By Associated Press - Thursday, March 20, 2014

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The longtime top prosecutor in the county surrounding North Carolina’s state capital is leaving office several months before his term was to expire.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby already had announced in January he wouldn’t seek re-election in November. Willoughby told Gov. Pat McCrory’s office Thursday that he was stepping down March 31. He’s joining the Raleigh office of the McGuireWoods law firm on May 1, the firm announced.

Willoughby was first elected district attorney in 1986 after being appointed briefly to the post in 1983. The Wake County DA may be the most high-profile local prosecutor in the state because the job handles government corruption cases. The Democrat was involved in the prosecution of former state House Speaker Jim Black and ex-Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps.

“Colon Willoughby’s career was marked by integrity, high ethical standards and an unbroken trust given to him by the people of Wake County,” McCrory said in a news release. “He was an important voice against white-collar crime and government corruption and the people of North Carolina are indebted to him for his exemplary public service.”

McCrory, a Republican, is expected to appoint someone to fill out Willoughby’s term through the end of the year. Four Republicans and two Democrats are running for the next four-year term for DA.

The governor said he’s accepted Willoughby’s offer of advice on the appointment.

“Your selection of a district attorney to manage this office during the election cycle could demonstrate your sensitivity for keeping partisan politics out of the Wake County criminal justice system,” Willoughby wrote in his retirement letter to McCrory.

Willoughby, 63, a Campbell University law school graduate, will join McGuireWoods’ government regulatory and criminal investigations practice.

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