In today's only-in-Durham moment, Cline was 7 minutes late for the start of the hearing. Here's my favorite N&O photo of the event, subtitled, "Attendees of the Tracey Cline hearing await the arrival of Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline after the hearing was called into order Monday morning."]
[Update, 10.19pm: For those interested, here's a copy of Cline's filing. She claims the complaint against her was filed by "Kerry Sutton" and "Kerrie Sutton." She writes about how "This Honorable Court determined form [sic] the review of court files . . . that there was probable cause." She reminisces about how she claimed that "Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. was bias [sic] against Cline." She asserts that as of 30 January, "the respondent / defendant has continued to diligently to [sic] seek counsel for this hearing when physically able to do so and as of this date has not been able to retain counsel for this hearing." (Two lines later, she states that she did find a lawyer. One line after that, she seems to backtrack on whether or not she has a lawyer.) She laments the "time restrains [sic] of the hearing."
And, as Andy Curliss points out, she claims that Judge Hobgood found probable cause regarding one element of Sutton's complaint on which, in fact, he did not find probable cause.
Again, this is a filing in a case that could bring about Cline's removal. And, as is her usual pattern, she couldn't be bothered to run a spell-check, and ensure that her facts were accurate?]
And, as Andy Curliss points out, she claims that Judge Hobgood found probable cause regarding one element of Sutton's complaint on which, in fact, he did not find probable cause.
Again, this is a filing in a case that could bring about Cline's removal. And, as is her usual pattern, she couldn't be bothered to run a spell-check, and ensure that her facts were accurate?]
[Updated, 5.43pm: In a typical only-in-Durham moment, the N&O's Andy Curliss reports that Cline (for reasons that are unclear) decided not to file her motion requesting a delay with the court clerk. (Instead, she e-mailed her request directly to the judge.) Curliss also reports that Cline had been indicating she'd be ready for the hearing, at least to some extent, earlier in the week.]
Citing illness and a seeming difficulty in finding an attorney to represent her, Cline has requested a delay in the hearing regarding her permanent ouster as district attorney. In an e-mail to court officials quoted by the N&O, the grammatically-challenged Cline tossed in this run-on sentence: "I need to move to continue the hearing from Monday because I do not have any attorney and I have been physically sick for over a week and presently I am not physically at my best." This item sounds a bit like a late-term excuse I might receive from an underperforming student demanding an extension for submitting his or her course paper.
In her court filing, Cline claims to have been out of state when the announcement of her suspension occurred; she remained at this undisclosed, out-of-state location for three days, for reasons that she does not disclose. But then she "became physically ill and returned to North Carolina."
Beyond her illness, Cline's filing cites difficulties in securing legal representation. (At least she's not going the Linwood Wilson route and representing herself.) In yet another run-on clause, the suspended DA claims to have "consulted numerous attorneys in this area and did find one attorney who could do the hearing but he will be out of town." The implication is that several lawyers turned Cline down--though, as is the case with so much of her writing, her meaning isn't entirely clear.
It seems likely that Cline's request will be granted. But the motion itself doesn't inspire confidence in the likelihood of her ultimate success.
It seems likely that Cline's request will be granted. But the motion itself doesn't inspire confidence in the likelihood of her ultimate success.
30 comments:
She certainly needs an attorney insofar as she clearly doesn't know what she's doing. Oh, the irony. Is Linwood available?
Is Cline a Communist?
Cline hasn't actually filed this with the court (she missed the filing deadline). She simply e-mailed it to Judge Hobgood. One can only assume that this is part of her unique strategy to prove that she's not bringing the Durham County DA's office into disrepute...
Tracey Cline might ask Sidney Harr to represent her. Sidney is representing himself in a frivolous lawsuit he has filed against Duke University.
Sidney seems to be adopting a nifongian approach, namely, trying to make his case in the court of public opinion expecting that will influence the court.
Durham is in decline.
Maybe she learned this from John Edwards. So many health problems as court dates approach. The same thing happens to me when I have to appear for a traffic ticket.
Cline's massacre of the English language reminds me of Custer's Last Stand. Nary a part of speech or a rule of grammar left standing.
She clearly hasn't found counsel (even the one she alleges said he couldn't appear on the hearing date) b/c no attorney who actually represented a client would allow her to file her own pleading (or in this case, non file). K.C. you have this was correct, this is the "my dog ate my homework" excuse to the judge who will likely grant the continuance so as not to appear to be treating this poor excuse for a lawyer unfairly.
If she is removed from office will she be eligible to run again for DA of Durham? Cline Agonistes.
The dog ate my homework. And he's sick. Did I mention that he ate my homework?
Just curious: How long has Cline's writing been so haphazard and incoherent?
Ms. Cline will next maintain that the Dog ate her brief.
