Durham lawyer C. Scott Holmes is seeking help from a range of people across Durham's judicial system for an effort to remove Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline from office.
Citing recent court filings by Cline, Holmes wrote in a new post at his law firm's blog that the Durham courts "cannot function if our top prosecutor is accusing our top judge of being a 'monarch' with 'blood on his hands,' 'relentlessly and repeatedly raping victims.'"
Holmes wrote that many hard-working police officers, judges, prosecutors, defenders and others are "already growing the seeds of a new and better justice system for Durham."
"We need to prune the tree at the top so these seeds can grow," Holmes wrote. "I am strongly considering trying to help a group of citizens and attorneys draft and file a removal action. I believe to succeed such a removal petition should clearly represent the will of the community and voice a vote of no confidence in Tracey's leadership in office."
He asks supporters of the effort to contact him, and said he had already heard "a lot of support" since first making public the possible removal efforts this week.
Holmes was involved in the removal of former public defender Robert Brown over sexual misconduct allegations in 2005. He is a veteran defense lawyer who handles a range of criminal cases, including death penalty murder charges. State law allows for the removal of a district attorney by a petition to the senior judge in the county on several grounds, among them "willful misconduct in office" and performance "prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute." The law is G.S. 7a-66.
Cline has been under fire this year over a range of issues involving her conduct in the courts. Most recently, on Wednesday, a judge issued a "public admonition" warning Cline to tell the truth in court documents after finding that she had not done so in motions by her that sought confiedential documents about prison inmates who have challenged her work.
The issues with Cline escalated last month after she filed motions that attacked the senior judge in the county, Orlando Hudson, and sought to have him removed from all criminal cases in Durham. An Orange County judge dismissed her effort.
In the lengthy blog post, Holmes wrote that he has been researching what Cline has done and believes "the prognosis is not good for her future as an attorney." Some statements she has made against Hudson, Holmes wrote, are deserving of at least a temporary suspension of her law license.
Cline has denied any wrongdoing in the cases she has handled. Holmes told the News & Observer that he gave Cline a preview of his blog post before he made it public, but did not hear back.
-- J. Andrew Curliss
J. Andrew Curliss covered state and local politics and government for The News & Observer for more than a decade before joining the investigative team in December 2008.
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