(Photo: North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud)
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley announced the appointment of several chief judges of the appeals and district courts Tuesday in a news release. Donna Stroud will become Chief Judge of the state Court of Appeals, while Jimmy Love will head Judicial District 11 (Johnston, Lee and Harnett), Judge Toni King Judicial District 12 (Cumberland) and Judge Roy Wijewickrama Judicial District 30 (Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain).
Stroud, a Republican, was first elected to the Court of Appeals in 2006 following her two-year stint as a Wake County District Court judge and won re-election in 2014. Current Chief Judge Linda McGee was appointed by former Chief Justice Sarah Parker in 2014. McGee, 71, will reach the age limit for service as a judge in North Carolina next year and is set to retire.
(Photo: Judge J. Hunter Murphy, North Carolina Judicial Branch)
The Supreme Court of North Carolina ordered the censure of Appeals Court Judge Hunter Murphy for enabling a “toxic work environment” in his chamber, in a disciplinary order reaffirming the Judicial Standards Commission recommendation Friday. The ruling was unanimous, with the exception of Justice Mark Davis, who did not take part in consideration of the matter.
Murphy, a Republican, hired his high school friend Ben Tuite as his executive assistant, the senior position on his three-person law clerk staff, after being elected in 2016.
It wasn’t before long that Tuite started bullying and harassing his coworkers, exhibiting a “pattern of making lewd or sexually inappropriate remarks in the workplace,” according to the court order.
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