NC judge resigns following state investigation of ‘undignified’ actions

A Guilford County District Court judge resigned last month following a state investigation into various actions of misconduct that lasted more than a year.

Judge Mark Cummings agreed to resign from office and never run for a North Carolina judicial office again. His resignation became effective just before midnight on Dec. 20 but was agreed upon months earlier as part of a resolution with the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission.

“I hope this unselfish example that I set here will be a model for others who see to work for something greater than themselves: a more perfect Union,” Cummings wrote in his resignation letter to Gov. Roy Cooper in October.

In a consent order released earlier this week, Judicial Standards Commission officials wrote that they agreed to the resignation to avoid any further delay to disciplinary proceedings.

Cummings announced in October 2018 that he was under investigation on several charges by the Judicial Standards Commission.

Cummings consented to allowing those charges to become public. But he denied all allegations against him.

Judicial Standards notified Cummings in September 2018 that he was being investigated on three allegations:

▪ That he had a clerk falsify a court document stating a Virginia man on probation had visited North Carolina for three days to attend court hearings — despite the hearing lasting only one day

▪ That he accused an N.C. Highway Patrol trooper of being racist toward a defendant who was facing two driving while impaired charges, forcing prosecutors to dismiss one of the charges;

▪ And changing a bond amount set by a Superior Court judge, something a District Court judge cannot do.

Judicial Standards notified Cummings again in March 2019 that he faced three more investigations.

This time, Judicial Standards was notified that Cummings had filed to run for office in a district where he did not live, could not produce records of living in and did not vote in.

They also investigated allegations that he made “undignified,” “discourteous,” “false” and “misleading statements” about Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Joe Craig, then-Chief District Court Judge Tom Jarrell, several judicial colleagues and the Judicial Standards Commission, among others.

Lastly, Cummings had been accused of voiding an order in a child custody case set by Jarrell out of personal bias and anger toward Jarrell, rather than applying fair and impartial application of the law.

At that time, Cummings was aware Jarrell had been the first to report him to the Judicial Standards Commission. Jarrell died unexpectedly in August.

Cummings has announced on Facebook that he is back in private practice.

This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 2:57 PM.