District Court Judge Ted Blanton stopped 18 construction workers on Feb. 3 and had them held in the courtroom for more than two hours. The men were doing finishing work on two second floor courtrooms, immediately above the first floor courtroom where Blanton was holding court.

Rowan County Commission Chairman Newton Cohen said the board, by consensus, asked County Manager Tim Russell to send a letter asking for almost $1,200.

“This invoice represents costs incurred by contractors who, while working in the Rowan County Courthouse constructing two new district courtrooms, were required by District Court Judge Ted Blanton to cease all construction and sit in his District Court quietly for over two hours while he completed the day’s court activities.”

In the letter to Judge Thomas Ross, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, Russell spells out the plan to construct the court facilities and the agreement by Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Larry Ford, Chief Resident District Judge Anna Mills Wagoner and District Attorney Bill Kenerly.

“The plan was followed well until Feb. 3, 2000. On that day, District Court Judge Blanton experienced noise that, in his opinion, apparently could not be tolerated. As a result, he ordered all construction workers in the area to be brought to his courtroom and ordered them to sit quietly in the vacant juror’s seating area for approximately two hours until his court proceedings were completed at 5 p.m. The experience resulted in a loss of work for two hours and created a sense of fear of future judicial actions if construction noise occurred again.

“While we cannot determine whether his action constituted any improper conduct, we do believe that the additional costs incurred from lost time as a result of Judge Blanton’s actions should not be paid by the taxpayers of Rowan County.”

Russell pointed out that Blanton should have taken other actions, that would not have stopped work and left the county with the tab for the hours.

“We believe that other efforts, such as voluntarily moving his day’s court to another available courtroom or requesting help from county staff or other judicial staff to assist in reducing the noise could have been taken by Judge Blanton to effectively reduce the noise without losing two hours of productive labor by the contractors. Unfortunately, these efforts weren’t considered. At worst, possibly only the contractor who was creating the noise could have been requested to cease for the two-hour period, as opposed to the general contractor and all the subcontractors in electrical, mechanical and drywall.”

Blanton has said he didn’t threaten the workers at any time and told them he regretted having to stop their work.

But Russell wrote: “With the concern raised by Judge Blanton that future noises would not be tolerated, all of the contractors refused to come to the job site the following day. Only after Superior Court Judge Ford assured them that Judge Blanton was on vacation and would not be there did the workers commit to return to work on the project. Subsequent to this incident, Judge Blanton was re-assigned to a courtroom in another building until the project could be completed.”

County officials have repeatedly pointed out that other judges conducted court for weeks in similar circumstances without incident. “It is ironic to note that other District Court judges have continued to use the existing district courtrooms during the construction period without complaint,” Russell wrote.

The letter included an attachment of invoices and of a copy of the letter from Blanton to the Salisbury Post. Russell noted that Blanton has not officially responded to commissioners.

In his letter to the Post, Blanton said he would resist any effort by the county to collect the money.