Suspended Durham DA Cline's hearing set for Monday

DURHAM -- Tracey Cline's request for a second delay was denied Friday, and a judge told her to be ready Monday for the start of hearings to determine whether she will be removed from her elected position as Durham County district attorney.

Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County is presiding over a special inquiry to decide whether Cline should lose her job because of sharply critical statements she has made about Orlando Hudson, Durham County's chief resident Superior Court judge.

Hobgood suspended Cline from office in January in response to a petition filed by Kerry Sutton, a Durham lawyer, under a rarely used state law. Sutton accused Cline of behavior "prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into dispute." Now Hobgood must decide whether to remove Cline permanently.

Cline quiet at hearing

Cline did not speak in the hearing Friday afternoon as she sat with her new attorney, Jim Van Camp of Pinehurst, and two lawyers with his firm. Van Camp said Cline hired him to represent her Wednesday, and he asked Hobgood for more time to prepare her defense. He said he would file motions in the case by 5 p.m. Tuesday. He asked Hobgood to postpone the first hearing until March 3.

Hobgood had granted Cline a one-week postponement last Monday after she told him she was recovering from pneumonia and had been unable to find representation from a lawyer who was not entangled in conflicts involving cases handled by the district attorney's office. Sutton asked Hobgood not to delay the case any longer.

"This matter has been on the table for quite a while," Sutton said. "And to put all the people involved in it on further delay because Ms. Cline says she hasn't had the opportunity to make phone calls, I believe that's disingenuous."

Hobgood denied the motion to postpone the case further and said he would begin hearing Sutton's evidence at 10 a.m. Monday. He told Van Camp to be prepared to start presenting Cline's side next Friday.

Subpoenas canceled

Cline, a Democrat, was first elected in 2008, and she was re-elected without opposition in 2010. In a series of court filings, she has accused Hudson of being prejudiced against her. She has sought unsuccessfully, twice, to have him removed from hearing criminal cases in Durham County.

In one filing, Cline said Hudson "abused" his power "without legal consciousness of right and wrong, having a total and reckless disregard of the law, and a reprobate mind of a monarch."

Cline alleged that Hudson conspired against her with a reporter and editors from The News & Observer. The N&O reported in a series of stories last year that Cline had withheld exculpatory evidence from criminal defendants and had made misstatements in court.

Van Camp told an attorney for The N&O, Hugh Stevens of Raleigh, and then told Hobgood on Friday that he had canceled Cline's subpoenas seeking the testimony of three N&O journalists, and seeking emails from Hudson. He said he could not rule out issuing other subpoenas later.

"For the record, I say we are releasing all those subpoenas as of today," Van Camp told Hobgood. "So there should be no outstanding subpoenas until we decide as we go forward."

John Drescher, executive editor of The N&O, welcomed Van Camp's decision not to seek testimony from the journalists.

"There wasn't any need for any of us to testify," Drescher said in an interview. "Our work is in print for the whole world to see. We don't have anything to add beyond what we publish in the newspaper."

Hobgood said the case will focus narrowly on statements Cline has made about Hudson in written motions and in courtroom statements.

"That's the relevant evidence," Hobgood said. "That's the inquiry the court will make: those statements directed toward Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson."