From the Chattanooga Times Free Press: A Meigs County judge has received a public reprimand from the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct. In an O
From the Chattanooga Times Free Press: A Meigs County judge has received a public reprimand from the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct. In an Oct. 11 court hearing, the judge called a defendant a “tough guy,” told the defendant’s daughter to “shut up” and mocked the man’s disabled wife.
Board of Judicial Conduct Chairman Dee David Gay, publicly reprimanded General Sessions Judge Casey Mark Stokes after a complaint was filed by the defendant, Ronald Satterfield.
According to the letter, Satterfield claimed the judge called him a tough guy and suggested if they saw each other on the street they would end up cussing each other out or having a fistfight.
Satterfield also claimed that Judge Stokes mocked his wife’s physical disability by impersonating her movements and told his daughter to ‘shut up’ as the daughter was trying to explain her mother’s neurological disability and thus the reason for her uncontrolled hand and arm movements in court.
A portion of Gay’s letter read in part, “Judges are expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and dignity of judicial office at all times. This obligation includes the specific responsibility of being dignified and courteous to those with whom the judge deals in an official capacity. Name-calling in court sets a poor example for everyone present.”
Gay went on to say, such actions leave people in court with the impression the judge is biased.
The Board’s investigative panel’s decision to impose a public reprimand was accepted by Judge Stokes.
