CHARLOTTE, N.C. &mdash: Mecklenburg District Judge John Totten has been taken off the bench indefinitely by North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Parker.
The chief justice did not cite a reason in her order.
Totten's suspension follows complaints about what sources describe as the judge's inappropriate comments to court personnel. In some of those remarks, the sources said, the judge recounted experiences at a bar and restaurant and described women's bodies and how scantily they were dressed.
Reports outlining Totten's comments to court personnel have been sent to the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission, according to sources.
Totten, who is in his early 50s and was elected to the bench in 2008, did not return two phone calls from the Observer on Monday afternoon.
Parker's March 26 order was made public Monday by the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh.
"It is hereby ordered that District Court Judge John Totten is placed on temporary suspension, that Judge Totten be relieved of all existing and future assignments and sessions of District Court, and that all such assignments be reassigned to other district court judges... until further notice," Parker wrote in her order.
A spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts said she couldn't talk about why Totten was suspended. That information, she said, is a personnel matter.
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