State Bar finds ousted Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline violated rules
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- After appealing her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and losing, the North Carolina State Bar ruled Friday that ousted Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline did violate professional rules.
The State Bar disciplinary hearing commission ruled Cline violated rules of professional conduct for an attorney. Cline will have her law license suspended for five years, according to our reporter on the scene.
Cline's appeals had delayed disciplinary proceedings against her in a 2012 complaint that she violated the rules.
Cline was removed from office in 2012 following a special hearing before Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood.
The hearing comes after Cline publicly feuded with Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson for months and accused him of bias against her in cases. In court filings, she went so far as to call the judge dishonest and corrupt. She asked that he be barred from hearing criminal cases in Durham County in a complaint to the Judicial Standards Commission.
In ruling to remove Cline from office, Hobgood said if she felt Hudson was biased against her, she should have waited for action by the Judicial Standards Commission instead of publicly attacking him. He said Cline's attacks were "not supported by facts," and "brought the office of Durham District Attorney into disrepute."
Cline has been acting as her own attorney during the two-day hearing.
