Saturday, August 19, 2006

Outgoing judge dimisses tickets

This morning's Daily News Journal has a front page story about outgoing Smyrna town judge Chris Coats. According to the article, on his last day Thursday, Coats dismissed close to $6000 in fines.
Approximately 20 Rutherford County jail inmates were on Thursday night's docket, along with 120 or so traffic citations. Court Clerk Terry Davenport said most of the traffic citations were dismissed.

"Some he dismissed at no cost, and some he dealt with in the normal manner," Davenport said. "He told me he based his decision on the infraction."

When asked if Coats had ever done something similar during his tenure as clerk, Davenport responded, "This is a bit of a departure, yes."

The position of town judge has recently gone from part-time to full time. Coats has held this position for the past 14 years but recently lost the seat to Keta Barnes on August 3. Coats lost the seat by a 116-vote margin.
Smyrna Municipal Court is one of 30 community courts in the state that has General Sessions powers, meaning it can hear misdemeanor violations of state law punishable by no more than 11 months and 29 days' jail time. Davenport, who was elected Aug. 3 to the post he was appointed to five years ago, said he wasn't sure of how many cases were disposed of and how many resulted in fines because he had not yet handled the after-court paperwork. Mayor Bob Spivey placed the number of lost fines in the $6,000 range. The court expects to collect $1.3 million in fines this fiscal year.

Mayor Spivey is considering filing complaints with the Board of Professional Responsibility and the state Court of the Judiciary.

"It's certainly unethical what he did," Spivey said, adding that he'd attempted to contact Coats, but had not heard from him early Friday evening.

The mayor also said he is looking into the possibility of finding a substitute judge to handle court dates set for Aug. 22, 24 and 29.

Spivey said he would try to attend today's General Sessions Court, which has 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. dockets, consisting of about 300 cases

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