Another interesting day in Beaufort County District Court | Eastern North Carolina Now

Many average Joe’s have formed the opinion that there are two kinds of justice in the United States.  They believe the deciding qualification is liberal versus conservative, or political.   This double standard is hard to deny when one follows the treatment of Donald J. Trump.  We think Hood Richardson is somewhat like Trump. Richardson got a dose of the Trump treatment on Tuesday June 27, 2023 in the Beaufort County District Court with Judge G. Galen Braddy.

Richardson filed charges against Paul Varcoe, the First Vice Chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee for an alleged assault that occurred at the County Precinct meetings on March 25, 2023.  The 21 Beaufort County Precincts were seated at individual precinct tables.  Richardson claimed Varcoe moved from his precinct table across the room, brought a stool to Richardson’s precinct table and announced he was there to see that Richardson did not abuse any precinct members.  Richardson left the precinct table, Varcoe followed, injected himself into a conversation Richardson was having, gave Richardson a tongue lashing, advanced upon Richardson and physically pushed him. 

Richardson says this looked like a simple case but Judge Braddy from Pitt County did not see it that way. 

In addition to allowing the facts directly relevant to the pushing incident to be presented, Judge Braddy also allowed testimony about events that were purported to have happened two years before the pushing event,  that did not involve Varcoe at all.  Braddy allowed testimony about purported events that happened after the pushing incident that did not involve Varcoe. Most of what was presented was not true or accurate. Numerous objections were raised about hearsay by Richardson while on the stand and the Assistant District Attorney.

Richardson says he did not remember one of the several objections raised by himself and the Assistant District Attorney being sustained.  Judge Braddy indicated that at some time during the trial someone was going to  testify about the allegations.  The implication was that Richardson would have an opportunity to prove the information to be false.  That did not happen. 

In a fair trial, the judge, allowing any evidence to be presented whether a jury is present  or not, assumes the ethical and legal  standard to allow questionable testimony to be addressed by whomever is being attacked.  Actually Richardson was not the accused but he became the accused because of these non relevant attacks.  This ethical and procedural failure can happen when the Judge either does not understand the rules of evidence or he has already made up his mind, maybe even before the trial begins. 

Spectators in the court room observed the whole thing was something like the TV program “Night Court”.    There, the victim often can become the defendant.

Judge Braddy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina.  He has a law degree from NC Central University.  He is a native of Beaufort County.  In his summary he admitted he went to college with the Assistant District Attorney trying the Richardson case, was good friends with the lawyer defending Varcoe and was good friends with one of Richardson’s witnesses.  Braddy then mumbled and stumbled as he pronounced that Paul Varcoe did not intend to push Richardson and therefore he is  “innocent.”  The Judge did not say Varcoe was “not guilty” he said he was “innocent.”  How can Varcoe be innocent if he admitted during the trial that he pushed Richardson? Varcoe stalked Richardson. Judge Braddy could only find Varcoe “not guilty”.  With the evidence presented and not disputed by Varcoe “innocent” is not the correct finding.  Judge Braddy should consult Black’s Law Dictionary to make sure he knows the difference between “innocent” and “not guilty”.  Innocent means the push never happened. The evidence clearly showed that the push did happen and was intentional.

Braddy was salving his soul with his admissions about relationships presented in the above paragraph.  With those admissions one may ask why Braddy was trying this case, considering his many ethical conflicts?  Judicial arrogance could be his problem.  

Judge Braddy clearly plowed new ground with the law in North Carolina.  One may ask:  Does not intending to do any criminal act provide a decision of “innocent” or correctly “not guilty”.  Does this defense apply to murder, drunk driving, or robbery, etc.?  If this is the case, we need to abolish manslaughter laws. Manslaughter laws apply to unintentional acts that result in harm.   All the accused should say is I did not intend to harm that person.  Then walk.

Maybe this decision handed to Varcoe is a return on the almost $14, 000 of political money raised by the Beaufort County Republican Party to support local candidates during the 2022 elections that, instead,  was sent to state wide candidates  Varcoe sat on the committee  to decide how the money was to be donated.  Varcoe did not like the decision to use the money for local candidates, so he convinced his buddies on the Republican Executive Committee to send the money out of the Beaufort County. The reason for sending the money out of county was so conservative Republicans would not benefit from it. This money was from fund raising events such as the golf event, the Reagan Day dinner, and raffles…

Richardson says he is concerned that “Braddy Law” resembles the slap on the wrist that is handed out in California, Chicago and New York.  Judge Braddy imported that kind of law into North Carolina.

Be careful when invoking the “Braddy Law” plea in court.  Most of the Judges we know do not practice “Braddy Law.” Richardson says:  “It will be a blessing I do not have to appear in Judge G. Galen Braddy’s court ever again.”.