District Attorney Jeff Cruden faces a defamation lawsuit filed last month in Pasquotank County for statements he made in memos regarding an alleged sexual assault case.
Melissa Nicholson, the plaintiff, claims in the lawsuit that Cruden made defamatory statements in August 2025 regarding a 2020 Dare County sexual assault case that she reported in January 2021. In an email to his assistant, which he then instructed to be forwarded to other individuals, Cruden made statements about Nicholson and her case that she claims were intended to discredit her as a witness, advocate and sexual assault survivor, according to her complaint.
Nicholson previously distributed flyers advocating for victims of sexual assault and explicitly named Cruden, accusing him of mishandling her case, according to the complaint.
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According to the lawsuit, Cruden claimed in the 2025 memos that Nicholson’s allegations of sexual assault by her now ex-husband, Christopher Nicholson, only surfaced after their divorce was finalized and full custody of their children was granted to Christopher. But according to the complaint, Nicholson reported the assault in 2021 well before either were finalized.
Nicholson is also challenging Cruden’s statement that her now ex-husband was interviewed as part of the initial investigation, claiming that he was only contacted just before August 2025 when the memos were released, according to the complaint.
Cruden was served with a civil summons on Feb. 27. As of Tuesday, no additional filings have been made in the case, according to court records.
Nicholson couldn’t be reached for comment, and Nicholson’s attorney, Towquir Aziz of the Raleigh-based Eldreth Law Firm, declined to comment on the case. Carolina Public Press also reached out to Cruden’s office for comment but had not received a response prior to publication.
The sexual assault referenced in the lawsuit allegedly occurred while the Virginia couple were still married and on vacation in Dare County, North Carolina, in summer 2020, according to the complaint.
Although the incident took place in June 2020, Nicholson delayed reporting the assault by her now ex-husband until January 2021 because she “didn’t feel safe reporting” until she could move out and “get away from him and his abuse,” according to emails between her and the Dare County Sheriff’s Office detective filed with the complaint.
Nicholson’s complaint says she was told by the detective that the district attorney couldn’t prosecute because she “did not say no” while the assault was happening. Nicholson told the detective she couldn’t say no because of “mental health issues” and because she was being held down during the assault, according to the complaint.
Nicholson’s decision to reach back out to the detective came after four years of therapy, researching North Carolina laws and working with a sexual assault advocacy organization since reporting the alleged assault, she says in the complaint. She had evidence from her medical records that amounted to “second degree forcible sexual offense” due to the alleged mental health conditions she was suffering from and that her husband was aware of at the time of the assault.
However, Cruden ultimately declined to prosecute again due to “lack of evidence,” though he didn’t meet Nicholson or review the evidence she had, according to the complaint.
After reading Cruden’s statement, Nicholson claims she started experiencing symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression that had previously been in remission, according to the complaint.
Nicholson had been experiencing abuse by her now ex-husband since returning home from mental health treatment in 2018, despite an agreement of no sexual contact made before her return home, according to the complaint.
Additional documents filed with the complaint include an emergency protective order for alleged abuse, issued in November 2020 after Nicholson left her ex-husband. A criminal complaint filed on the same day in November alleges that Nicholson’s ex-husband choked, strangled and assaulted her during sex.
Cruden, who is in his first term, was elected after defeating a Republican primary opponent in 2022 and did not face opposition in the General Election. He has filed to seek re-election this year and does not face any opposition. Cruden is a resident of Kill Devil Hills in Dare County and previously worked as an assistant district attorney in the same judicial district, which includes Dare, Pasquotank, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates and Perquimans counties.
A defamation lawsuit against a current district attorney is rare in North Carolina, according to Mike Tadych, lead counsel for the North Carolina Press Association and an attorney at the Raleigh law firm Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych. Even so, they do happen, he said.
Any time a public official is sued in their official capacity in North Carolina, they can assert a defense of sovereign immunity, Tadych said. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine establishing that a state or federal government cannot be sued without its consent, according to the Legal Information Institute.
This doctrine often protects public officials who are “acting under the color of state law,” Tadych said. Whether the courts would find that it applied in this lawsuit remains to be seen.
No dates had been set for any hearings in the case prior to publication of this article, according to court records.
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