A district court race in Mecklenburg County that received an unusual amount of media attention turned into an easy victory for the incumbent.
It all started in early February when WBTV reported former family, now juvenile district court judge Aretha Blake essentially wasn’t doing her job. The TV station reported Blake had taken years to enter orders in dozens of cases leaving families hanging in the balance.
Blake said the story was inaccurate, defamatory, and could jeopardize her reelection campaign. But she easily defeated her Democratic opponent, family law attorney Lynna Moen, with over 67% of the vote.
While the story received a lot of media attention, it wasn’t on the minds of voters WFAE spoke to Tuesday.
Blake took WBTV reporter Nick Ochsner to court last week trying to prohibit the station from airing a follow up story. The court ruled against her saying it would be a violation of the first amendment.