Montgomery judge suspended for jailing people who couldn't afford fines (al.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Kent Faulk | [e-mail]
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on January 05, 2017 at 3:35 PM, updated January 05, 2017 at 4:04 PM

The presiding judge of Montgomery's municipal court on Thursday was suspended without pay for 11 months after agreeing that he had violated canons of judicial ethics regarding the jailing of poor people who couldn't pay fines.

Judge Armstead Lester Hayes III was suspended under an agreement he reached with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC). He will get credit for the amount of time he has already served under suspension since the original charges were brought in November. His suspension ends Oct. 1.

The agreement was approved by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on Thursday.

Under the agreement Hayes is adjudicated guilty of seven charges of violating the Canons of Judicial Ethics as alleged in the JIC complaint. Hayes also will have to pay the $4,312 cost of the proceeding, including the amount incurred by the JIC, according to the agreement.
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Collection tactics by the court had helped Montgomery's municipal court system collect millions of dollars in fees and fines that are three or more times the amounts collected in Birmingham and other large Alabama cities, according to the charges, according to the JIC's original complaint.
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more: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/01/montgomery_judge_suspended_for.html

[dalton99a]

1. No jail time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. He violated the rules of judicial ethics. He wasn't convicted of a crime.

What he did should be a crime but apparently it isn't.

[ProudLib72]

3. I heard about this guy

on the radio several months ago. The radio host had one of the lawyers representing the poor whom this asshat fleeced. These people were spending jail time and several thousand dollars because they had bounced $10 to $100 checks. It was outrageous what he was doing!