We’ve previously reported on the problems of Durham, N.C. DA Tracey Cline after she attacked a sitting judge with allegations that were, apparently, untrue. On Friday she became the 2nd straight DA in Durham to be removed from office (following her former boss, Mike Nifong). From a news report:
Tracey Cline was immediately and permanently removed from her office as the elected district attorney in Durham by a judge who found she had made statements with malice and reckless disregard for the truth against chief Durham Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson.
Judge Robert H. Hobgood found that Cline’s conduct in court filings was “prejudicial to the administration of justice” which brought her office into “disrepute.”
Under state law, any DA whose behavior violates that standard shall be removed from office.
Cline is the second consecutive elected DA in Durham to leave mid-term. Former DA Mike Nifong was stripped of his law license in 2007 over ethics violations committed while seeking to prosecute false accusations that three Duke lacrosse players had raped a woman. Cline had been Nifong’s chief assistant.
