Plaintiff T. Craig Travis is asking the court to consider setting aside a judge’s order dismissing his defamation suit, claiming the judge did not follow judicial ethics and failed disclose his conflict of interest with the case or his association with two North Carolina politicians.
The Wake County Superior Court will hear arguments Friday and decide if an order from one of its judges should be set aside because he did not disclose his conflicts of interest.
Plaintiff T. Craig Travis is asking the court to consider setting aside Special Superior Court Judge Hoyt G. Tessener’s April order dismissing his defamation suit. Travis claimed Tessener did not tell the court or either party of his professional association with politicians U.S. Rep. Tim Moore and state Sen. Phil Berger Sr. Travis alleged that Tessener could not be neutral because of this professional relationship, as both men have had longstanding political influence in North Carolina and were heavily associated with one of the defendant political organizations, GOPAC. Moore, the former speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, is now a representative for North Carolina’s 14th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Berger has been president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate since 2011 and is the father of another defendant.