This is only a three-ring circus. Tracy Cline needs to use one of those blank Subpoenas for a character witness who'd transform it into a very rare four-ring circus. The surprise four-ring witness? Her old boss, Mike Nifong.
Who knows Tracy Cline's abilities better than Mike Nifong? MOO! Gregory
Considering that over fifty individuals have been subpoenaed for Monday, I imagine some attorneys will be seeking sanctions for being dragged back into court for the third time around...
"Who knows Tracy Cline's abilities better than Mike Nifong? "
The Indy, which said in endorsing her in 2008:
"Cline is a great attorney who has already shown that she can manage a large caseload."
(That's from the Indy (for "Independent"), which gave dilatory coverage to the biggest case in the city's history, and hired Samiha Khanna after she left the N&O.)
One can only suspect that Ms. Cline has been employing Houston Baker as her ghost-writer.
In fact, in her filing, Cline refers to petitioner Sutton variously as 'Kerstin' 'Kerry' 'Kerrie' and 'Karrie.' How funny!
On a related note it appears Cline did spell 'Tracey Cline' correctly each time it appears in the filing.
She also calls Kerry Sutton "Karrie" at the end of the email motion, yet miraculously gets her legal name right just below that when she claims to have served her by email.
Cline explains her difficulty in finding representation. She states that "because of the issues, parties, and jurisdiction of this removal hearing the respondent /
defendant even exercising all due diligence, has been unable to retain an attorney who does
not have a conflict of interest as to any party or issue, who is geographically situated to be
available for the hearing and an attorney who will be able to devote a substantial amount of
time in this statutorily limited timeframe."
Considering her habit of giving subpoenas to the entire Durham legal community, she may have single-handedly created a large part of the "conflict of interest" problem. Anyone who is under subpoena from one side has an obvious conflict.
Also, given her displays of paranoia to date, it would seem plausible that she would consider any attorney who doesn't agree that Hudson is out to get her to be part of a conspiracy, and thus to have a conflict of interest.
And, of course, she needs to find a defense attorney who's not going to claim to be too busy because they don't want to defend someone they consider dangerous to the administration of justice.
She says "the respondent / defendant intends to defend each assertion made by the petitioner."
Taken literally, that could be read as implying that she will defend Sutton's allegations, rather that that she will defend herself AGAINST such assertions.
Of course, she no doubt actually means that she will defend herself. But I wonder whether anyone else suspects, as I do, that she will try to do so by putting Hudson on trial? In other words, that she really will "defend each assertion made by the petitioner" by repeating the same allegations against Hudson, and arguing that the "truth" of her claims is a defense for her having made them in the earlier court filings...
If nothing else, it would be consistent...
The heavy betting is that she will fail to appear in court tomorrow (Monday). The reason will be some sort of physical malady - undiagnosed, of course. However, it is obvious that our Ms. Cline suffers from a spelling and grammatical disorders. Perhaps these are new additions to the DSM that will soon be issued by the American Psychiatric Association. In which case she can use these as her excuse.
cks
A little more fun with the name challenged Cline. Cline refers to herself as “Tracey Cline” and “Tracey E. Cline” on the same page of her emailed filing.
Humorous but not nearly so indicative of a disorganized mind as that of the “Clint Pollard,” “Arron Michael Pollard” and “Arron Michael Pollock” file folder fiasco as outlined by Sutton in her petition for Cline’s removal.
She got a delay for a week until 20 Feb. KC, I think with Durham, we have an ongoing story that could be a TV series and, frankly, I'd use the same name as your blog, "Durham in Wonderland." The beauty is that the script writes itself, the characters are all in place, there are many subplots, intrigues, all incredible and larger than life, and it goes on forever. Sell this puppy to Hollywood!
I agree with 10:46 poster that the entire DIW weblog taken from the beginning has a fantastic plot line similar to Rashomon. But as the truth becomes more apparent the characters cling more tightly to their false narrative knowing that embracing the truth will destroy their self construct and status. Does telling yourself that you deserve to be right because of your delusions make it past the mirror test each morning?
Wow, late to her own hearing??? That photo is priceless. It goes in my scrapbook right next to Nifong choking himself. Too funny!
Typo: Next Monday is Feb 20, not March 20.
Knock me over with a feather. Durham's "The Independent" (so named because it is independent of reality in Durham) actually has a story on Tracey Cline! Before now, it was only crickets.
http://www.indyweek.com/triangulator/archives/2012/02/13/citing-pneumonia-and-need-for-lawyer-cline-gets-more-time
I hope the N&O brass testifies not because it makes any sense (nothing here does, this is Durham), but the public demands more entertainment value.
Tracey Cline has found a team of attorneys to represent her, and (surprisingly) they are asking for more time.....Judge Hobgood is supposed to hear their motion today.
Monday February 20 is a federal holiday. Will the North Carolina courts be open?
Cline hasn't actually filed this with the court actually she missed the filing deadline....
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