Stories from Attorneys

Treasure Hunt
Stories from Attorneys
By: Sarah Merriman

Walking into the High Point Court, you are greeted by a security scanner, metal detector, and and three to five personnel ready to make sure you pose no threat to the court. Large hallways with directory signs strategically placed, easily direct you to your destination.

The second floor of the building houses the clerk of courts office, the estates office, the adult probation and parole office, and the public defender’s office among many others.

In room 277, the lights are flickering, the counter is aging, and plastic chairs sit on top of dirty tiling making the room seem less than welcoming. It resembles a dilapidated bank. There is a line of individuals and each teller, or in this case, deputy clerk, is busy assisting a person. A large sign is displayed in the center with one arrow pointing to the left reads tickets, fines, and criminal and an arrow pointing to the right reads child support.

Across from the clerk of courts office is the public defender. Nobody is in however, and there is no bell to ring. A jar of pens is marked with a note that reads, “Please return the pens, if you do not you will be reported,” makes one aware that this office notices the details.

On the other side of the second floor is the adult probation and parole office. The room has a fake tree in the corner and slightly nicer seating with a rectangular window allowing daylight to beam in. A door reads that you must be escorted by law officials to pass through.

There are two older women behind the glass of the adult probation and parole office. They are jubilant and direct a group of journalism students to the estates office saying that perhaps they will have some luck there.

The estates office is beautiful. Carpet covers the floor as pictures and flowers decorate the walls and couch-side table tops. Accent lighting completes the look. A man with a long white beard and glasses enters, holding a leather suitcase.

The woman behind the estates desk, Janice, tells the students that the man is Mr. Clarence Mattocks and he will surely help them on their quest to find a story. Janice has worked in the High Point Court district since June 2008 and before that, she worked in the Greensboro sector.

Mr. Mattocks studied law at the Carolina School of Law and has been a lawyer since 1974. Describing himself as a, “Sheltered child”, Mr. Mattocks shares that his father practiced law in High Point.

Mattocks tells the students that his worst story consisted of two parents already under social service’s watch. The parents neglected their child to the point of death when the child apparently suffered a breathing restriction and by the time the father called 9-1-1, it was too late. One parent then testified against the other and both served jail time and one is still currently serving jail time.

Mattocks adds that most of the physical abuse cases he sees are not the, “Beaten to a pulp” type but generally seem to stem more from neglect, drug use, alcohol use, and abandonment.

He says that,” When you have a case that doesn’t have those particular issues in it, you think there’s a good chance this child can come back home, they just need some assistance in getting some things in line. “

Mattocks describes his work as “stressful and hard”, as he goes into another story that clearly reminds him of this. He says that he just had a case with a “cute 22 year-old-girl with severe mental health issues.”

The girl changed her story all the time so her, “Credibility was totally shot,” and she wouldn’t stay on her medications or follow directions. Mattocks could never tell why she acted like this but had an array of guesses based on her past ranging from an abused childhood, neglected adulthood, to having her children taken away, and her family turning against her.

He says, “If any one of those situations was turned around, it would make things generally better” but adds that,” You can never really know.”

However, some things are for sure, for example, once parental rights are terminated they can never be regained in the state of North Carolina. Mattocks shares that one of his earlier cases that occurred in 1996 involved a girl he had taken away from her father when she was just 6 years old. Two weeks ago she turned 18 and two days later Mattocks says the father showed up in his office wanting to locate her.

In the state of North Carolina this is illegal but there is federal law that allows children, once they turn 18 to search for their parents. This child did not.

Of course, there are funny stories in court as well and Mattocks did not shy away from telling one of his most memorable. “I once had an alimony trial…with a jury before a judge. I was representing the man and a fella from Winston was representing the woman, and our allegations were that she was carousing and going out all the time and they were having all this stuff at home and her allegations were the same about him. At the first break, after we seated the jury and heard testimony, the judge called both attorneys up to the bench and informed us that there may be a problem. Apparently one of the jurors told the judge that the woman had tried to pick him up at the Holiday Inn Friday night.”

Into the law lounge, where the students are seated, walks attorney Amy Bullock, she shares that she used to do criminal law but now is more involved in child and family law.

She says she cannot relate to specific cases but makes a point to clear up some myths. She shares that most people relate foster care with negative feelings and people view it as placing children with strangers but in reality, Bullock says, “A lot of children are in foster care with relatives; relative placement.”

Bullock also shares her concern with a growing problem that in her opinion is unique to Guilford County. “Underage females that are in foster care have a higher rate of pregnancy here so we do see fourteen and fifteen-year-olds that have babies while they are in foster care. “

On a lighter note, Bullock recalls one of her most memorable and humorous stories for the students.

“My funniest case was just a lapse in communication. It was a child support case. The child support agent was trying to say that my guy intentionally didn’t go to work and got himself fired. What happened was he placed a call to the restaurant that he worked at and it got relayed back to the child support agent that he didn’t come into work because he had ‘constipation.’ I asked him about this and he looked at me like I was crazy but then cracked up and said, ‘No, I had incarceration.’

As the group of students emerges from the High Point Court, satisfied with the stories written in their notebooks and recorded in their minds, a friendly Mr.Mattocks waves them goodbye and shouts a money-saving tip, “If you wait five more minutes, they will pull the parking garage gate up so you won’t have to pay!”