AI transcriptions. Okay. So, ⁓ all right. Well, Sherry, I know you're a long time fable family law attorney and your candidate now for district court seat three, Carmelin County. Uh, you bring decades of experience and family legal matters, and you are running to ensure fairness and justice in our local courtrooms and take it away. tell us, uh, tell us about your, I guess your background growing up here and. right. Well, uh, I've been in Fayetteville since 1971 when my dad was stationed at Fort Bragg. So I'm a military brat and he decided to retire here and we made our home here. Sure. and I went to 71st Elementary, Lewis Chapel Junior High, 71st High School, graduated in 88, no 84. What neighborhood did you grow up in? Southgate. Southgate, okay. I was in Wells Place in Raikondo. Okay. Yeah, right across the street. And then I went to UNC Chapel Hill, got my degree in journalism, and then I went to North Carolina Central School of Law to get my Juris Doctorate. got that in 1995. And then my very first job was at the public defender's office with Paul Herzog, which was, you are doing everything from DUIs to felony cases. So you're in district court and superior court. And a lot of it is just learning on the job because, know, you've got your law license, so they're going to put you out there and, know. ⁓ Do the best you can. the public defender's office as overwhelmed then as it is now? I don't know about the public defender's office now, but when I was under Paul Herzog's supervision, we were well oiled machinery. mean, we were churning cases. It was exciting time. ⁓ But I wanted to branch out and do other things. So I ended up going into private practice with Alan Rogers. believe I did that in 1998. And at the Rogers firm, I did personal injury, med mal, estate, of course, criminal and then family law. I somehow inherited family law. And initially, you know, I thought, okay, well, you know, I I want to help families. you know, children and custody real important to me. So, know, the more I learned how to do this, the better I felt like it was my fit. don't know if it was my personality. Maybe I just, you know, love to be tormented, but, but, know, I enjoyed helping troubled families, but it is a very, very complicated area of law, way more complicated than traffic court. So I'm probably going to get a lot of. boos for that, but it is very complicated. And the area of law is constantly changing because the ⁓ family dynamics are changing. We no longer have the intact family. have a lot of blended families. have a lot of children who are being raised by and aunts and uncles and other third parties. ⁓ these third parties are taking on the parental roles. ⁓ the laws had to change to address that versus the actual biological parents. And then you have, you know, the same sex marriages. And so how do you deal with, you know, the complicated issues with that? yeah, the law in ⁓ family law is very, very complex. know, Judge Hasty, Judge David Hasty is retiring family court judge. So he is going to leave a void. You know, there's going, you know, he has cases that's going to have to be inherited. always seems like anybody I run into that has family court issues, it just seems like it's taking, I'm going to air quote, taking forever. I mean, is it just because we're backlogged and just don't have resource? Or is that just my perception that I think it takes a long no. Since COVID, you know, we had to really change the structure of how we do our hearings. So we went into time slots, which I think in my opinion a better, better way. So if you think that your case is only going to take one or two hours, and let's say that's a temporary child support or a quick contempt hearing, then you get slotted for that one or two hours and you can get the case done. Back in the old day, we would all just first come first serve. And so you know, if the first person who got there had a eight hour case, then you just sit there. Okay, wow. So so now you can kind of schedule Okay. So the time slots nice. And that gives me time. You know, if I have a 10 o'clock morning case and then my next case isn't until two, then at least I can go back to the office, handle business there and plan for the next year. Makes you more productive. It sounds like, okay. but sounds like he gets to take a nap. Yeah. I don't know. Do you take naps with what you do? Do get it? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. But, like I wish I had taken a nap today, but, but it, It gets a little complicated when you have a case that is slotted for a long period of time and then the case ends up settling like the day before. So you have this open ⁓ time period. I think our judges are working diligently now to try and figure out a way to fill up those dead times, whether to have overflow go in there. Why don't they just call the people that work in my dentist or my doctor's office? You know, they have a cancellation. They're always calling. Yeah. don't get that. But you know, like I said, you know, we're a quarter of a Yeah. Your nail person. Okay. Let the nail lady do it. You know, we can fill those slots. Okay. So sometimes, so mostly it works out in y'all's favor, be productive, but sometimes if it gets settled, all of a sudden you have an open day. Yeah. that does allow you to work on the cases. Okay. This is