BEFORE THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL QUALIFICATIONS

STATE OF GEORGIA
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)
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In re: lnquiry Concerning
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Docket No. 2012-31
Judge J. William Bass, Sr.
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NOTICE OF FORMAL PROCEEDINGS
To: Judge J. William Bass, Sr.
State Court of Grady County
This is to notify you that the Judicial Qualifications Commission (the
"Commission"),
after conducting an investigation of complaints against you,
has concluded that formal proceedings should be instituted for the purpose
of determining whether you have committed the acts enumerated below
and, if so, whether you are guilty of violations of the law, the Code of
Judicial Conduct, willful misconduct in office, or other conduct prejudicial
to
the administration of
justice
which brings your judicial
office into disrepute.
The purpose of these proceedings is to determine whether.
COUNT ONE
A. You violated Canon 2A ("judges shall respect and comply with the
law") and/or Canon 38 ("judges should be faithful to the law") of
the Code of Judicial Conduct when you, without legal authority,
ordered the collection of funds as "Administrative Costs" from
criminal defendants.
B. You violated Canon 28 ("judges shall not lend the prestige of
judicial
office to advance their private interests") and/or Canon 2A
("judges shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public
confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the
judiciary")
of the
Code of Judicial Conduct when you wrote and, on or about July 3,
2012, delivered a document to the county governing authority
requesting a salary increase (See Exhibit A). This document gave
the appearance that your salary increase was warranted by the
amount of funds you caused to be improperly collected by State
Court.
C. You violated Canon 2A ('judges shall respect and comply wth the
law") and O.C.G.A
S
16-10-1 (Oath of Office), when you llegally
charged costs and exacted payment from defendants, without
legal authority, for the benefit of the county and you, as the State
Courl Judge of Grady County, in order to "maximize" the collection
of revenue which the county was not otherwise entitled to receive
from defendants.
COUNT TWO
You violated Canon2A ("judges shall respect and comply with the
law") and/or Canon 38 ("judges should be faithful to the law") of the Code
of Judicial Conduct when you improperly sentenced criminal defendants
charged with DUl, first offense, to a "fine, including all surcharges and add-
ons" to pay only
$300. For DUl, second offense, you improperly sentenced
criminal defendants to pay only
$600,
including surcharges. This was in
violation of O.C.G.A.
S
40-6-391 insofar as surcharges are required to be
assessed in addition to the minimum statutory fine. Your conduct willfully
deprived the State of Georgia, and other approved entities, of receiving
surcharges which were required by law to be imposed by you and remitted
to the State.
3
COUNT THRE
You violated Canon2E ("judges shall not allow their family, social,
political
or other relationships to influence their
judicial
conduct or
judgment")
and Canon 3C(4) ('Judges shall avoid nepotism") of the Code of
Judicial Conduct when you appointed your son, William Bass, Jr., to serve
as State Court Judge of Grady County, in your absence.
COUNT FOUR
You violated Canon 3C (ludges shall avoid ex pafte communications)
when you engaged in a private Facebook chat with a "friend" who
contacted you on behalf of her brother about a DUI matter which was
pending in Grady County. The friend discussed with you the ramifications
of a DUI and whether her brother could keep his license for work. She
described to you that her brother had a young family and he needed "to
drive to sell property." Your friend also advised you that she knew that her
brother had an attorney. After receiving this private Facebook message,
you engaged the friend in a lengthy conversation, although you were
specifically advised that her brother "ha[d] an attorney." ln your response
to her you provided legal "advice" about how her brother should
"get
this
matter in to State Courl" from the court in which it was pending, so that you
could adjudicate the matter. You further advised the defendant's family
member that once the matter got into the State Court that you would
"handle it from there." You also improperly provided legal advice to the
Facebook friend about how her brother should present his case to the
court, telling her in quoted language what her brother should say when his
case was called. You also indicated to her what the sentence would likely
be should the blood alcohol be
"low"
and it was his
"first
offense." Although
the friend provided you her brother's name, and that you knew that you had
received ex parte information about the defendant and his circumstances,
you did not recuse yourself from hearing this matter or disclose on the
record that you had engaged in an ex parte communication about this case
when the matter came before you. This conduct violates Canon 3E. Then,
you reduced the DUl, allowing your Facebook friend's brother to plea nolo
contendere to reckless conduct, a non-traffic offense, imposing a fine of
$300 and an illegal imposition of administrative costs in the amount of
$700. You also accepted a nolo contendere plea for an open container of
alcohol violation and illegally sentenced the defendant to pay no fine, and
imposed in lieu of a fine, administrative costs in the amount of
$200,
in
violation of O.C.G.A.
S
40-6-253.
This conduct violates Canon 28 insofar as you allowed your social
relationships to influence your judicial
conduct and
judgment.
You further
conveyed to your Facebook friend the impression that you were in a special
position to influence the handling of this DUI case.
COUNT FIVE
You violated Canon 1, Canon 2, andlor Canon 3 of the Code of
Judicial Conduct by engaging in the following acts of misconduct.
