Columbus County has agreed to pay lawyer fees for The Assembly and Border Belt Independent, after a judge ruled that the county had failed to comply with North Carolina’s public records laws.
The county had appealed Superior Court Judge Quintin McGee’s order in December that the county pay $74,557 to cover the cost of lawyers representing the news organizations. That fee award reflected the judge’s determination that The Assembly and Border Belt Independent had substantially prevailed in their suit against Columbus County.
But the county submitted a notice of withdrawal of its appeal on Tuesday, a day after county commissioners voted to do so.
County Attorney Amanda Prince said Wednesday that officials dismissed the appeal “to avoid further legal fees and costs that would be spent in the event of continued appellate litigation.”
“Pursuing the appeal could lead to additional years-long litigation, even if the County eventually obtains a favorable result,” Prince said in an email.
The county owed nearly $58,000 in mid-May to its own outside attorneys from Womble Bond Dickson, according to invoices Prince provided in response to a recent public records request from The Assembly and Border Belt Independent.
The news organizations sued the county in 2024, after two years of trying to access public records related to alleged misconduct by former sheriff Jody Greene and some of his deputies. Among the requests were communications between sheriff’s employees and county leaders.
Many of the requests were delayed or ignored, although the state’s public records law requires government agencies to respond “as promptly as possible.”
Lawyers for the news organizations–Bradley Kutrow and Joie Johnston from McGuireWoods and Beth Soja from Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press–argued that the requested information was public under state law.
McGee agreed, ruling in the news organizations’ favor three times in 2025.
The lawyers worked on our case in a pro bono capacity but spent more than 350 hours on the case as of early this year. State law allows people seeking release of public records to collect attorney fees from the other party if they substantially prevail in court.
While McGee found that the lawyers’ rates and invoices were reasonable, he reduced the fee to $74,557 from the $149,000 that the news organizations requested. State law allows judges to adjust fees in their discretion.
Prince said the fee adjustment represented “a key victory” for the county.
Dismissing the appeal, she said, “will allow the County to shift its focus to other matters of importance to its residents.”
Public records The Assembly and Border Belt Independent obtained revealed that federal investigators sent a subpoena to the sheriff’s office in late 2023 demanding information about its finances. Investigators included a list of 51 businesses and individuals they wanted to scrutinize further. The information likely would not have been publicly known otherwise.
“I hope this outcome serves as a reminder to government officials that our state laws regarding records are not optional; they exist to provide both journalists and citizens access to public information they might prefer to keep hidden,” said Kate Sheppard, The Assembly’s executive editor. “We were lucky to have lawyers on our side who could argue our case, which many newsrooms do not.”