City judge denies fixing daughter's ticket

Complaint: Kittrell had clerk dismiss citation

Written by

Josh Cross

Gallatin News Examiner

A complaint filed with the state against Gallatin City Recorder and Judge Connie Kittrell says she gave preferential treatment to her daughter with the dismissal of a traffic citation in 2012, according to documents obtained by the Gallatin News Examiner.

Kittrell denies the accusations and has asked the state board responsible for policing judges to throw out the complaint.

In September, City Attorney Joe Thompson filed a formal complaint with the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct after Misty Cowan, a customer service clerk in the recorder’s office, lodged a grievance with city officials in August against Kittrell in her capacity as judge.

Thompson informed the state board of the situation after reviewing documents and conducting interviews with Cowan and another clerk, Tradessa Harris, according to a Sept. 16 memo sent to the City Council and Mayor Jo Ann Graves. Thompson declined to comment on the documents Tuesday.

The complaint arose from a traffic citation for expired tags and no proof of insurance issued Feb. 25, 2011, to Kittrell’s daughter, Kara Havron, by a Gallatin Police Department officer. Havron, 37, did not provide proof of insurance to the city recorder’s office before her April 1, 2011, court date. She also failed to appear for that court date, according to city records.

A letter was mailed to Havron in May 2011 informing her she had to remedy her failure to appear. Harris said another employee told her Kittrell removed the citation from a folder being sent to the Tennessee Department of Safety for license suspension, according to the complaint. The citation stayed on Kittrell’s desk for months until she approached Cowan in August 2012 to have it dismissed along with $210 in fines, the complaint said.

At the time, City Court Clerk Kathy Stewart was on vacation and Cowan was still within her six-month, new-hire probationary period. Cowan said in the complaint that the judge tried to hide the action from Stewart by having the dismissal backdated to Feb. 25, 2011.

Havron did have insurance at the time she was cited and renewed her vehicle registration before her 2011 court date, records show.

According to city records, both of Havron’s citations were listed as having been dismissed Feb. 25, 2011, but show that the change was made in the computer by Cowan on Aug. 1, 2012. Cowan declined to comment about the complaint Tuesday.

Kittrell said she pulled the citation for dismissal in 2011 after her daughter called her and told her she had proof of insurance and valid registration, according to a response to the complaint signed by Kittrell and her attorneys, William “Butch” Moore Jr. and David Bearman, on Oct. 28.

“Knowing that her daughter was in compliance with the violations, Judge Kittrell pulled her daughter’s citation and put it on her desk with intent to bring it to the clerk so that it could be dismissed,” the response said. “It is not unusual for the judge to keep tickets on her desk. Citations such as the one issued to Ms. Havron are routinely dismissed without court costs by the city court clerk when the individual cited shows proof of insurance and registration.”

As part of the response, Kittrell and her attorneys said they believe there is no basis for a full investigation and have asked the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct to dismiss the matter. They also said no other complaints have been filed against Kittrell and described it as an isolated incident.

Categorical denial

Kittrell claims that she never told Cowan to backdate the disposition because the computer would still display the date the change was made, and that it was a coincidence Stewart was on vacation when she discovered the ticket. She said she had forgotten about it after multiple deaths in her family in the first half of 2011.

“When she discovered the misplaced ticket, she immediately brought it to the clerk and it was recorded,” the response said. “She did not deceive or mislead anyone.”

Kittrell also “categorically denies asking or telling Cowan to enter into the computer any information about her daughter’s ticket that could be construed as being misleading,” according to the response.

The response also questioned why Cowan waited a year to lodge the complaint, which happened after it said she “received an unfavorable annual evaluation and subsequent notices of misconduct.” However, Cowan’s latest evaluation, signed in February, showed she received a rating of “commendable” by Kittrell, which is the second highest rating possible, according to city personnel records.

When asked about the inconsistencies between the response and Cowan’s employee file, Kittrell and Moore both declined to comment.

Kittrell agreed to pay for the amount of the ticket if the city or the Board of Judicial Conduct was concerned that Havron received a financial benefit, according to her response.

Candidates vie for judgeship

Written by: Doug Davis

MURFREESBORO — The three candidates left standing after the Tennessee Judicial Nominating Commission’s proceedings concluded Friday told The Daily News Journal earlier this week why they are qualified to be the next appointed 16th Judicial District judge. “I have been in practice for 23 years,” said Howard Wilson, 51, of Lascassas. “I have a broader range of experience due to the fact that I have practiced so much longer (than the other two candidates).

