By Jared Evan

The blood of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska is on the hands of Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes. Zarutska came to America to escape a war zone. Instead, she was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train in August—killed by a man who should never have been walking the streets.

Why was her killer, 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown Jr., free in the first place? Because Stokes, a magistrate with no law license and no serious qualifications, thought it was acceptable to release a schizophrenic, homeless repeat offender on nothing more than a “written promise” to appear in court. That disastrous ruling was made just seven months before Brown carried out his horrific attack.

Brown’s record reads like a textbook case for detention: armed robbery, assault, psychiatric episodes, multiple arrests, even his own mother warning he was dangerously unstable. He was exactly the kind of defendant any competent judge would treat with extreme caution. Instead, Stokes ignored every red flag. She let him walk. The result: a young refugee dead in her seat, her dreams of a better life slaughtered by a system more concerned with coddling criminals than protecting citizens.

Even Brown’s public defender raised concerns about his competency weeks before the murder. Still, no judge intervened to keep him off the streets. Judge Roy Wiggins ordered an evaluation, but thanks to Stokes’ earlier indulgence, Brown was never detained, and the evaluation never happened. This was not a failure of resources. It was a failure of judgment—her judgment.

To make matters worse, questions are swirling around Stokes’ background and possible conflicts of interest. According to the Washington Examiner, her name has been tied to mental health and addiction recovery ventures, including a Charlotte clinic that provides services to offenders. Critics are right to question whether her activist background clouded her ability to apply the law fairly—particularly in cases involving mentally ill defendants like Brown.

Congressional leaders are now demanding accountability. In a blistering letter to Chief District Court Judge Roy Wiggins, Rep. Tim Moore and all ten North Carolina House Republicans called for Stokes’ immediate removal. Their charge is damning: she “displayed a willful failure to perform the duties of her office and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.” They’ve also called for a full review of her other bond decisions to uncover just how many dangerous offenders she may have unleashed on the community.

Congressman Moore put it plainly: “Judge Stokes had the chance to protect the public and chose not to. It’s clear that she’s unfit to hold this consequential position and should be removed from the bench immediately.” Others echoed the outrage. Rep. Mark Harris said, “Why would a judge knowingly let a repeat criminal with serious mental issues out on our streets? Pro-crime judges must be held responsible.” Rep. David Rouzer added, “When lenient laws meet lenient judges, public safety takes a back seat. This tragic loss of life was absolutely preventable.”

Absolutely preventable. That is the phrase that should haunt Judge Stokes for the rest of her days. Zarutska’s death is not just another statistic in a violent city. It is the predictable consequence of placing an unqualified, activist magistrate in a position where real lives hang in the balance.

In North Carolina, magistrates don’t even have to be attorneys. Stokes herself is not a member of the State Bar. And yet she was entrusted with decisions that affect the safety of an entire community. That structural flaw is bad enough. But Stokes went further—turning her bench into a revolving door for a violent man who had already shown he was a danger to everyone around him.

Now, Republicans in Washington are tightening the screws, blasting the Democratic soft-on-crime approach that produced this catastrophe. They’re pushing legislation to ensure judges can be held personally accountable when they put criminals above public safety. As Rep. Randy Fine said this week, “We must ensure there are no future Iryna Zarutskas.”

The people of Charlotte deserve better than Teresa Stokes. Zarutska deserved better than a justice system that threw her life away in the name of misplaced compassion. If there is any decency left in North Carolina’s courts, Stokes will be stripped of her robe and removed from the bench—before her negligence kills again.