Judge suspends Cline as Durham district attorney (Nifong Redux)

A judge today suspended Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline from her elected office, ruling that there is probable cause that Cline should be removed permanently.

Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County set a hearing for Feb. 13 in which Cline will have a chance to defend her numerous court filings made over the past three months in a high-profile attack on Orlando Hudson, the senior judge in Durham.

Hobgood was not required to suspend Cline before a hearing, but had the option under state law.

Cline has been under scrutiny for her ongoing allegations against Hudson, allegations that two other judges have dismissed. A third judge issued an "admonition" to her over motions she presented with false information, warning her to be accurate in court filings.

Cline has sought to remove Hudson from all criminal cases in Durham, alleging that his conduct encompasses "moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption." Cline has said his rulings have "raped" victims and that he has turned Durham County's judicial district into a monarchy.

In one motion, Cline wrote that Hudson has acted in an abuse of power that is "without legal consciousness of right and wrong, having a total and reckless disregard of the law, and a reprobate mind of a monarch, (that) aims to destroy and will destroy, the heart of our justice system if left unchecked."

Cline claims Hudson has been retaliating against her with the dismissal of two murder charges after Cline refused to dismiss a case in late 2010. Cline says Hudson privately encouraged her to drop a murder case and she refused. She says Hudson's rulings since have been designed to foster "media mayhem" against her.

Lawyers in Durham and legal scholars have attacked Cline's filings as unprecedented. One, lawyer Kerry Sutton, filed an affidavit that invoked a rare state law, requiring a judge to determine if Cline's actions are grounds for removal. Hobgood was appointed to handle it, and he began reading files in the case Thursday.

The affidavit by Sutton says that Cline's attacks, and that her court filings with false information in them, are "conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute," a standard that requires the DA to be removed under state law. In his order, Hobgood agreed.

Sutton, who has been present in the courtroom with clients as Cline's filings were considered and is a likely witness in a hearing, wrote in the affidavit that Cline's conduct has brought Durham's courts into "widespread disrepute."

Editorial from local newapaper few weeks ago:

“At The news& Observer, we’re accustomed to having folks saying unpleasant things about us. Most of the time, we just smile, let it pass. Occasionally, we have to admit that the caller or letter writer is correct.

We try to draw the line when someone falsely accuses us of illegal behavior.
That’s what Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline has done, repeatedly, in her legal battle against Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson. In her most recent court filing, Cline again says, in a sworn affidavit, that reporter Andrew Curliss was held in contempt of court in Durham in 1998.

In her affidavit, trying to disqualify Hudson from hearing a criminal case, Cline assembles her version of what happened to Curliss after his jailhouse interview with Derrick Allen in 1998:

“By this time, I knew that this reporter and the Raleigh News and Observer had a vested interest in the Allen case; in that in 1998 Curliss was held in Contempt of Court for refusing to follow a Court Order to provide the notes of an interview with Allen.”

Let me say this as simply as I can: That is false. Not true. Didn’t happen.

Here’s what did happen: Curliss interviewed Allen, who was in jail after being accused of sexual assault and murder of a 2-year-old girl. He wrote a story about it. Durham prosecutors were interested in anything else Allen said, and they subpoenaed Curliss’ notes
.
The N&O did resist this subpoena. But we ended up submitting the notes for Hudson to review. Hudson ordered the notes turned over, but stayed his order while we appealed. Curliss was never called to testify, and he was not cited for contempt. Not in this case, not in any other case.

We have tried to point this out in news stories, but Cline doesn’t seem to be getting the message. So today, I mailed (and e-mailed) a letter to her. It simply asks her to correct the court record and stop saying what isn’t true.
Cline is angry that Hudson has dismissed charges against several high-profile defendants in Durham, some of them because of prosecutorial misconduct. Cline believes, incorrectly, that we have somehow conspired against her with Hudson and defense lawyers to compile our stories that have shown that she has withheld exculpatory evidence from defendants and made repeated misstatements in court. Now, while complaining about our work and Hudson’s, she has made another one.

Since this misstatement involves us, we’d like to set the record straight. We trust that Ms Cline will, too.

—Steve Riley, Senior Editor/Investigations

One can almost hear the way she was encouraged to go through school. Girl power, black power, you can do it, you are special and who knows what else. But no one had the adult skills to sit her down and give her a reality check on her communications skills. So she passed along with relative ease until she was put into a position wherein she crashed and now she is shocked. This shouldn't be happening to her. She was so special. How dare anyone question her judgement now if it wasn't questioned before? Her anger at the judge who dismissed cases is jaw dropping.

This person is just the tip of the Affirmative Action class that performs poorly and mucks up whatever system unlucky enough to have had to hire them.

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