upcoming. I can knock this out. All of this. Yeah. But I, but I think that well now as a judge, I guess you don't get to look at. Yeah. I mean, if I become a judge, that's something that I would- mean when you become a ⁓ thank you. We try to think positively about it. If you got to put it out there in order to make it happen. Okay. But I would work really hard with the other judges to try and make sure that we maximize our time. I mean, I've been in the business for 30 years now running my own office and I know it's tough and you have to make some tough calls on how you organize things and- you know, communication to me is, is paramount. You got to be able to communicate with your courthouse staff and you know, the people that work there and just say, Hey, look, we all need to work together to get this oil or, know, get the ball rolling, make this run more smoothly because there are sometimes dead zones, dead times. So as a district court judge in or what is it seat three, if let's say seat two, has a case that's running along and he's got ⁓ a 10 o'clock appointment and it's going, it was only supposed to be two hours at one o'clock. He was supposed to, cause he's got an hour for lunch, one o'clock, but it's like taking way longer. Can you, as a district court judge, if your afternoon opened up, step in or are you like assigned that and that's it? It depends on the case because in family law, the philosophy is we would like one judge to hear the case from the beginning to the end, because in the past we had multiple judges hear cases, multiple different decisions, and it was just... I like that idea that one person hears it so they know exactly what's on. They can read their notes. that one judge, ⁓ he's backed up. We can't necessarily hear that judge's case unless it's ⁓ a case that hasn't even been assigned yet. Right. So if there's no assignment or if it's temporary issue and the parties are okay with being heard, then that's fine. And emergencies, because obviously if an emergency comes up and the assigned judge is not available, then they try to go to the next available judge. So yeah, I can help in that way. Now, can a family court judge hear like a criminal case or a domestic violence case? Absolutely. Because, know, re-rotate all the courtrooms anyways. But they try to have a designated number of judges in. each courtroom so that they are focused on that issue. So within district court, then you, you still have the different flavors of court. got your family and criminals. So, they're, you know, there's juvenile court, there's abuse and neglect court. ⁓ and those are specialty courts and well, I've been called in specialty, but you know, they're, they're usually ⁓ juveniles and that's, see, that's one that I could never do. I volunteer at a. ⁓ And if they call me for, I'm like, I can't go. I'll kill somebody. I'll be going to court myself. I'll kill somebody. I'll bail you out. worry about it. Yeah. Not for killing a pedophile or a abuser or anything. They don't lock you up for the night. They're fine. Yeah. So I couldn't do the right. Yeah, that's, but, we do have specialty court though. Like judge Oliver does the veterans court. And then I believe judge King does the human trafficking court. And I think there's. drug court and some other. Well, those are almost to me were began for, for judge King and, ⁓ Olivera. Those were almost passion projects for them, weren't they? A little bit. Yeah, they're very passionate about it. Yes, they are. Well, I've been to judge King. She's, she has, ⁓ held events and stuff like it, Methodist university. She had a thing about the human trafficking ⁓ I know judge Olivera is deep into the veteran because he is himself. ⁓ you have an opponent? in this race. I do. I don't have to say the name. It's fine. So is that opponent incumbent or, uh, no first time. Okay. So, so judge Hasey's retiring. Okay. So the other person, um, we're both going to open seat. Yeah. And so since we're in the same party, um, is our primary and then whoever wins the primary gets the seat. Okay. Gets the seat. So you don't have the other party isn't running for it. Well, yeah, the other party's not running for the, okay. Okay. Well, that's good. Cause look, people want change. They want to see things happen and then they don't go vote. But they also, don't think understand the role of the courts as far as districts. Look myself, I'm, I'm kind of okay, smart wise, know, but I didn't know the difference because I've never really been in trouble to use it. Well, not with the court system. You've been never convicted. Yeah. No, not with the court system, but you've been in trouble. I've been in plenty of trouble in my life. I have plenty of gray hair to prove it. I do. But, but you know, I, I, I admit that there's a lot that I didn't know about it. ⁓ well, I mean, I've been doing, ⁓ law for 30 years and I'm still not sure, you know, I didn't know about tenant eviction courts, whether they're recorded. Well, one of my, really good friends from, I went to Emory and, ⁓ he's a, big old highfalutin lawyer over in Nashville. And he said, Pappas that's why they call it a practice. You're always learning. You're always, what say about the doctors. Yeah. No, you want to, you want a young doctor, old lawyer. ⁓ ⁓ Okay. Actually. Here we go. Actually, I'm getting women's