Text and photo by Connie Leinbach
Attaining the job of magistrate on Ocracoke is right up Angie Todd’s alley.
A criminology major in college, Angie became the second of two magistrates after Lonnie Burrus recently retired.
Gene Ballance is the other magistrate in a job that must be on call 24/7. The two work out their schedules as to who is on call when. Their office is inside the Hyde County Sheriff building on Ocracoke.
Angie was sworn in Jan. 19 and has been taking new magistrates basic-training classes to get up to speed in both civil and criminal matters that may come up.
Magistrates on Ocracoke do a variety of things: They find probable cause when law enforcement officers make arrests, issue arrest warrants and set bail bond limits.
On the civil side, the magistrate would hear small claims disputes, which could be evictions or somebody owing money. Magistrates, who are officers of the district-court division, are the only civil official in the state who can perform marriages.
North Carolina magistrates can find probable cause in some felony infractions, but not murders, which must go before a judge, Angie said.
All magistrates must be nonpolitical, she said, and that’s OK with her.
“I love it,” she said about her time in the position so far. “It’s the field I wanted to work in.”
What may be problematic, she said, is that, as with any job on Ocracoke, one knows everybody.
“So, when things happen you can feel bad for people, but (the law) is black-and-white,” she said. “Even if you’re my friend, this is what the code says.”
To get her plum job, Angie had to resign her employment position at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching and her elected position on the Hyde County Board of Education. She had been a member of the board since 2016 and was the chair since January 2022.
“That hurt my heart and it still hurts my heart,” she said about giving up the school-board seat, “but in the end it was the right decision for me.”
Angie also has been the director of the Scallywag 5K/10K/half-marathon (April 27 and 28) and the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot (Nov. 28), and she will continue in those roles.
