North Carolina Supreme Court Secretly Squashed Discipline of Two GOP Judges Who Admitted to Violating Judicial Code
North Carolina Supreme Court Secretly Squashed Discipline of Two GOP Judges Who Admitted to Violating Judicial Code

North Carolina Supreme Court Secretly Squashed Discipline of Two GOP Judges Who Admitted to Violating Judicial Code

Last fall, out of public view, the North Carolina Supreme Court squashed disciplinary action against two Republican judges who had admitted that they had violated the state’s judicial code of conduct, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the decisions.
One of the judges had ordered, without legal justification, that a witness be jailed. The other had escalated a courtroom argument with a defendant, which led to a police officer shooting the defendant to death. The Judicial Standards Commission, the arm of the state Supreme Court that investigates judicial misconduct by judges, had recommended that the court publicly reprimand both women. The majority-Republican court gave no public explanation for rejecting the recommendations — indeed, state law mandates that such decisions remain confidential.
Wait, what happened? That seems like as crazy of a story as this one.
This may be the incident, but it's low on facts so I can't be sure.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/defendant-dies-after-north-carolina-courtroom-shooting-n1278925
A second source with a bit more info.
https://abc11.com/christopher-thomas-vaughan-roxboro-person-county-courthouse-officer-shooting/11012497/
And a third that verifies this is the same incident.
https://www.wral.com/story/he-would-have-killed-every-single-one-of-us-judge-says-of-defendant-slain-in-person-courtroom-shooting/19982784/
Your third source also includes a transcript of the conversation which led to the defendant rushing the judge. Very helpful for understanding the story here.
The article seemed intent on hiding the names of the judges but, thankfully, there aren’t many court shootings per year, per state. Could be this’n