right now. Yes, you are. The, the, the younger doctors ⁓ are depending too on ⁓ new medicine and stuff like that, as opposed to diagnosing with that. They're like going on gpt coming up with answers. What's wrong with that? And, the level of having to, um, in schools has decreased greatly. I disagree. I want an older doctor pile on. last year we talked about North Carolina legislature. They let, they loosened the standards for foreign medical grads. They took away one of the exit. So if you went to med school here, like at the upcoming Methodist university school, you would have like two tests, but for medical grad would have one. Do you know what they call the guy that finishes last in medical school? Yeah, doctor. Yes. Well, usually lieutenant, but then doctor. Well, I apologize. That was a joke. Yeah. To all the butter bars out there, we apologize. First lieutenant. So our second lieutenant, guess, is they start as. ⁓ But yeah, no, that's pretty telling. Yeah. I want to know what kind of grades you get. I want to know that you attended every class. I want to know. Yeah. Yeah. Just cause you have a degree on the wall. Doesn't mean anything to me. No, we've got some of the people with, believe we have encountered people with degrees that are dumb as a box of rocks. Oh, I absolutely agree with that. Um, you know how I feel about online university and stuff like that. mean, there's some good education, but if you get out of it, what you put in it and chat GPT isn't science. No, it is not. That's what Jessica says. Jessica. little one. She's online. Oh, Jessica says, okay. Hey Jessica. I didn't see you. We have a chat going on. If anybody has any questions for the soon to be judge, can. Yeah. Yeah. So I have some very wide ranging questions for you. So I think ⁓ one of concerns was the courtroom management. Okay. You're going to handle a heavy caseload if you win office. So from your ⁓ what ⁓ makes your, will your courtroom and fair. Well, ⁓ I think the most important part is ⁓ listening to what ⁓ the people who come court have to But unfortunately in Cumberland County, we have a lot of people who cannot afford private counsel. So they just try to represent themselves. And then, ⁓ when they try to represent themselves, they don't know how to follow the format. They don't know how to phrase questions and they basically just go on and on and on. Well, I've seen plenty of Tik Toks. Okay. There's, there's a ⁓ couple of judges like in Texas ⁓ they always put their stuff online. ⁓ But ⁓ if you decide to be. ⁓ pro se and represent yourself. Don't you have to abide by the same rules of everything that an attorney would have? So the people that are appearing like that, is it because they've refused public defender or they're not able to get a people like that? Lawyers are expensive. I know that, but if you're indigent, don't we have some kind of safety net? ⁓ Not for, yeah, not family court. ⁓ the only thing that is available. So for your most, if I may just for a moment. So the most intimate thing, your children, Your family, you get no representation whatsoever if you don't have money. How disgusting is that? But just go ahead. I'm sorry. mean, that's yeah. Like ⁓ child support. If you're held in contempt for child support and you face the possibility of going to jail because it's a constitutional, your liberties is big constitutional issue, right? So they'll court appoint you an attorney for contempt. you're in under threat of going to jail. Right. Under threat of going to jail. Yeah. Okay. If that's. But most civil cases, you're not under a threat of going to jail. So I guess that may be the reason why they don't have. Now, how far do you have to be back on child support? Cause I've heard some real doozies from people I've met over my lifetime. I do you have to be like a year behind two years, 10 years? My husband's 18 years. Oh, that's all? Our ex-husband is a father of my children is well, actually my kids are like in their thirties. striving to be number one. sounds like, mean, how, how bad do you have to mess up to be under threat of going to jail? I'm not trying to get people to get out of jail free card. I'm just wondering. I mainly there's two types of child support. There's family court child support, which involves two attorneys and they're fighting over how much the child support amount should be. And then there's the child support agency that represents the the community at large and their attorney, the child support agency's attorney is the people's attorney. So that person is like on social services or something like that, but they're getting help. Okay. So I'm not familiar with that kind of courtroom setting, but I know that there are large arrears in there and a lot of people do end up going to jail because of the arrears. This is not one month they missed. Right. I think a lot of times it's because people quit their job and then later on when things die down, they get a job. And then when child support tracks them down and tries to get the money, they quit their job. I'm not saying I don't want to. As an employer, I have seen that behavior where I hire somebody and I submit the new hire form to state of North Carolina and by the second payroll, they quit. Yeah. So that happens a lot. And I would think in the child support agency cases and family court