DURHAM - District Court Judge Craig Brown tendered his resignation from the bench last week, a surprise move that could cause delays in several special court programs.

Brown, a district judge for 11 years, was criticized in March for pointed comments he made about gang violence after a first-appearance hearing for the teenager charged with killing the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president and a Duke University graduate student.

"I'm sending an SOS to Raleigh," Brown said while the suspect, Laurence Alvin Lovette, was still in the small jail courtroom. "I expect them to hear it."

Lovette, 17, is accused of killing Eve Carson, the UNC-CH student leader found dead in March, and Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University graduate student found shot between the eyes in January.

Karen Bethea-Shields, the Durham lawyer representing Lovette, has said in court documents and in open court that such comments could prejudice potential jurors and make it difficult for the teen to get a fair trial.

Police have not said that Lovette was a member of a gang or that the deaths of the students were gang-related.

It was unclear Monday why Brown decided to step down when he did.

Neither Brown nor his wife, Catherine Constantinou, also a lawyer in Durham, could be reached for comment.

Paul Ross, executive director of the state Judicial Standards Commission, said there were no disciplinary proceedings pending against Brown.

The commission reviews misconduct complaints against judges and decides whether to take any disciplinary actions.

Elaine Bushfan, chief district court judge in Durham, declined to comment on Brown's announcement to her Friday that he was resigning that afternoon.

Neither the governor's office nor the Administrative Office of the Courts had received correspondence from Brown.

Brown, who received his undergraduate and law degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill, was appointed to the bench in 1996. He won election in in 1998, 2002 and 2006. He presided over Durham's Adult Drug Treatment Court and the New Life Court special programs.

Brown stepped down midway through his term. Typically in such a situation, the local Durham Bar will come together and develop a short list of candidates for the governor to consider.

Brown has been the focus of several complaints. Last September, he angered the mother of a boy involved in an international custody dispute.

Claiming that Brown had ruled before all the evidence had been presented, the woman filed a complaint with the state Judicial Standards Commission saying Brown put her 11-year-old son at risk with his finding that it was safe for the boy to travel to Colombia to visit his father.

In September 2005, Brown was criticized for awarding a public defender to a man who had two cars, a healthy bank account and a $250,000 house.