CAMDEN — Meet the judges on Sunday at a campaign event at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Camden County Library — Anita Earls, Senior Associate Justice NC Supreme Court; Toby Hampson and John Arrowood, both judges with the NC Court of Appeals; Eula Reid, Superior Court Judge for District 1; Jenny Wells, District Court Judge for District 1.
Free and open to the public, the event is hosted by the Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank and Perquimans Democrats.
About the Judges
Anita Earls is an Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Before taking office on January 1, 2019, she was a civil rights attorney litigating voting rights and other civil rights cases for 30 years. Anita was the founder and Executive Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a non-profit legal advocacy organization in Durham, North Carolina. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and Williams College, Anita lives in Durham with her husband Charles Walton. She has two grown sons and two grandchildren.
Court of Appeals Judge Tobias (Toby) Hampson was born in Basingstoke, England in 1975. He spent much of his youth growing up in Moore County, NC, where he attended Sandhills Farm Life Elementary in Carthage and Union Pines High School in Cameron, NC. He is a 1994 graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. He earned his B.A. degree from American University in International Studies and History in 1998. He graduated from the Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in 2002 with honors where he was inducted into the Order of Barristers and was a member of the Law Review. Judge Hampson currently serves on Campbell Law’s Board of Visitors.
Hampson was elected to the Court of Appeals in 2018. Prior to joining the Court in January 2019, Hampson was a partner at the Raleigh firm of Wyrick, Robbins, Yates & Ponton where he led the firm’s Appellate Practice group. He began his career at the North Carolina Court of Appeals clerking for Judges K. Edward Greene, Wanda Bryant and Bob C. Hunter. Hampson entered private practice with the Raleigh law firm of Patterson Dilthey focusing on trial and appellate litigation before joining Wyrick in 2007. He is a North Carolina State Bar certified specialist in Appellate Practice and serves on the North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Rules Committee. Hampson lives in Raleigh with his wife Kristin, a practicing lawyer, and their three daughters. The Hampsons are active members of Windborne United Methodist Church.
Judge John Arrowood currently serves as judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals in Raleigh. He was born in Burnsville, North Carolina a son of the late Francis John and Margie Towe Arrowood. He lived in Yancey County until his parents’ death when he was fifteen (15) years of age. Following their death, during high school, college and law school he resided with his brother and sister-in-law Jerry and Margie W. Arrowood in Lenoir North Carolina. Judge Arrowood currently resides in Charlotte where he is an active member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. At St. Peter’s he has served as the Chair of Outreach Grants’ Commission, as a Member of the Vestry, a Delegate to the Diocesan Convention and was the Chancellor for the Parish until his appointment to the Court of Appeals. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill with a law degree in 1982 and Catawba College in 1979.
Judge Eula Reid is Superior Court for Judicial District 1, serving Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Pasquotank, and Perquimans Counties. From 2021-2022, she served as a Superior Court Judge and was a District Court Judge for the 14 years prior to that. Reid was first elected judge to 1st District Court in 2006. She is believed to be the first woman to serve as a Superior Court judge in the district and only the second African-American woman to serve as a judge in the district. Reid received her bachelor’s from Elizabeth City State University, before earning her Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University School of Law.
Judge Jennifer Wells was appointed by the governor Josh Stein in May 2021 as District Court for the First Judicial District, serving Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Pasquotank, and Perquimans Counties. Prior to her appointment, Judge Wells has worked as an assistant public defender for the First Judicial District. According to Wells’ linkedin profile, she’s represented indigent clients charged with misdemeanors and negotiated plea deals on behalf of clients. During Wells’ second year of law school at Campbell University, she was an intern for the Southern Coalition of Social Justice. Wells was an intern in the Wake County Public Defender’s Office also serving an internship with the state Supreme Court as well as the NC Department of Justice. Judge Wells received her B.A. from Tulane University in 2006 and her law degree from Campbell University School of Law in 2012.
