From Staff Reports

The wife of Asheville Police Chief David Zack made her first appearance in Buncombe County court on Dec. 5 — about a month after being charged with misdemeanor driving while impaired, the Asheville Citizen Times reported on Dec. 6. 

“When her name was announced during the day’s calendar call, Mary Clarissa Hyatt-Zack, 44, stood and indicated that she has hired attorney Jim Rice to represent her, in accordance with court procedures,” the ACT noted. “District Court Judge Julie Kepple asked Hyatt-Zack to step forward to the bar, or the partition separating the sitting area from the rest of the courtroom.

“‘Your attorney may have already made you aware, but I have to inform you as district court judge that worst-case scenario with driving while impaired is three years’ for sentencing,’ Kepple told Hyatt-Zack, adding that this depends on the facts and circumstances of the case,” the ACT reported.

At that point, Kepple set Hyatt-Zack’s next court date for Feb. 22, according to court proceedings, the ACT added.

“To ‘avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest,’ a traffic resource prosecutor from the Conference of District Attorneys, approved by the Administrative Office of the Courts, will handle Hyatt-Zack’s case, District Attorney Todd Williams previously told the Citizen Times,” the ACT stated in its story on the court case.