cases, move our cases a little quicker. We can get into court a little quicker and, you know, argue it and get a judgment. The problem is, you know, there are people who are going to do what they want to do and they don't care what the judge says and they don't care what the order says. And we just, you know, that's just a fact of life. That's my favorite TikTok. It's a sovereign citizen video of people. So how many of those have you encountered in your career so far? I fortunately have not encountered any. come on. I've heard of them. I've heard of them coming into the criminal courtroom, but you don't see that in family court. Okay. I think it would behoove us in a town where we are some of the poorest people for family court to have some family court classes so that they could learn about how to defend themselves and ⁓ move it along appropriately. called law school. Yeah. Well, some of us can't afford law school and some of us can afford attorneys. But I'm just saying this is your, this is the most precious thing for some people. Some people not so much, ⁓ that you have. And if you can't, and you can go in court and lose custody of your children because you are poor and that's not okay with me. That's not okay. And in one of the richest countries in the, in the world. Right. So I think, you know, as a judge, you absolutely have to hold people, ⁓ accountable if they're going to come into your courtroom. Without a lawyer, I have to treat them as if they are their own attorney and I have to hold them to the same rules that I would for any other lawyer. And, ⁓ but at the same time, I do recognize that this is a very important matter in their life. This is something that's going to have law longstanding consequences. So, know, it's a delicate balance. You got to use some common sense and you got to have to, you know, I, like I said, communication. I can't advise them, but I can tell them, look, you know, you need to focus on this area. Tell me about this. I don't want to hear about the 50 girls that he slept with and all this other stuff. know, tell me how is your child being treated by that person? You know, he may be, you know, loose on the streets, but is he a good dad or is she a good mom? You know, I want to hear that. And so when you asked me how would I run my courtroom a bit more efficiently, I would do a lot of redirection. I wouldn't just let them ramble on and on and say whatever they want. I would say, look, I want you to answer this. Because you're bound not to give legal advice, which is what telling them how to respond would be like the procedure. So you can just maybe guide them to keep them out of hot water and keep it moving. There is some help. Why you over your opponent? What are you going to do different or better? or more streamlined or whatever. So I feel like if I get on the bench, I'm going to come in as a complete package because of my wide range of experience. And I will not be in a position where I would be unfamiliar with a case. let's say you have equitable distribution and let's say you have a $5 million equitable distribution case that you have to figure out. I've done that. So as an attorney, so I would know how to handle those kinds of cases instead of being intimidated or afraid or having to ask other people how to do things. I already have that knowledge and experience coming in. ⁓ and, but I don't want people to think, ⁓ so she thinks she handles these big money cases that, know, she's highfalutin. No, because most of the cases I handle are the small cases and people fight over there. Oh God, I think there was someone that fought over a motorcycle or a lawnmower. One of those 180 degree. Hey, those things are pretty slick now. mean, get it. But people get very passionate about their stuff. And so when they come into my courtroom, I am definitely going to say, Hey, you know, I hear you, you know, and whenever I make a decision, I'm going to explain how I came to that decision because I don't want people walking out of there going, what? What the heck just happened? And you won't get that with me. ⁓ Well, and I think it's to know ⁓ for people to that you have ⁓ a varied background. You've different things. ⁓ I've tried explaining to lately, it's like, look, just because lawyer not equal good judge, you know, experience matters, ⁓ especially your breadth of experience with ⁓ your background. You ⁓ you said you went to the Rogers firm you got stuck all the family. Stuff was that how that worked? Well, I ended up becoming the family. I got you. I got you. Okay. Well stick to what you're good at. So you've been going to court for years. What's the number one pet peeve when you're of the lawyer that the judge does to you? Your number one pet peeve. Oh my gosh. cannot stand that. This is so annoying. This is the problem too. See, she's running for a judgeship, but she eventually has to practice in front of these guys too. So it's hard for her to. Well, she's not going to sell me. Well, this person did this. I'm just, I was just trying to- What is the one thing that you're like, God, I wish they would do that differently. And so I'd like to know what your number one pet peeve is. So when you do it, we could be like, you said- It hasn't happened much, but I don't, you know, when I'm trying to make an argument and then the other attorney is