One of Timmy’s *special judges* tosses out suit against Team Berger. (Uncle Phil is pleased.)
It’s *good* to own state government.
We have these special animals in North Carolina politics. They’re called “special superior court judges”. From what I can tell, they’re meant to handle *extraordinary* cases that sap a lot of time and resources that could be to the detriment of other judges and their courtroom workloads. These judges get appointed by legislators and the governor and don’t have to answer to the voters like regular judges do. And we all know that anything getting approved through the General Assembly requires the blessing of the House speaker (formerly Tim Moore, now Destin Hall) and the state Senate Leader (Phil Berger).
Recently, some folks in Rockingham filed suit against some elements of the Phil Berger political 
machine — based in Raleigh, Rockingham County, and elsewhere — for their alleged activities in a recently-decided Rockingham County board of commissioners race. The defendants attempted to get recent Berger-Moore approved *special judges* approved to hear the case. (*And why not? Each of the three apparently owe their presence on the bench to Phil Berger and Tim Moore.*)
Two of the special judges got shot down. But it looks like Team Berger had some luck with their third choice:
A state judge has dismissed a defamation case tied to last year’s Rockingham County commissioners’ election, a decision that also has the potential to close off more details about a legislative push to land three casinos in that North Carolina county and two others. Special Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener did not give a detailed explanation for dismissing the lawsuit. It was filed by Craig Travis, who narrowly lost the Republican primary for a commissioner’s seat last year.
Tessener’s one-page decision, filed late Friday afternoon, sided with the arguments the defendants’ attorneys made that the lawsuit failed to state a claim the court could act upon and lacked jurisdiction in the case of one defendant. […]
The defendants are commissioners Kevin Berger and Mark Richardson, former commissioner Donald Powell, Rockingham County GOP Chairwoman Diane Parnell, political groups GOPAC and the North Carolina Conservatives Fund, and Atlas Political Consulting.
Travis, a former commissioner, claimed all were involved in spreading misinformation about his political record to prevent his return to the board. The commissioners and Parnell also made false claims about his character, he said in the lawsuit. The three commissioners had supported efforts to land a casino in Rockingham in 2023, including voting to rezone property in Stokesdale that would have paved the way for it. The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore casino developer, had formed a subsidiary that had taken out options on the property. Much of Travis’ lawsuit focused on the casino developments.
His attorneys contended the commissioners’ actions in support provided the motive to defame him to keep him out of office. Travis opposes the casinos. Attorneys for the defendants say no defamation took place. One of them, Ellis Boyle, told Judge Tessener in a hearing on April 21 that the lawsuit was a “fishing expedition” to drum up media interest in the casino push. Before legislation emerged to legalize casinos, Cordish had been working to line up land and support for them in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties.
State Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican and the father of Kevin Berger, pushed for the legislation to authorize the casinos, and late in the 2023 session tried to include that legislation in the state budget.
He could not win enough votes in the House, however, and the effort failed. Casino connection Last week, The News & Observer reported on Cordish’s efforts to obtain land and win support among Anson County officials.
County documents and interviews with Anson officials showed the company had begun reaching out to the county at least roughly four months before the pro-casino legislation surfaced. The N&O obtained the documents through a public records request to Anson County.
The N&O’s reporting also showed that Jim Blaine, the co-founder of The Differentiators, a powerful consulting firm, was involved in winning over Anson officials. Blaine was Sen. Berger’s chief of staff before co-founding the firm.
[…]
The lawsuit has had an unusual path in court. The defendants first sought for it to be heard by Special Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers, a former chief of staff to then House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican. Moore appointed Somers to the judgeship, one of 10 such positions lawmakers created in the 2023 state budget.
Wake’s senior resident judge did not go along with the assignment, but then the Superior Court judge in line to take the case decided to recuse himself.
State Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks of Cumberland County had paid The Differentiators nearly $72,000 for campaign administration when he won the seat in 2022. Hicks said from the bench on April 21, just before the hearing on the dismissal motion, that he did not see a conflict with his use of The Differentiators, but decided to step away after The N&O inquired about it. That’s when Tessener, another Special Superior Court judge appointed by Moore, took over the case.
It sounds like this case still has some life in it. The plaintiff’s attorneys say they are planning to appeal the dismissal.
It looks like we have some state judges that are just as crooked as those Obama judges and Biden judges in federal district courts that are conducted multiple lawfare ambushes of the Trump administration.. Many of those partisan federal judges trying to throw monkey wrenches into the Trump administration have histories as Democrat activists and contributors. These “special” Superior Court judges are also political hacks, owing their positions fo the legislative leadership. We have a thoroughly corrupt system when political judges are abusing their powers in political cases. These judges are unelected, unaccountable political appointees.
Speaking of judges and politics, we also have a coverup going on with another incident of wrongdoing by Phil Sleaze-Berger. In the last election, Berger committed blatant party disloyalty by publicly endorsing an ultra-liberal Democrat Superior Court judge who was in a very competitive race with a Republican challenger. Formal party disloyalty charges are pending against Berger and have been for months. NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons is covering up for Berger by refusing to call the State Executive Committee meeting that is required to deal with those charges. Shame on Jason Simmons. His coverup for Berger makes him totally unfit to continue to serve as chairman.
There is not a principled bone in Phil Berger’s body. He is nothing but a political whore who turns tricks for the special interests.
Political cases should be heard by non-political judges. According to polls the reputation of our courts is in the toilet these days and that is due to all the political shananigans going on in the courts.