He said he also was an administrative law judge for the Tennessee Department of Education for 14 of those years. “I have the proper demeanor to be the judge,” he said, referring to a Rutherford/Cannon County Bar Association poll which gave him high marks. He came in third as highly recommended with 37 votes, 26.8 percent.

Another finalist, M. Keith Siskin picked up 56 votes in the highly recommended category and picked up 40.6 percent of those surveyed to come out on top in the poll.
Siskin, 40, a magistrate in Rutherford County Juvenile Court, spoke of his qualifications Monday afternoon. “I have a well-rounded background. I’ve got eight years of judicial experience,” he said. “From 1998 to 2007, I practiced law. When you combine my judicial experience with the litigation experience, I can see both sides of the courtroom and see how things should be done.”

Siskin was appointed part-time magistrate by Judge Donna Scott Davenport in juvenile court in 2004 and Siskin became full-time magistrate in 2007.
“It has the same powers as judge,” Siskin said. “The only difference is that the (Magistrate’s) decision can be appealed to the judge.

Barnes, 36, touts her judicial experience and experience as an attorney. “The circuit court judges in our district hear both criminal and civil cases and I have experience in both,” Barnes said. “I have also received special training from the National Judicial College, the nation’s leading provider of education for judges,” the Smyrna Municipal Judge said.

Barnes said she hears criminal general sessions cases as part of her duties in Smyrna.

“Which means I conduct preliminary hearings for felony charges,” she continued. “I conduct bench trials for misdemeanor charges and hear violation of probation hearings. I (also) hear municipal code violations and traffic offenses.”

The Smyrna court by special legislation, she explained, has concurrent general sessions jurisdiction for criminal cases. “From what I understand of the other candidates, I am the only applicant that is a sitting judge that hears adult cases,” she said.

Thirteen candidates applied for three finalist slots Friday during a full day of meetings inside the Rutherford County Courthouse in Murfreesboro.
The next step is apparently a background check by the TBI of all three candidates. It is not known when the candidates will be vetted by the governor’s office or before Gov. Bill Haslam himself.

Don Ash has accepted a new position as senior judge and will be vacating his post as circuit court judge, but it appears his initial assignment as senior judge will be in his current position.

TN Supreme Court reverses course on donations by judges to campaigns

Written by

Bobby Allyn and Sarah Kingsbury

In January, the Tennessee Supreme Court adopted an overhauled code of conduct that applied to judges across the state, intended to draw a clear line between courts and politics.

But days before the new conflict-of-interest rules were to take effect on July 1, the Court issued a little-noticed order reversing one of its reforms: judges in the state will be allowed to make political contributions — despite being expressly banned in the original, widely-celebrated changes.

Most of the ethics reforms have remained intact, including specific rules about when a judge should step down from a case due to campaign contributions or other activities that may undermine fairness. In addition, judges cannot endorse candidates.
Nonetheless, some legal experts say the change of direction is questionable.

“The better practice is for judges to err on the side of staying out of politics,” said Adam Skaggs, attorney with New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “Judges would be well-served to avoid injecting themselves in heated partisan debates.”

At least 27 Tennessee judges have donated to political campaigns this year, according to the Davidson County Election Commission. Nearly all the donations were under $1,000.There were a few exceptions, however.

Out-going General Sessions Judge Mike Jameson gave the largest sum, a $1,400 contribution to his former colleague Phillip North's bid for state Senate. And Judge John McClarty of the Court of Appeals for East Tennessee contributed $1,000 to the re-election campaign of Representative JoAnne Favors of Chattanooga.

The change of course was prompted by letters to the high court from three judges, two from the Knoxville area and one from Lafayette, who disputed the rule.
Among them, Judge David Duggan of the Fifth District argued in his letter to the court that prohibiting donations infringes on judges’ free speech.

“I think judges should self-regulate self-restrict, but I don’t see how making a political contribution impacts my way of hearing a case,” he said in a phone interview.
The court considered the judges’ letters as a petition, which triggered a survey of some 180 judges around the state. Nearly 63 percent of respondents said they favored no limits on campaign contributions beyond those that apply to the public.
The Tennessee Bar Association supported lifting the ban.

“The courts have held that money is speech,” said Allan Ramsaur, who leads the association. Unless there is a compelling reason to override First Amendment rights, he added, donation restrictions “are pretty much frowned upon,” in addition to being vulnerable to legal attacks.

Yet Dick Williams of Common Cause Tennessee, which advocates for government openess, said “it’s a step back from what could have been a significant step forward.”
“Preventing endorsement is meaningless, because a contribution is a de facto endorsement,” Williams said. “It signals that the court bowed to the interest of those who want to contribute.”

Sen. Mae Beavers, a champion of greater judicial transparency, said the state’s recusal reform and other ethics revisions — the first changes to the code in more than two decades — should be applauded.

