Guilford judge sounds off, gets sent off.

Byline: David Donovan

"Radical transparency" is a hot new trend in tech and political circles, but a Guilford County District Court judge hasperhapsprovided some fairly radical transparency about why he's just been suspended from the bench.

Guilford County District Judge Mark Cummings was temporarily suspended on March 1. State judicial officials haven't provided any explanation for the suspension, for very good reasons.

In 2013, state legislators made significant changes to way the state's judges are disciplined. It used to be that when the Judicial Standards Commission filed charges against a judge, those charges were made public. But under the law now, which was most definitely not made at the JSC's request, such charges remain confidential unless or until the Supreme Court hands down formal discipline.

So that should be that, and the reasons for Cummings' suspension ought to be a huge mystery. But an account of the charges against Cummings has been leaked to a local newspaper by a most unexpected sourceCummings himself, who apparently either didn't know or didn't care about his newly created right to secrecy.

Last fall, Cummings told the Greensboro-based News & Record that he faces complaints that he accused a state trooper of being racist, changed bails set by two superior court judges, and asked a clerk to write a note to a defendant's probation officer which misstated a key fact. He also told a news reporter that he expected more charges to be filed.

Cummings alleged that he was the victim of a courthouse conspiracy to get him ejected from the bench, so he perhaps may not be an entirely reliable narrator. But it seems likely...