Follow me on this. Judge Bill Belk says that the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission has sided with Mecklenburg County Chief District Court Judge Lisa Bell and will recommend that the state Supreme Court remove him from the bench. Judge Bell filed a complaint claiming that Judge Belk violated the N.C. Code of Judicial Conduct by, in part, yelling at her and making her cry and by relying too heavily on court clerks.

Yesterday District Court Judge Donnie Hoover saw his decision to release violent repeat offender Matthew Morgan reversed by Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge J. Gentry Caudill. In effect, the court was saying Judge Hoover made a serious mistake when he cut Morgan’s bond down from $150,000 to $15,000, which allowed Morgan to walk from the Mecklenburg County Jail last month. Judge Caudill jumped Morgan’s bond back up to $75,000, putting him back in jail. For now.

Interestingly, that bond amount is still significantly below the $200K the county prosecutor’s office asked for on Morgan.

Even more interesting will be whether Charles Keller, Community Access and Community Outreach Administrator for the Mecklenburg County Court System, apologizes to WBT’s Tara Servatius and her listeners who called the courthouse to complain about Judge Hoover’s decision to release Morgan.

Recall what Keller had to say a couple weeks ago, as detailed by the Neighbors for a Safer Charlotte blog:

“We are being bombarded. I think it’s obscene or out of the ordinary to take up court time with your complaints about Judge Hoover letting Matthew Morgan out. What is done is done. His ruling won’t change.”

Then Keller dropped a race bomb: “Do you want people to storm the court house and lynch him?” (Judge Hoover is an African-American.)

Tara made it clear to Keller that neither she nor her audience wanted Hoover lynched.

Keller also told Tara “asking listeners to call and complain was inapproriate. What you have done is tie up staff time listening to messages that can’t be forwarded.”

Evidently someone in the Mecklenburg County court system got the message loud and clear. Judge Hoover is out-of-step with the community’s view of violent crime. It would be nice to hear Judge Bell’s views on this disconnect and if she thinks it rises to the level of judicial incompetence.

But we can already hear the clubby Charlotte legal community closing ranks and trying to sweep this episode under the courthouse floorboards.