cliddy@newsobserver.com
Suspended Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline smiles as her hearing goes into recess until Friday after one day of testimony. The civil hearing began at the Durham County Courthouse Monday, Feb. 20, 2012, and will decide if Cline will be removed from office.
DURHAM -- Tracey Cline swallowed criticism of her judgment and credibility Monday after a handful of veteran attorneys took the stand to say she is unfit to remain in her post as Durham County District Attorney.
A trial consultant, David Ball, said that Cline's recent behavior would lead juries to disregard what she or her office says.
"If you don’t have confidence in the person presenting the law to the jury, ... justice becomes a crap shoot," said Ball, a Durham resident who advises lawyers on jury behavior.
Durham lawyer Kerry Sutton initiated efforts to remove Cline earlier this year, invoking a rare statute used to remove district attorneys if their behavior is "prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute." The inquiry is a rare proceeding that has only once led to the removal of a district attorney.
Cline, who was elected district attorney in 2008, has been under fire for weeks as she took aim at chief Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, saying that he is biased against her. Cline has tried and failed twice to remove Hudson from criminal cases in Durham; she has attacked Hudson, saying he has the "reprobate mind of a monarch."
The inquiry is now adjourned until Friday, when Cline's lawyers, a trio headed by James Van Camp of Pinehurst, will begin presenting evidence in her defense.
Ball, the trial and jury consultant, said that judges' reputations are already so fragile that half of all jurors are inclined to apply laws of their own design instead of heeding a judge's instruction. When a judge falls under attack, like Hudson has with Cline's recent motions, his reputation is even more vulnerable and will lead to even more jurors asserting their own authority, rather than the directions they've gotten from court officials.
Cline's lawyers offered few hints of their strategy Monday, mostly listening quietly as Sutton ticked through passages of court filings she said is inflammatory and inappropriate. They contested efforts to allow witnesses to say whether they thought the District Attorney's reputation was damaged.
Other veteran attorneys testified Monday about the impact of Cline's recent behavior.
Thomas Maher, a veteran criminal defense lawyer who heads the state's Office of Indigent Defense, testified this morning that he had serious doubts about Cline's ability to administer justice in Durham.
"It is has raised very inflammatory accusations about how justice is administered in this county without to my knowledge without any factual support," said Maher.
Staples Hughes, head of the appellate defender's office in North Carolina, agreed, saying that he did not trust Cline's judgment to prosecute cases in Durham.
"I’ve just never even heard anything like that," Hughes said. "It is regarded that she’s simply, for whatever reason, completely out of control."
For much of the morning, Hughes, speaking slowly and deeply, read excerpts of inflammatory language Cline included in motions she filed to try to remove Chief Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson from her cases, saying he is biased against her and had conspired with others to ruin her reputation.
Cline, the daughter of two pastors, is known to be a fierce and impassioned prosecutor. She began her career in the same office Hughes began his: representing poor defendants in Fayetteville. She became a prosecutor in 1993 and has spent nearly all of the last two decades prosecuting defendants charged with serious and vile offenses, largely sexual assault.
Cline's attacks, which Sutton highlighted on a projector in the courtroom, offers a stark difference to the restrained and often sober language used in legal documents filed in cases. Her motions are filled with words such as "cowardly," "callous misconduct" and "selfish satisfaction."
Hobgood ruled that he would allow witnesses to offer their assessment of Cline's reputation and credibility in light of events in recent months.
Cline's attorney, James Van Camp, objected to any sort of opinion, saying that the judge is the only one equipped to make a determination as to the appropriateness of Cline's filings.
Hobgood also allowed Sutton, despite Van Camp's objections, to submit copies of News & Observer articles to the judge in order to show how thoroughly Cline's actions have been covered in the paper.
Van Camp asked few questions of witnesses today but said he may call them to court Friday.
Despite efforts to delay the hearing last week, Cline faces a superior court judge this week with the power to undo voters' will when they elected Cline as Durham County District Attorney in 2008. She will begin presenting evidence in her defense on Friday.
Hobgood said last week that Cline's court filings regarding Hudson will be the center of his inquiry as to whether she can remain in office.