In other states where judicial donation rules were amended, lawsuits swiftly followed, according to Skaggs of the Brennan Center. There has been no indication that a legal challenge is looming in Tennessee.

Skaggs said some states are trying to harness the momentum around the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which gave corporations and unions the right to contribute to campaigns without limits, to deregulate judicial rules. “If they succeed, it is going to create courts that are staffed with people indistinguishable from other political groups, which would be a great disservice to the public.”

TN court clerks resist suspending licenses over unpaid fees

Some worry new law on unpaid fees further hurts poor

Written by: Brian Haas

Come Wednesday, Omar Dhies is set to lose his driver’s license.
Not because of the DUI charge, but because he hasn’t paid nearly $2,500 in court fees he owes after his conviction in Davidson County.“I’m trying to pay the court costs,” Dhies said. “But (what) if you don’t have nothing to pay to get the license back?”

Starting July 1, clerks throughout Tennessee gained the power to begin suspending driver’s licenses if court fees and fines go unpaid for a year. But not a single license has been suspended, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Even Tommy Bradley, chief administrative officer for the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office and the man who wrote the law, is holding off until Aug. 1 to give debtors one last chance to pay at least something.

Other clerks are questioning whether to suspend licenses at all, out of logistical or moral reservations. “I just want to wait and see,” said Wilson County Circuit Court Clerk Linda Neal. “I’m afraid this law is going to be hurting the people who would really like to put out the effort to pay and they simply can’t.” Bradley acknowledges there is “widespread” opposition to the law, which he wrote to help collect hundreds of millions in uncollected court costs.

Wiggle room

In Davidson County alone, taxpayers are owed more than $300 million in court costs — enough to run Metro’s police and fire departments for a year. Bradley noticed that courts had far less trouble collecting costs from defendants in traffic cases who risked losing their licenses for not paying up. So he persuaded the legislature in 2011 to extend that potential penalty to all criminal court defendants.

The law states that clerks are supposed to file to have a debtor’s license suspended if their fees are uncollected a year after disposition. Clerks were given wiggle room, however, to delay filing for a suspension, as in the case of debtors setting up payment plans. Bradley said that even his office won’t suspend licenses of debtors who pay at least $15 a month.

“We’re only going to be sending the ones who aren’t paid and aren’t paying,” he said. “If they’re making a minimum monthly payment of $15 a month, we’re not sending it. The point is not to take away your license, but to get it paid.”

Since his office began sending out warnings, he said the simple threat of suspension has helped collect on fees. More than $600,000 has been collected in court fees than the prior year. “That’s a chunk of change,” he said. “The word’s out.”

Broad opposition

But Bradley recognizes that the new law isn’t particularly popular among clerks.
“I understand clearly the opposition for this statute,” he said. “I think it’s widespread, to be frank.”

Neal said that aside from moral qualms at saddling poor offenders with even more burdens, she’s not sure she has the money or staff to send out notices and then process debtors for suspensions.

“We’ve got all the work that we can say grace over now,” Neal said. “To me, it’s going to be more record-keeping and a little bit more difficult to keep up with.”
Neal said she’s more likely to just continue sending unpaid debts to a collection agency. It’s cheaper and easier on her overworked staff.

The new law also has created more work for attorneys. Davidson County Public Defender Dawn Deaner said more clients are asking judges to have their fees waived, so as to avoid having their licenses suspended.

“You can’t get blood from a turnip. I think, frankly, a lot of the clerks out there recognize that they’re chasing a turnip, that these folks don’t have the money,” Deaner said. “Most of the people in the criminal justice system, they are indigent, they are living below the federal poverty guideline. When you then suspend their driver’s license, you make it harder for them to find employment, find resources, find ways to pay these debts.”

Gov. Haslam names blue-chip panel to hear judicial selection appeal

Written by Chas Sisk


Gov. Bill Haslam appointed a special Supreme Court to sort through a long-running court battle over how judges are chosen in Tennessee.

Haslam named three former judges and two other attorneys to handle an appeal filed by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Nashville lawyer John Jay Hooker that challenges the makeup of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Hooker says the court violates the state constitution because members are initially appointed by the governor.
Hooker asked members of the state Supreme Court to recuse themselves from the case because they are also appointed by the governor. Eleven of 12 appeals court judges have also dismissed themselves.

The special Supreme Court will consist of William M. Barker, a retired state Supreme Court chief justice who now practices law in Chattanooga; Andree Sophia Blumstein, a Nashville attorney specializing in civil appellate litigation; George H. Brown Jr., a former Supreme Court justice, circuit court judge and arbitration specialist in Memphis; Robert L. Echols, a former U.S. District Court judge who practices law in Nashville; and W. Morris Kizer, a former law director for the city of Knoxville when Haslam was mayor there.

