Judge and former AOC administrator to review Cline removal claim

By J. Andrew Curliss, staff writer

The senior judge for a four-county district northeast of Durham has been assigned to oversee an effort to possibly remove Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline from her elected office.

Robert H. Hobgood, who served in 2001 as director of the administrative office of the state court system, will take over the matter, according to an order from the senior judge in Durham, Orlando Hudson.

Hudson has been accused of a wide range of misconduct by Cline over the past three months in more than 600 pages of court filings. Two judges have rejected Cline's efforts to remove Hudson from hearing criminal cases in Durham, saying her effort was not based in the law and had not provided a factual basis for removing Hudson.

Cline claims Hudson has been retaliating against her with court decisions and actions after she refused to dismiss a murder case in late 2010, using harsh language and including information in allegations that is false.

Last week, a Durham lawyer filed an affidavit under a rarely used state law that requires a judge to determine whether Cline should be removed from office. That lawyer, Kerry Sutton, wrote that Cline's actions have been prejudicial to the administration of justice and brought the courts into "widespread disrepute," a standard in state law that requires the DA to be removed.

Separately, the state agency that regulates and disciplines lawyers has been requesting motions filed by Cline.

The state law sets a deadline for an initial decision of 30 days. A hearing could be scheduled after that. The law typically requires the senior judge in the county to review the matter, in this case Hudson. But it also allows for him to assign it elsewhere.

Hudson, in referring the issue to Hobgood, wrote that "it is appropriate and in the best interests of justice" for another judge to consider it.

Hobgood could not be reached.

Hobgood is the senior judge for a district that includes Franklin, Granville, Vance and Warren counties. Those four counties are north and east of Durham and Wake counties, stretching to the Virginia border.

He has been a judge since 1980 and lives in Franklin County, according to a court biography. He previously served in the state House of Representatives.

Hobgood has handled some sticky cases in recent years. In 2009, he ruled that neither the legislature nor the State Board of Education can deprive the elected superintendent of authority to be chief administrative officer of the board without a constitutional amendment, a setback for Gov. Bev Perdue, who had championed her own appointee as being in charge of schools.

In 2010, he changed a death sentence for convicted murderer George Goode to back-to-back life sentences amid questions about the state crime lab's work on the case. Hobgood's ruling was seen as a victory for the state and a setback for Goode, who wanted more leniency.

In 2008, Hobgood held up a murder trial and criticized Raleigh police for producing evidence late in the case that should have been shared with the defendant.

In 2004, Hobgood ruled on a closely watched case that phone cards being sold in convenience stores were not a lottery, telling state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents to stop treating the sale of such cards as an illegal lottery.

In late 2003, Hobgood was part of rulings that settled long-fought battles over legislative redistricting after then-chief justice I. Beverly Lake took the redistricting case away from a Johnston County judge and assigned it to Hobgood.

It was Lake who appointed Hobgood to run the state courts system in 2001.

Hobgood was first appointed as a judge in 1980 by Gov. Jim Hunt.

Hobgood followed his father, Hamilton, a well-known and widely respected judge for his handling of the racially charged Joan Little murder trial in 1975. The case led to death threats and a bodyguard for Hamilton Hobgood and caused the family to lock its doors at home for the first time in memory, according to an account in the New York Times.