A federal judge Tuesday tossed out a Memphis probation company's lawsuit accusing two district judges and nine cities in Craighead County of interfering with the company's collection of court fees.
The company, called The Justice Network, provided probation services to misdemeanor and traffic defendants in the county for about 20 years, until David Boling and Tommy Fowler became district judges last year -- elected largely on their campaigns to overhaul the courts' probation system, which they said trapped defendants in a cycle of poverty.
The county's decision to stop doing business with The Justice Network, and the judges' efforts beginning early this year to hold "amnesty" sessions allowing offenders to significantly reduce or eliminate constantly multiplying fees that the business assessed, led it to file suit June 30 in federal court. The suit sought a court order stopping the amnesty sessions and a declaration that the county's and judges' actions violated constitutional, statutory and common-law rights.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which champions efforts across the country to protect the constitutional rights of poor people, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in August, saying the case "highlights the systemic problems inherent in the use of a for-profit company to manage peoples' lives through the criminal justice system."
"The prevalence of for-profit companies in the criminal justice system continues to entrap poor people, too many of whom are African-American or minority, in a cycle of escalating debt and unnecessary incarceration," said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the committee.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Moody granted the defendants' motions to dismiss the suit, saying, "The court finds that Judge Boling and Judge Fowler are entitled to absolute judicial immunity against all ... claims. Unless judges act completely outside all jurisdiction, they are absolutely immune from suit when acting in their judicial capacity."
Moody said that under state law, all circuit, district courts and city courts "shall have the authority to suspend the imposition of sentences or the imposition of fines, or both, in all criminal cases pending before the courts unless specifically prohibited by law."
"The acts of Judge Boling and Judge Fowler, modifying, suspending or terminating the terms of probation previously imposed by the court, are judicial acts," Moody said.
"The Justice Network put profit before people and, as a result, ran its businesses with utter disregard for the well-being of constitutional rights of the communities most impacted by its questionable business practices," Clarke said Tuesday.
"The dismissal of this lawsuit also vindicates the efforts of reform-minded judges who are working to ensure equal justice and due process in their courtrooms, and to consequently protect the civil rights of minorities and indigent defendants," Clarke said.
Moody also rejected the company's claims that, as authorized policymakers for the cities and the county, the judges could be held responsible for constitutional violations.
"State district court judges are state government officials and are not employees of the cities," Moody said. "Further, even if the judges were employees of the cities, Judge Boling and Judge Fowler's judicial decisions were not a final policy decision of a type creating municipal liability under [federal law]."
Denying the company's claims for unjust enrichment, Moody said the company failed to show that the cities or county "had any authority or control over the judges."
In addition, he said the company hadn't demonstrated that the cities or the county received something of value to which they weren't entitled by forgiving debts that probation clients owed the company.
Metro on 11/29/2017