Can state bar discipline judge already reprimanded by judicial regulator? NC high court to decide
The North Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a judge already reprimanded by the Judicial Standards Commission can be disciplined by the state bar for the same conduct.
In an order issued on its own accord on Friday, the court took up the case of Judge Jerry Tillett of Dare County and stayed ethics proceedings against him, report the Outer Banks Voice and the Daily Advance.
The North Carolina State Bar filed an ethics complaint against Tillett in 2015, two years after Tillett was reprimanded by the Judicial Standards Commission for misusing his authority in a feud with the police chief and assistant town manager for the town of Kill Devil Hills. The Outer Banks Sentinel covered the complaint here.
A state bar hearing panel concluded in December that Tillett violated lawyer ethics rules and set a hearing date on the appropriate punishment for June 28, the Daily Advance reported. The town attorney for Kill Devil Hills, Steven Michael, is also chair of the bar’s disciplinary hearing commission, but he removed himself from the bar ethics case, according to this story by the Outer Banks Voice.
According to the findings of fact by the Judicial Standards Commission in its March 2013 reprimand (PDF), Tillett had called an in-chambers meeting in 2010 with town and police officials after his adult son was questioned by the police department.
In 2011, the reprimand says, Tillett received complaints about the police chief by police officers and argued to the district attorney that the police chief was guilty of malfeasance. He wrote to the police chief on judicial stationery, saying he would take appropriate action in accord with his inherent authority to the extent the police chief’s conduct involved conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, violations of criminal law and misconduct in office. He also drafted an executive order requiring that town personnel records be brought to him for review.
In 2012, the reprimand says, Tillett drafted another letter on judicial stationery saying he had received complaints of professional misconduct by the assistant town manager and warned he would act in accord with his inherent authority.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Former NC justice calls for outside review of state bar, says it’s divided into ‘two extreme camps’ “
Wrong word in last paragraph corrected at 8:55 a.m. Link to order added at 2:10 p.m.
