Courts director to follow chief justice to Virginia school

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The North Carolina courts system director is following his boss - outgoing Chief Justice Mark Martin - to a Virginia law school.

Marion Warren, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, announced Wednesday he’ll become senior associate dean at Regent University law school in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He’s resigning Feb. 28 - the same day Martin resigns to become the law school’s dean.

Martin chose Warren, a former District Court judge and assistant prosecutor, in 2015 to become director. Gov. Roy Cooper will pick Martin’s successor.

Warren’s name surfaced in the unresolved 9th Congressional District race. Republican candidate Mark Harris has said it was Warren who introduced him to McCrae Dowless, a Bladen County political operative now being scrutinized over absentee ballot irregularities. Warren used to work in Bladen.