I cannot make heads or tails out of what is going on between Mecklenburg Chief District Judge Fritz Mercer and Judge Nancy Norelli. Either Mercer — or any chief judge — has the power to move judges around or not. If not, then there is not much point in having a chief judge.
What is clear is that Norelli has lots of very powerful friends in town who quickly rallied to her side when Mercer bumped her from criminal court. And, as ever, The Charlotte Observer thinks phoning up a dozen people and reporting what they say about that development is the whole of the story. It is not.
You cannot make sense out of the upset surrounding Norelli’s shift without reference to the fact that she is a former head of the county bar. Or that before being elected to district judge in 2000 and after a stint at powerhouse Kennedy Covington, Norelli partnered with her husband Ronald in a consulting firm that counted CMS, Davidson College, and Crescent Resources among its clients.
Norelli also at one time joined the law firm of her current attorney, Bill Diehl.
FEC records also show that Ronald Norelli contributed $2,250 to Erskine Bowles’ campaign for senate between 2002 and 2004. State records show Norelli gave Jim Black’s campaign $500 in 2004.
Oh, and former Speaker Jim Black is Nancy Norelli’s brother.
Correction: Observer editor Rick Thames relates that the above Charlotte Business Journal clip from August 2000 is in error. Nancy Norelli is not related to Jim Black.
The CBJ clip was never corrected, a search before the original post was made revealed.
Nonetheless, I regret the error and accept full responsibility for it.
