A former client has sued Martin Moore, Buncombe County’s district attorney-elect and current vice chair of the county’s board of commissioners.
Joseph Wayne Riddle, in documents filedWednesday, Oct. 14 with the Buncombe County Superior Court, accused Moore of negligence and legal malpractice when representing him in a case before the N.C. Court of Appeals. (The lawsuit also names Glenn Gerding, head of North Carolina’s Office of the Appellate Defender, alleging that Gerding did not provide sufficient oversight of Moore’s work.)
The suit resurfaces allegations, first reported by the Citizen Times in March, that Moore neglected to file timely documents in a number of appellate cases. Those late filings allegedly put several of Moore’s clients, including
Riddle, at risk of having their appeals dismissed before they could be heard in court.
Riddle submitted a handwritten filing on his own behalf from the Scotland County prison where he is currently incarcerated. The document claims that, after Moore missed multiple deadlines in Riddle’s appeal of drug-related convictions in Yancey County, the attorney pushed Riddle to drop the case against his will.
Over the course of 20 months in prison awaiting appeal, Riddle continued, he developed depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, for which he was assigned to a mental health unit and began taking medication. He’s seeking up to $5 million in damages for “loss of wages and (cognizable) psychological pain, pain and suffering.”
In support of his suit, Riddle included a letter from Jane Allen, deputy appellate defender, in which she confirmed that she’d filed a formal complaint against Moore with the N.C. State Bar. Allen did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment. The state bar did not immediately respond to an email request seeking an update on the status of the complaint.
Moore did not immediately respond to phone calls or messages left with three different numbers associated with him or his district attorney campaign. In March, he told the Citizen Times that he could not fully answer questions about Riddle’s case and other appellate cases unless his former clients waived attorney-client privilege.
“I am proud of the pro bono work that I have done for my post-conviction/appellate clients and believe all such work is vital to ensuring equal justice under the law," Moore wrote in a March 19 statement.
Moore has 30 days to file a response to Riddle’s suit with the Buncombe Superior Court.
This story will be updated.
Daniel Walton is the City Government Watchdog Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at dwalton@citizentimes.com, and connect with him on social media through Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Former client sues Buncombe DA-elect Martin Moore
