Judge agrees to stop conditioning right to appointed counsel on community work
A municipal judge in Tennessee who imposed conditions on the right to counsel and trial by jury has received a reprimand and agreed to a cease and desist order.
Judge Reese Holley of Dickson told the disciplinary counsel he thought he was following established law but he realized his error, according to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct. The June 30 public reprimand and the July 6 cease and desist order are here (PDF). WKRN-TV has a story.
According to the reprimand, Holley:
• Required defendants to perform public service work before being granted appointed counsel.
• Required the waiver of the right to counsel and a jury trial before granting a continuance to some defendants.
• Allowed defendants to make donations to the judge’s specified charities as a requirement of probation or to have appointed counsel.
• Sentenced defendants to jail time for contempt if they didn’t complete the public service work required before the appointment of counsel.
• Ordered cash-only bonds.
• Refused in some cases to appoint counsel without holding an indigency hearing.
Holley issued this statement to WKRN: “Although I had fashioned these practices from the procedures followed by other courts and thought them to be moral and lawful, they were deemed to provide or could have provided an appearance of impropriety. I respect the decision of disciplinary counsel and I agreed to not continue these practices.”
