Legal Ethics

NC Judge Suspended Without Pay for 75 Days in Ticket-Fixing Case

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A North Carolina judge who handled at least 82 traffic tickets outside the normal legal process—and probably many more, the state supreme court said—has been suspended without pay for 75 days.

Forsyth District Judge Denise Hartsfield has declined to comment but told a weekly newspaper in Winston-Salem that the punishment in the legal ethics case was fair and said she was woman enough to take responsibility for her own actions, reports the Winston-Salem Journal.

The ticket-fixing issue came to light after another judge found a briefcase in his closet in 2008 that contained tickets handled by Hartsfield outside the ordinary system.

The Associated Press also has a story.

Earlier coverage:

ABAJournal.com: “NC Judge Faces Legal Ethics Case, Accused of Fixing Tickets for Friends, Church Members”

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