interjecting and I kind of wish instead of me going, excuse me, it's my time, you know, don't interrupt me. I kind of wish the judges would be a bit more. forceful with the attorneys as far as decorum because some attorneys act out in court and I don't know if it's showcasing or whatever and I don't like it and so when I see it happen and you know It's not addressed and it doesn't have to be addressed in open court No one has to be embarrassed in the courtroom, but maybe call him in chambers and say don't behave like that Now that misbehavior, is that because of what maybe a young lawyer or an experienced lawyer, or is it just they need to make a name for themselves? Well, I think, you know, some attorneys are very, very passionate, passionate or overzealous or just hyped up. I don't know, but they feel as if the louder they are or the longer they argue, the more impact it would make have on their case. And a lot of times I don't think it works that way. I think it makes you look like not competent. Well, brevity is important for politicians and for attorneys. I mean, you you your stock and trade is your time. know, I'm a long winded person. Hop along. Yeah. You wouldn't, I don't know about being an attorney for you. Yeah. Yeah. I might have to get one of those. time clocks. Some of the judges are using that now because- Okay. No soliloquies. I was just told that I was having a conversation with another woman who does soliloquies also, and we are competing for soliloquies. Nice. So basically we need fewer Judge Ito's on our benches and we need more of that. Let's not use names. got Judge Ito from OJ's thing. I'm just joking. He led everything by. Right. And then I watched the Menendez thing lately and- The guy in the second trial, he was no nonsense. We need more of that guy. You know, he didn't let anything through, but, uh, so yeah. But you have to understand that the OJ case though, you had to let everybody say everything in the best interest of not having a mistrial, a mistrial or riots in the street. Cause he didn't do it. If the glove doesn't fit, must quit. Yeah. That guy was guilty of sin. I don't care what anybody says. That was like high school, high school for me, I think my sophomore year when that happened. Yeah. I'm older than you. We were in the senior parking lot waiting for the verdict to come out. think listening to the FM radio. Right. I was actually with some of my friends when the OJ, we were in Alabama, Dothan, Alabama. was there and I was like, what did they do? Why are they playing that on the TV to some white Bronco? Yeah, definitely. ⁓ That brings back a lot of memories. What kind of chase is this? They're going 35 miles an hour. Let that be a person today going 35 ball an hour, please. Oh, the cops would pit them. No problem. Right. That's other videos that I like to watch is when the cops, know, anyway, So, all right. So you have an opponent. Uh, this is not your first rodeo. It's running for office. Okay. What did you run for before? Um, in 2022, another family court judge retired. And so I was in the primary once again with. to other attorneys that did not practice family law. Okay. Yeah. Well, and it's that's because it wasn't your time. Now it is your time. You needed a little bit more experience. I think the person that won is well, that's good because you weren't at that moment in time, the best person for the job. And now you might be. Well, what concerns me is the identity politic spilling over into elections such as for sheriff and for judge and you know, People don't understand that the judges and sheriffs are the highest law enforcement in our county. That's right. People forget this and they just vote for who they're told to vote for instead of the qualification or learning the person. But as I've stood up in a meeting, not last meeting, but the one before that, the GOP, was like, your candidates failed you. Anyway, moving on. Well, I'm just saying it's up to the candidate to get themselves in front of people to earn their vote. Yes. think there were failures on both sides of the GOP. ⁓ wasn't a GOP thing. was just people were right. was like, well, both sides needed to work harder. Sorry. sides did not do everything anyway. Moving on. This is about the judge. Here comes a judge. I'm trying to give her some, you know, advice here. She is to be in front of people and you know, yeah, she is. ⁓ why you're here. Yeah. Next. I love when he's the only man here. Laura is the one with the emotional intelligence. We all know that she always likes to be mature. Yeah. I don't like that. I like the banter though. It's stimulating. Thanks. It's keeping me awake. Holy smoke. least we're not boring. That and how cold it is back here. Exactly. Hey, I turned the heat on earlier today. I don't look so, well, Sherry, what I don't know, like parting, like, what would you like people to know about you that makes you, why do I need to vote for you? And first of all, your district, it, uh, where is it? where is your entire Cumberland, the entire castle. You're like an app. So these are at large kind of whole county seats. Okay. All right. Yeah. Superior court are broken into districts, not district court. district court. Well, is that because everybody in the city, everybody in the county all around. Okay. Okay. Yep. All right. So why should I vote for