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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

First Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Stacy L. Street could be doing double duty as acting Elizabethton Municipal Court judge if City Council gives its approval Thursday night.

City Councilman Richard Barker said Monday that after the swearing-in of newly elected council and school board members on Nov. 26, Street volunteered to serve as acting city judge “until the situation’s fully resolved.” The situation being that one month after winning reelection as Elizabethton Municipal Court judge, Jason Holly remains without a valid law license, has yet to be sworn in, and is unable to hold court.

Barker said the City Manager Daniel Estes and City Attorney Roger Day had studied the situation in detail and “they want to appoint an acting city judge and make it as unpolitical as possible.”

The councilman said the city staff’s explanation of the first item of new business on the agenda cites part of Section 6-33-104 of the Elizabethton Municipal Charter, saying, “In case of the absence or inability of the judge to serve, the City Council may appoint and fix the compensation of an acting city judge who may be removed at any time without cause.” Staff goes on to say, “Criminal Court Judge Stacy Street is willing to serve in the role of acting city judge, if the Council so desires.”

“I am in full agreement with this agenda item because I am very concerned with the swollen docket, in that Municipal Court has not been held since mid-October,” Barker said Thursday. “In addition, anyone issued a summons or fine deserves a quick resolution of their case. This is an extremely unfortunate situation for our municipal government, and I am very appreciative to Judge Street for his willingness to step into the breach.”

Barker said he expects the acting appointment, if approved, would be in place for about two months.

“We’re going to have to wait 90 days on Holly, which is going to take it out to the end of January because his suspension went into effect the 28th of October,” the councilman said, maintaining that the City Charter says that if the city judge is “incapacitated or has the inability to serve,” after 90 days the position is declared vacant. “And at that point, the City Council can appoint an interim municipal judge until the next General Election, which would be in 2026,” he said.

Holly was battling Teresa Murray Smith in a race to hold his seat in the Nov. 5 General Election when a little more than a week before Election Day the state board filed notice that his law license was temporarily suspended due to a failure to answer three misconduct complaints. The ballot was set, and Holly defeated Murray Smith, 3,030 votes to 1,876. Despite his victory, Holly was not among those being sworn in on Nov. 26; in fact, he was not present.

Under judicial Rule 9, 12.3(d), an attorney who is under temporary suspension “may for good cause request dissolution or amendment of any such order of temporary suspension by filing in the Nashville office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court and serving on Disciplinary Counsel a Petition for Dissolution or Amendment.”

Sandy Garrett, chief disciplinary counsel for the Supreme Court of Tennessee’s Board of Professional Responsibility, said in an email to The Star on Thursday that “Holly still has not filed a petition to dissolve his temporary suspension.”

 

Earlier City Court Disruption

Earlier this year, Municipal Court was disrupted because the state took action regarding Holly’s noncompliance with continuing education requirements.

As first reported by The Star in September, the Administrative Office of the Courts issued a letter on July 10 saying Holly had not complied with state law that requires municipal judges to annually attend three hours of continuing legal education (CLE) provided by the AOC. In a July 15 email to City Council members, the city manager said he had notified the city attorney about the judicial notice of noncompliance and requested that “no matters be heard by the court until this issue is resolved.”

A city official provided The Star with a copy of the letter and Estes’ email on July 17 and a reporter contacted Holly, who said the courses had been completed and on July 18 provided as proof screenshots of emails, including one from Lainey Crawford of the AOC’s Judicial Education Division. The undated screenshot shows Crawford saying, “We have received those hours and will get them processed as soon as we can. You can expect certificates of completion via email sometime today. This takes care of the 3 hours for 2023’s requirement. However, please remember to complete additional hours on the TMJC portion of our website to satisfy 2024’s requirement.”

In response to a public records request, the AOC provided a July 18 email sent to Holly stating the two courses had been completed and provided certificates of completion for those.

When contacted by email about the AOC’s July 10 letter, Holly responded, saying, “Roger (Day) and I spoke when he received notice and I immediately took steps to correct. When Roger contacted me was the first time I knew about it.”

According to the city attorney, Holly’s delay in meeting the CLE requirements and the subsequent action by the AOC created a bit of problem in that there were two days when cases could not be heard. “I was here, the clerk was here, we couldn’t hold court, and everybody that showed up I reset them, because there was nothing we could do,” Day said.

Day also said there were two days when court was held – July 10 and 11 – “not realizing that everything we did was null and void, so we had to go back and undo everything.” The city attorney said Municipal Court Clerk Grace Grindstaff had to contact the Tennessee Department of Safety concerning traffic violation decisions and advise the department to disregard those actions.

 

 

First Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Stacy L. Street