Opinion ID: 1560454
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Improper Issuance of Warrants

Text: ¶ 14. Judge Bradford instructed the clerk to issue warrants against two women against whom no criminal charges had been filed, and no notice of the hearing was provided. In Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance v. Carr, 990 So.2d 763 (Miss.2008), the judge used his position to threaten a woman with arrest at a time when no criminal charges were pending against the her. The judge was publicly reprimanded, suspended without pay for sixty days, fined $2,000 and assessed the costs of the proceeding, $100. The Commission characterizes Judge Bradford as having acted in a similar manner, but because of the particular facts and circumstances in the Carr case, this Court found that the judge was using his public office to promote the private interests of others. The Carr Court, however, adopted the punishment suggested by the Commission. As in the present case, the judge and the Commission filed a joint recommendation, which this Court followed. Judge Carr received a harsher penalty than the Commission recommends for Judge Bradford. However, Judge Carr previously had been privately reprimanded once and publicly reprimanded twice. Judge Bradford, on the other hand, has never before been reprimanded by this Court and does not have a disciplinary history with the Commission.