you? Well, ⁓ you know, if you want someone that is going to, especially family law, I'm going give an example. You're going to have people, it's very emotional. ⁓ people are wound very tight when they come into that courtroom ⁓ and you know, you're going to have one person that feels like I'm being slammed with all the bills and I'm just stuck here and I can't even see my kid every day like I used to. And then we have someone else that's like, you know, I have to do everything and then I don't get any financial support. So, you know, as a judge, you want someone that can kind of whittle through the emotions and listen to what the meat of the problem is and then make a rational decision. sometimes you need someone who's going to have to make the difficult decisions. ⁓ I believe that I would not be one of those ⁓ that would come in and go, ⁓ I don't know how I should do this. I think I would come in pretty confident as to if I hear something, I'm going to apply the law to it and I'm going to make that decision, but I'm going to let the people understand why I came to that decision. So they don't walk out of my courtroom. wondering what the heck just happened in there. Okay. And, know, sometimes it's not easy to do because judges aren't robots. I mean, we're human too. And, know, if you have a, you know, person out there arguing and crying and, and, and, know, you have to be able to overlook that and just get to the heart of the issue. Well, I was going say, I, I, I'm the court cases that I've gone to watch. I'm always amazed. ⁓ I'm pro woman. I am very pro-woman, okay? I am like, if a woman's running against man, I'm pro-woman all the way. I don't know why, but I get so disappointed when I watch these women. This is somebody you procreated with. You have a child. Yes, you are the mom. Stop fighting. Let the dad spend time with the, it's like these women don't want them to see their dad. what better way to build up a young man or a young woman is to have access to their parents. So I get very disappointed when I see these women trying to use their children ⁓ as weapons. And like, how many times do you have to not let your ⁓ ex-husband see them on the weekend and not show up or not let them call? How many times do they have to be in quote unquote contempt before you actually do something to these mothers that won't let their fathers have access to the children? So yeah, if those, if those facts stacked up, if I felt like a parent is isolating or alienating a child from the other parent, then I will definitely record good. Cause that's, I get frustrated when I watch that I'm like writing these notes going, ⁓ how often do you see Facebook and family? ⁓ So, ⁓ yeah. As an attorney, always advise my clients to be careful on social media because. It is a great resource for evidence. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine. I, encourage, wow. I encourage any of my friends that are going through family issues to not post any, any issues. Cause even, even other issues I love. Well, that's true. Yeah. I have videos. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, I agree with you. about it being weaponized sometimes. don't like that. That's one thing that does bother me. have known people that ⁓ children were kind of taken away from and was very tit for tat. There was this restraining order here or a violation here. And it's like, nobody was just kind of case working this thing to get it done. The best program is the Guardian Ad Litem I'm that can sometimes sit in the middle and be like, hello. That's what was needed with. other, but the guardian ad litem is that just not for children that are like, anybody can be foster kids. thought that was just for like foster kids and stuff like that. I don't think so. In our family court, we use, ⁓ what's called child custody experts, but they're usually an attorney that's willing to take time off from the regular practice to investigate a case. ⁓ And those are for really high conflict cases. ⁓ especially when there's a lot of hostility between the parties. The child custody expert is a great resource for a judge to kind of help meander through all the... How do you get a child custody expert? You request it from the court. Okay. So Mike's son could go into court tomorrow and be like, hello, I need a child custody expert. If he has a custody case pending. I'm just saying if he did, if my son did, how would he get one? Just go ask. Okay. That's important. You have to file a motion for it. Everything that before anything comes before a judge, you have to file a motion. I understand. But I'm just saying if he had an attorney and his attorney hasn't said we need a child custody expert, he can go into his attorney and be like, I have these videos of the hostility or these recordings. Can I get a child custody expert? And that's what I'd like to see more of, more maybe. I don't want to say publicity to it, why don't more people, do you feel like it's being used sufficiently? It is, but it's an additional cost. it's difficult when you lack the funds and then you scrape up the funds to hire the attorney that you have, and then you have to come up with extra funds to pay for the child custody expert. usually the judges, like to split the costs so that there's no appearance that one's biased because they got paid by the other. ⁓ So