Charlotte man on trial for domestic assault on magistrate ex alleges judicial abuse
A Charlotte man has for three years claimed he’s been unjustly held in jail on false assault and stalking charges from his magistrate ex-girlfriend.
But in court Wednesday, security video from their shared home showed Julius Bishop repeatedly choking Mecklenburg magistrate Ashley Blackwell, at times shoving her to the ground and once ripping her shirt off.
Bishop has been in the Mecklenburg County Jail since 2021. At the start of his trial earlier this week, he for the ninth time asked a judge to dismiss his case, alleging judicial abuse and entrapment.
Superior Judge Sally Kirby-Turner declined Bishop’s final dismissal request Monday. The trial must go on, she said, but he can appeal the case if the jury convicts him.
“Why are you talking about an appeal?” Bishop’s defense lawyer whispered to him before jury selection started inside the Mecklenburg County Courthouse Monday. “You haven’t been convicted.”
“Because,” Bishop responded. “I don’t trust the system.”
Magistrate presses charges
Blackwell got a domestic violence protective order against Bishop after he reportedly strangled her on July 21, 2021, according to court documents. At the time, Bishop was her 45-year-old boyfriend of more than five years. Less than a month later, police arrested him on an allegation that he violated that order.
Bishop, who is now 49, has been in jail on a $100,000 secured bond ever since. A grand jury in December 2021 indicted Bishop on charges of assault on a female, assault by strangulation, stalking, communicating threats and violating the protective order.
Nearly 4 years in jail on choking charges
Since he’s been in jail, Bishop has sent letters to courthouse officials — including Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Carla Archie and Clerk of Court Elisa Chinn-Gary — saying Blackwell, police and judges entrapped him by filing false charges. He also says they violated his constitutional rights by keeping him in jail too long.
In eight letters sent from March 2022 to April 2023, Bishop said he had permission to choke Blackwell as a part of their sexual relationship. He has never posted his $100,000 bond and maintains that Blackwell has abused her power to keep him in jail under felony charges.
Plausible but unlikely
Two judges previously noted that Bishop inappropriately spoke out during court, and in April 2022, Bishop’s former attorney claimed Bishop had constant mood swings, irrational thoughts and a lack of understanding of the legal process, according to court documents.
Judge Kirby-Turner on Monday reviewed a mental evaluation from April 2023 that found Bishop had “possible paranoia” about his case and the legal system.
His concerns were “plausible,” the psychiatrist that evaluated him found, “albeit unlikely.”
After reviewing the nearly two-year-old report and asking Bishop’s defense attorney, Samuel Randall, if he had any concerns about Bishop’s mental state, the judge found Bishop fit for trial.
Magistrate testifies
Blackwell, a Mecklenburg County magistrate, was in court for Bishop’s jury selection Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, she took the witness stand as prosecutor Terra Varnes showed the jury video captured by the former couple’s home security system.
As Blackwell naps after coming home from work, video shows Bishop logging into her computer and finding emails between her and a man Blackwell described as her best friend of 18 years. Bishop, convinced that Blackwell is cheating on him, calls her over to the computer, hits her with a phone, throws the phone through a wall and drags her downstairs, video shows, ripping her shirt in the process.
“When you [expletive] with the devil, you get the devil,” Bishop says in the video before he repeatedly chokes Blackwell, at times shoving her from the couch onto the ground and once throwing an object at her.
It shattered on the ground around her.
In photos, Blackwell documented what she says is a scratch and bruising from Bishop’s hands around her throat and arm.
She also took photos of Bishop’s destruction to their home. While testifying, she said he broke chairs in half and tore apart a wall of bookshelves, leaving hundreds of books, movies and Mickey Mouse ears scattered on the floor. In one photo presented in court Wednesday, Blackwell’s now-discontinued Mickey Mouse toaster sat in two pieces on the floor.
It was “like a hurricane had been through” the home, Blackwell said before her testimony ended. She is expected to resume Thursday morning.
Tissues in juror box
As prosecutor Varnes questioned potential jurors about their relationship to domestic violence this week, a box of tissues made its way to most.
About a dozen said they were affected by domestic violence in some way. Most teared up when asked to talk more about their experience with it. By Wednesday, most of the about 50 potential jurors had been dismissed by Varnes or defense lawyer Samuel Randall.
Randall asked jurors about their thoughts on racial disparity in the justice system. All jurors acknowledged its existence. He also asked if they felt a “man should never hit a woman.”
Answers varied.
Never. No hitting, plain and simple.
Everybody should keep their hands to themselves, but you can’t just make a blanket statement.
Maybe it’s O.K.. ..in self defense.
Complaint against magistrate
One of Blackwell’s colleagues, another magistrate, previously filed a complaint against her for “unethical behavior,” WBTV first reported.
In the March 2023 complaint obtained by WBTV, Magistrate Cheryl Ivery said Blackwell told her Bishop “flipped out” after he learned Blackwell was cheating on him in July 2021. When Ivery asked, Blackwell said Bishop didn’t touch her, according to a letter Ivery wrote to the chief magistrate. Ivery also alleged in the letter that Blackwell used her “special relationship” with District Judge Elizabeth Trosch to switch Bishop’s case to another judge who would be more favorable to her.
North Carolina’s Attorney General’s Office investigated Blackwell, but a judge in October 2023 eventually ruled there was no evidence that she improperly used her positions to influence case outcomes.
Paul Newby, chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, removed Trosh from her position as chief judge of the Mecklenburg district court last year, and she was assigned to juvenile court cases. He did not say why he made the move.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 1:38 PM.
