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Suspended Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline argues the request to subpoena News & Observer employees as she prepares to defend herself. The hearing was rescheduled for next Monday shortly after this as Cline 's voice was deemed not strong enough to continue by the judge. Cline, the suspended Durham District Attorney is appearing today for the beginning of a special inquiry that could cost her the elected position she has held since 2009.
DURHAM -- Suspended Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline has secured a week's delay in a hearing on whether she should be removed from her post.
Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood agreed this morning not to begin hearing evidence against Cline until next Monday, Feb. 20. Cline will then present evidence in her defense Feb. 24.
Hobgood, after granting the delay, began hearing motions regarding witnesses who had been summoned for the hearing, but then adjourned the proceedings altogether because Cline is ill. "I'm concerned that Ms. Cline is not able to project her voice," he said.
The purpose of the overall inquiry, ordered by Hobgood, is to decide whether Cline's behavior has been "prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute." The effort to remove Cline is led by Durham attorney Kerry Sutton.
Cline had begged last Thursday for a delay, saying that she was too physically ill to proceed and had been unable to hire a lawyer to represent her.
As the judge stepped onto the bench today, Cline was nowhere to be seen. She walked into court a few moments later, saying "good morning" in a hoarse voice. She then struggled to speak, her voice strained as she recovers from pneumonia.
Lawyers and reporters packed the courtroom. Cline had summoned to the hearing a number of attorneys and court officials, who had hired lawyers to block any requirement to testify in the inquiry.
Cline began arguing that a reporter and editors from The News & Observer ought to be forced to testify, in response to motions to quash orders for them to appear. She argued that a reporter who wrote an N&O series last September, "Twisted Truth," about her handling of several cases, had acquired information from documents that were sealed.
Hobgood, after hearing some of the arguments, adjourned the proceedings because of Cline's illness.
Cline has been district attorney in Durham County since 2009, and was unopposed in a 2010 election. Hobgood has Cline's career in his hands and could undo the voters' will.
When Cline asked for the delay in the hearing, she said she was not prepared and is not "physically at my best." She said in court this morning that she was diagnosed with pneumonia last week and had been unable to hire an attorney who didn't have a conflict in the case.
"I don't want to be one of those lawyers who represents myself," Cline said, "because of the emotional and mental aspects of the case."
Sutton, the attorney leading the effort to remove Cline, had asked that they move forward with her evidence today.
