Guilford County District Court Judge Mark Cummings resigned from the bench effective Dec. 20 according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

It was no secret that Cummings was under investigation by the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission because Cummings talked about it in detail when he was running for Superior Court Judge in 2018. Judicial Standards Commission investigations are confidential and the results are not revealed until the NC Supreme Court makes a ruling on the case.

There were lots of rumors that Cummings was under investigation at the time but no proof until Cummings decided to talk about it and he denied that any of the allegations were true.

Also during that election Cummings residency in the district was challenged. The challenge was denied by the Guilford County Board of Elections because it had not been filed by the deadline.

Cumming lost that election to Superior Court Judge Lora Cubbage.

According to the N&O, Cummings was notified in March, 2019 that he was being investigated for three more allegations including that he had run for office filing from an address where he did not reside.

Cummings in March, 2019 was also suspended by NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley for professional misconduct.

The original allegations according to the News & Observer were:

▪ That he had a clerk falsify a court document stating a Virginia man on probation had visited North Carolina for three days to attend court hearings — despite the hearing lasting only one day

▪ That he accused an N.C. Highway Patrol trooper of being racist toward a defendant who was facing two driving while impaired charges, forcing prosecutors to dismiss one of the charges;

▪ And changing a bond amount set by a Superior Court judge, something a District Court judge cannot do.

According to a Facebook post, Cummings is now back in private practice.