Jodi Riddleberger of Greensboro is raising the issue of whether the presiding judge in the civil action brought against Dr. Greg Brannon should have recused himself due to a possible lack of impartiality.  It seems that Ms. Riddleberger has done some research and concluded that the judge may have contributed to the election campaign of Senator Kay Hagan when she ran for Elizabeth Dole’s Senate seat in 2008.

As regular readers will know, a civil court jury found earlier this year that Dr. Brannon, back in 2010, had provided misleading or false information to potential investors in a technology start-up called Neogence, and that as a result, he had to refund their contributions in the aggregate total of $450,000.

Ms. Riddleberger has written to the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission about the matter, saying this in part:

I am writing to make a formal complaint against Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins …  But who is Judge Bryan Collins?  According to Judgepedia, Collins … began his legal career as an attorney in private practice from 1985 to 2005.  In 2005, he became the Public Defender for Wake County.  He was then elected a Superior Court judge in 2012 and his current term expires in 2020.  He is a registered Democrat.

By conducting a Federal Elections Commission (FEC) search for political campaign contributions, we see that a Bryan Collins in Raleigh, who listed his occupation as Public Defender, contributed the sum of $500 to the Hagan Senate Committee in 2008.

I’m no lawyer, and I can’t possibly pretend to understand all the technicalities of impartiality.  That said, does anyone think it smells a little funny that a judge known to support one candidate for office would be allowed to try a case involving that candidate’s potential future opposition?

This is certainly an interesting development, but we have to keep in mind that the jury found Brannon guilty of the financial impropriety, not the judge.  I think Brannon’s attorneys will need to allege some specific bias on the part of Judge Collins before this has a chance of going anywhere.