“The special appointees are a group of highly qualified and diverse legal minds representing the three grand divisions of the state,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “They come from all practice areas and have more than a century of experience.”

Hooker has been challenging the so-called Tennessee Plan, through which vacancies on the state’s appeals court are filled by the governor using a list of pre-screened candidates. Judges then must stand for retention elections, up-or-down votes on whether they should remain on the bench.

Hooker says the system violates the state constitution’s stipulation that judges be elected. The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled previously that retention elections fulfill the requirement.

Lawmakers are weighing constitutional amendments that would clarify the process.

New laws taking effect in TN beginning July 1

A list of some of the new laws:

GOV. BILL HASLAM'S BUDGET: Enacts Tennessee's more than $31 billion annual spending plan.

ABORTION DOCTORS: Requires physicians to have hospital privileges in the home or adjacent county of woman seeking abortion.

TRA OVERHAUL: Overhauls the Tennessee Regulatory Authority with a part-time board.

MENTAL HEALTH-NAME CHANGE: Adds the words Substance Abuse Services to the name of the state Department of Mental Health.

EMBRYO ASSAULT: Includes embryo as victim in assaults on pregnant women.

DOMESTIC ABUSE: Requires mandatory jail time for repeat domestic abuse convictions.

GANG BILL: Increases penalties for violent crimes committed by three or more people.

GATEWAY SEXUAL ACTIVITY: Prohibits teachers from promoting or condoning "gateway sexual activity."

CORRECTIONS TRANSFER: Merges the Board of Probations and Parole into the Department of Correction.

CHARTER SCHOOLS FOREIGNERS: Limits number of foreign workers allowed to be employed at charter schools.

CHARTER SCHOOL TRANSPARENCY: Requires charter schools to operate under state open meetings laws.

SCHOOL ACTIVITIES: Allows parents to keep their children from joining extracurricular groups at school.

JUDICIAL DISCIPLINE: Creates new panel for disciplining judges.

DUI MINORS: Increases penalties for drunken driving when child under 18 is in car.

WILD APPEARING SWINE: Makes it a crime to release wild-appearing swine without proper documentation.

BATH SALTS: Makes it a felony to sell synthetic drugs known as bath salts.

BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: Allows governor to appoint heads of boards, including Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

CIVIL SERVICE: Revises state civil service laws to make it easier to hire and fire state employees.

ETHICS DISCLOSURES: Requires local and regional planning commissioner to submit state ethics disclosures.

MONOXIDE MONITOR-RV: Requires working carbon monoxide detectors in leased recreational vehicles.

REMOTE MEETINGS: Allows school board members to participate in meetings remotely.

ROLL YOUR OWN CIGARETTES: Promulgates rules for new requirements for roll-your-own tobacco retailers.

SAGGY PANTS: Prohibits students from wearing saggy pants or other indecent clothing on school grounds.

SCHOOL SAFETY: Gives teachers more authority to act against students who pose a safety risk.

TATTOO LEGISLATION: Increases the penalty for tattooing a minor.

Supreme Court adopts new ethics rules for TN judges

Published June 26, 2012 by Philip Nannie             

The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted a comprehensive revision to its ethics rules. “Maintaining a high standard of judicial ethics is paramount to the public’s trust and confidence in the courts and the judges who preside over them,” Chief Justice Cornelia A. Clark said in a statement Tuesday.

The rules changes impacting the state’s judiciary most tangibly are in essence a restatement of earlier rules governing the political activities of judges, but with modifications. Judges and judicial candidates may continue to make contributions to political organizations — or to candidates for public office — as well attend or purchase tickets to dinners and other events sponsored by a political organization or a candidate for public office. The latter is a nuance not included in the first proposed rule changes and was included after input from the Tennessee Bar Association and others. Further, judges and judicial candidates are now prohibited from endorsing or opposing other candidates for public office.

Click here for the order issued by State Supreme Court Chief Justice Cornelia A. Clark, which includes the petition to amend Rule 10.
Other items decided by the court in its January 2012 session addressing rules of conduct changes are as follows:
• The court adopted a new provision regarding the disability and impairment of a judge or attorney. The rule instructs judges to take “appropriate action” should a judge have reasonable belief that another judge or attorney is impaired.
• The court adopted a rule setting out a new procedure for pursuing the recusal of a judge, and a new process for seeking an expedited appeal if a motion for recusal is denied.
The new guidelines for conduct, dubbed Rule 10, take effect July 1.