yeah, mean, child custody experts, think are great. I think, you know, they're not always right, but you hear things and you see a perspective that you wouldn't have because you're only seeing things from one side. Right. That makes sense. mean, 100 % more color to it. I, you know, if I, ⁓ just me, if were an attorney, I come up with weird ideas. ⁓ I would do a monthly or a ⁓ quarterly class to people that can't afford an attorney. ⁓ Do you want know why? Because when they get the money or they make donations or you need a vote or whatever, I'm going to give you a class on here's ⁓ five things that need to do when you're ready to go. If you did a class and be like, hey, family court class. I'm going to teach you how and you'd be the expert. I may not have the money for attorney, but Jim over there, he needs an attorney. She taught me how exponentially would your, business grow and you'd have 45 lawyers for them for the years out. mean, honestly, you would be like a big, huge firm because you're there for the people that don't necessarily have money. And that goes a long way. And all those people would be like, I'm kind of vote for her because she was there for me. It's called giving back to the community in a positive way. But But you did pay a lot of money for your, um, your, your, your, degree. But, um, so I understand that, but once you paid that off or whatever, think help go, we as women need to give back to our community. And some of the women end up without jobs. got married young. I didn't have a college education or whatever. And when my husband likes my best friend better than me in my own home, um, yeah, we had to go to court and stuff like that. And here he has the money. He has the job. I'm at home with the children and it makes it hard. And it's like, nobody was there saying, here's what you needed to do. That would have been gone a long way. I'd like to see some of these kinds of hopeless ⁓ be helped along. If there was a mechanism in our judicial system to help them, I'd like to see them have more access to it. In regards to custody, there is the custody mediation center, which tries to educate. ⁓ didn't want custody, but he didn't pay either. He didn't want, he wanted custody, but then when it was time to go see them, he would not show up. Yeah. Well, you have special one then. And then we go to court and he's, well, I didn't, I didn't get to see him. We were there waiting for you. You didn't, you want to see a really sad kid. Your dad's on the way. So all these centers and things you were just referencing the custody. So there's a Custody mediation office in the courthouse. they provide services for both people who have attorneys and pro se. Pro se are people without attorneys. ⁓ it's a mandatory step in our custody process. So ⁓ custody mediation, I think, is an excellent opportunity for parents to try ⁓ ⁓ their custody issue and arrange a schedule that makes sense for their dynamic, ⁓ sense for their life. Because you know, the standard visitation has been, although a lot of the judges are modifying and growing, but the standard visitation has always been, you know, had a primary parent, secondary parent, secondary parents, the weekend parent, you alternate the holidays and you split the summer. That's kind of the fallback. But that doesn't always work, you know, especially if you have a parent that's been involved in the child's life, they've been their coach, they've been their, ⁓ you know, Just whatever, they've been actively involved in their life and then suddenly they're limited to a few days out of the week. So when you go into mediation, you can be a bit more flexible because, and there's no attorneys or judges in mediation, it's just the two parents and the mediator and you just try to hammer out an arrangement. And I always encourage my clients to try and set aside your differences, try to meet in the middle because it makes more sense. You guys know your children, you guys know your way you live better than a judge would after hearing a case for a trial for six or seven hours. mean, and then they have to make a decision off of that. So Custody mediation office, I think is a great resource. Well, Ms. Sherry Miller, thank you for joining us this evening. We're going to get you off the hot seat right now. So are we have gone to about an hour. Yeah. You've been on so our 69th goes by. This is not a tough room. Please tell your friends. ⁓ So anyway, thank you for being here this evening. Laura, as always. to never see you in the courthouse. mean, unless we're just passing in the hallway. Right. Well, very nice. Yeah. I don't, I don't want to see anybody. I don't want to be in the courthouse. I don't, don't want to have to be there. yeah, I just, Hey, how are you doing when I'm paying my taxes or something? All right. Well, to everybody coming up on Wednesday, two o'clock, we go live. We're going to have a county commissioner at large candidate and a candidate for U S Senate, uh, driving down from Smithfield. Uh, she lives up there. So, uh, should be interesting Wednesday. Can I ask you a question? If I want to donate to your campaign or if I want to reach you, how do I do that? Uh, you can reach me at, um, my office, is my campaign. Um, it's 108 Hay Street. Miller Law Firm. good. Okay. With that, everybody have a good evening. Good evening.