Courthouse drama: Clerk says affair, politics behind effort to remove him from office

A district judge’s effort to charge the Moore County clerk of court with criminal contempt led to the clerk filing a civil lawsuit of his own.

In a court filing, Judge Beth Tanner is critical of the way Clerk Todd Maness is running the courthouse. Tanner raises issues with scheduling and lost files.

Maness, who denies those claims, says Tanner is conspiring with a recently retired superior court judge to remove him from office.

A newly filed nine-page civil lawsuit accuses then-Superior Court Judge James Webb of having an affair with the former clerk of court. When that clerk stepped down, the lawsuit says she and Webb supported a current clerk employer as her successor. However, Maness won the election, defeating their preferred candidate in the Republican primary.

"They decided to take upon themselves to have Mr. Maness removed through contempt proceedings, have him literally thrown in jail, ruin his reputation and basically ruin his life basically because he was not the politician of their choosing," attorney Michael Porter told WRAL Investigates.

Porter filed the lawsuit on Maness’ behalf.

The lawsuit says Webb "began to enlist and conspire with Defendant Tanner to do his bidding in an effort to make it appear the Plaintiff was not performing his duties as the elected Clerk of Court so that defendants could defame Plaintiff, turn public opinion against the Plaintiff and have Plaintiff thrown in jail with the ultimate goal of seeking to have Plaintiff removed from office."

Porter tells WRAL Investigates nothing Maness has done as clerk warrants even a reprimand, much less removal from office. Maness is being represented by another attorney in the contempt case.

However, Porter says, as an attorney, the judicial abuse of power is disheartening.

"If the defendants had had their way, Mr. Maness would be in jail right now on Christmas while his wife is in a life and death battle with stage 4 colon cancer," Porter said. " And they are well aware of this."

The lawsuit, which seeks damages, goes on to say "The Defendants, as set forth above, agreed with one another to slander Plaintiff, illegally institute a criminal contempt proceeding and cause severe emotional distress to the Plaintiff."

WRAL Investigates spoke to Webb on Friday and he declined to comment.

Tanner denied the accusations, but couldn’t say anything else as a sitting district court judge.

A hearing on the contempt charges against Maness is scheduled to take place in February.