1l While on the bench, in Grady County State Court, you asked
members of the audience to vote for you in the upcoming election;
2l You routinely take Hispanic defendants out of the courtroom to
speak with them about their pending case, without a court reporter or the
prosecutor present, manifesting a bias or prejudice as to these defendants
based upon their race or national origin;
3l You have been verbally hostile, both in and out of court, when
confronting persons you believed voted for or supported your opponent in
the election;
6
4l You paid the fine for a defendant you had sentenced for Theft
by Shoplifting;
5l ln court, you thanked members of the audience for voting for
you in the election;
6l You were belligerent to court employees that you said were
suppofting your political opponent;
7l ln cou, you were verbally hostile to an attorney after he made
a financial contribution to your opponent in the election. You made a loud
and threatening statement in couft to the attorney: "l know you gave money
to my opponent. Don't come back;"
8l ln cour1, you have told the audience that you had been falsely
accused of having a sexual relationship with a member of your staff;
9l You threatened members of the Georgia State Patrol when you
believed that they were taking exception to some of your rulings by stating
"we'll just
take those radars back" which were provided to the State Patrol
by the Grady County Board of Commissioners;
101 During the sentencing of a male defendant you made an
inappropriate reference based upon your perceived sexual orientation of
the defendant.
COUNT SIX
You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial
Conduct when you, acting in a prosecutorial role, have improperly
suggested to the State that pending criminal cases be dismissed by the
filing of nolle prosequi.
COUNT SEVEN
You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial
Conduct when you improperly used your judicial
status in requesting that
the Sheriff not permit a bonding company to write bonds because you
believed the owner of the bonding company was not supporting your
candidacy for the State Court.
COUNT EIGHT
You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial
Conduct when, during your campaign for
judicial
office, you made
numerous threatening and confrontational statements to the owners and
other employees of the private probation services company under contract
with the State Couft because they would not publicly supporl your
candidacy. Within days of your successful election, you retaliated against
the probation company by terminating the probation company's contract
with the court.
COUNT NINE
You have violated Canon 3C of the Code of Judicial Conduct when
following a recent court appearance you contacted a local attorney and
apologized for what you described as your "unusual behavior" in refusing to
accept a plea of a defendant represented by the attorney. Thereafter, you
sent the attorney an email wherein you attempted to induce the attorney to
engage in what you described would be
"ex parte communications" which
may make the attorney "uncomfortable."
COUNT TEN
You have violated Canon 1 andlor Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial
Conduct, and O.C.G.A.
S
16-10-1 (Oath of Office) when you have
improperly suggested that criminal cases be dismissed by the State
because you know members of the defendants' family.
I
COUNT ELEVEN
The conduct in Counts One through Ten violates Canon 2 of the
Code of Judicial Conduct, and your Oath of Office (O.C.G.A.
516-10-1)
as
provided in O.C.G.A.
545-3-1.
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Rule 5(b) NOTIC
Pursuant to Rule 5(b) of the Rules of the Judicial Qualifications
Commission you are hereby notified that you have a right to file a written
verified answer with the Commission to these charges. Your answer shall
be filed within thirty (30) days after service of this notice and shall consist of
an original and six (6) copies.
1.
This
l^V
of December,2012.
Director
Judicial Qualifications Commission
Georgia Bar Number: 21081 5
Vfu* ;
z{"t/rr,*
lu
N
ryr
gran
lr. ncflnan W
Counsel for the Commission
Georgia Bar Number. 604672
Michael J. Bowers
Counsel for the Commission
Georgia Bar Number: 071650
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Judicial Qualifications Commission
P.O. Box 191
Madison, GA 30650
(706) 343-58e1
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Exhibit A
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I nesd my salary raised to $60,000 pgryear.
Ttthy shouldyou do it?
l.
My'total i"-tr'onsation' is about $4q000 ofsalary ad $lir000 of lnEuranoe.I
don't take the insuranco, but ttrs stilIprt olml compensttoi, and,, by law, tht
n'l be lowered whtle r m tn o!fic so, istg my salary to
-Ego,oo
won,t cogt
tlto county one red cen oonsidering that the couoty Laso't-had the bse of
firmishing my insuance for oovoal years (and
woo't hve to do so for me next
two years)
Z.r've never aske{ for any kind of rqise. Althougb ths is a part time
job,
it
requires my attentiol on a full tlns bads. .4,4 becrse people don't-t]ink that
judges
can practice law, it's simplyhardto earn a living.
3' Thig cour because of the exta time and energr thet I spead, confibutes mol
than
S350,000
per year to tho county. Although f dm't gei oonconted about
ir-a1s[e-noney
for the oounty', I wrk hd to manDize-what get's trrrned over. At
$40,000
per year, the next
judge
will not be abre, or willing, toto tbat. The
judgc
Tusj
go boyond,the call ofthe
job
to produce that muoh for tnu sounty. To terp
ths income at tht standrd,
the
jrdee
has got
to be ableto dwe the time ard
energtrequired.
4' I also fill in fot{" hobate Judge when she is out of torrn, and, I?ve helped tbo
lvfagistate Corut whenever I am asked..,all ofthig at no charge tothe oouu-ty.
r_amyoyr state courtjudge.I wantto be abrs to continue tomake itperfom for
the counrty as it shoul . r woutn,t skyou to do thts,
if
r saw any itwuttye
$erqeinber,
tho perbrmanae
of this cotut isn't an accident..J it c,rylrolfl"...I
humbly ask for ybur support in this mdter
If you wieh to disouss wth me, pleaso oall me at[z4-1g59 ad I'll come to you.
Resctfully, 8il1 Bs Sr.