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Article published Sep 21, 2007 Judge Young subject of judicial conduct review
By Rick Laney of The Daily Times Staff
Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young appears to be the subject of a judicial conduct review by the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary.
On Wednesday, Jim LaRue, an investigator for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, was in Maryville conducting interviews focused on Young’s behavior on Sept. 7 during an order of protection hearing.
David Byrne, assistant general counsel for the administrative office of the Tennessee Supreme Court, confirmed that LaRue is an investigator working on an investigation in Blount County.
Last week, The Daily Times reported that Ana Calixto, a legal immigrant from Nicaragua who lives and works in Blount County, went to Judge Young seeking an order of protection from her estranged husband, Fernando Calixto. Ana said she has filed domestic violence charges against her husband in the past.
Ana and other witnesses said the judge asked the Calixtos if they were in the United States legally, told them they had no rights in court and instructed them to go back where they came from. He then dismissed her request for an order of protection. When Ana Calixto asked the judge what that would do to her two children — both legal U.S. citizens — the judge reportedly told her there were Americans here in this country who can take care of her children.
Ana Calixto has been in the United States legally since 1994 when she came here to attend school and work. She met her husband, an immigrant from Mexico, in the United States and the couple has a U.S. marriage license issued by the state of Virginia.
The Calixtos have been separated for nine months and are currently in the process of getting a divorce.
Ana Calixto maintains that she has kept her “temporary protected status” filings with immigration services up-to-date while she has been in the United States. Her most recent filing with immigration services and the Department of Homeland Security was dated Aug. 8, 2007, and is reportedly valid for 18 months.
Although Ana Calixto is a legal immigrant, law experts say immigration and residency status is irrelevant in a U.S. court.
“People need to read the U.S. Constitution,” said Linda Rose, an adjunct law professor at Vanderbilt University Law School — one of the top-rated law schools in the nation — and managing member of the Rose Immigration Law Firm, PLC in Nashville.
“The U.S. Constitution says all people — legal or illegal, citizen or noncitizen — have a right to fundamental due process if they are on U.S. soil.
“There are other areas of the Constitution that reference rights of citizens, and those rights are exclusive to U.S. citizens. But due process is a right all people are entitled to, according to the U.S. Constitution.”
According to the state legislature, which created the Court of the Judiciary, the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary was established “to provide an orderly and efficient method for making inquiry into the physical, mental and moral fitness of any Tennessee judge and determine whether a judge committed judicial misconduct.”
The Court of the Judiciary is charged with providing a process by which sanctions can be imposed against a judge and, when necessary, provide procedures for the removal of a judge.
The Tennessee Court of the Judiciary is composed of 16 members: 10 judges, three attorneys and three lay people who — after investigations and hearings — may recommend removal, suspension or other disciplinary action against a judge. It has jurisdiction over all Tennessee state judges.
The Daily Times’ calls to Judge Young on Thursday afternoon were not returned. Rose said judges in Tennessee are increasingly being investigated for courtroom conduct involving immigrants.
“Even administrative law judges who review actual immigration cases are now being reviewed for acting inappropriately on the bench,” Rose said. “I don’t think this is an isolated instance — but cases like this aren’t usually exposed the way The Daily Times exposed this one.”