Opinion ID: 1113440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Moffett-Martin Incident

Text: Judge Cantrell contends that his actions in the dispute between Moffett and Martin over an automobile was an effort to give the parties an opportunity to settle their differences. The Commission asserts that in issuing a warrant for Martin's arrest, although he was not arrested, Judge Cantrell improperly used the threat of criminal process to collect a civil debt. The Commission, however, did not specifically address the issue in its findings or its motion. Where this Court has affirmed the issuance of public reprimands upon judges charged with using the criminal process to collect a debt, the cases have involved actions far more egregious than Cantrell's. In In re Lambert, 421 So.2d 1023 (Miss. 1982), a Justice Court judge was engaged in collecting bad checks with a criminal affidavit attached, entering in them a red book separate from his official docket, and issuing criminal warrants. This was part of a larger operation he ran from his chambers, known as Check Services, Inc., wherein he used the information he gathered from collecting bad checks to provide local merchants with a check verification service of sorts. Although the Commission found a total of seven grounds for misconduct, it considered his cooperation with the Commission and willingness to rectify his operations as mitigating factors, and imposed a public reprimand and a fine of $2,000.00. In In re Bailey, 541 So.2d 1036 (Miss. 1989), where a judge jailed a litigant for civil debt, this Court likewise affirmed the imposition of a public reprimand. Judge Cantrell's actions in this case certainly are not of the same magnitude of those found in Lambert or Bailey.