Officials turn out in support of Judge Young

By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff

A who’s who of Blount County politics showed up Tuesday to show support for Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young, who is currently the subject of a judicial review by the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary.

The rally of support was attended by more than 125 people, including Blount County Sheriff James Berrong, Maryville City Manager Greg McClain, state Rep. Doug Overbey and Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, who gave the keynote address at the meeting.

Young was not in attendance.

Before the gathering was called to order, Blount County Republican Party Chairman Dave Bennett — who is also the Blount County finance director — said the meeting was called so that Young could know people in the community supported him.
“I think he’s doing an absolutely wonderful job and I’m here in support of him,” Bennett said.

According to Bennett, the room at the Blount County Library where the meeting took place was paid for by the Blount County Republican Party, but that beyond that the two groups had nothing to do with each other. Bennett, as most other’s did, said he was attending the meeting not as an official, but as a private citizen.

“The message is we want Judge Young to know that he’s doing a tremendous job,” Bennett said.

Young has been in the news several times recently concerning cases before him in court — the first stemming from a hearing on Sept. 7 where a woman accused him of denying her an order of protection because she is an immigrant. She said Young also told her to go back to her home country and that Americans here could take care of her children, who are U.S. citizens.

It is for his alleged actions during the hearing that Young is currently the subject of a judicial conduct review by the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary.
Also speaking before the event started, McClain spoke out in support of Young.

“I’ve been a friend of Judge Young for many years,” he said. “There are few people who have the kind of character Judge Young has.

“This community has a lot of respect for him.”

Overbey was equally supportive of Young, saying he is a good judge “who has served so well for so many years.”

Overbey said he has practiced law in Young’s court and he has “respect for him as a jurist.”

Looking over the growing crowd walking into the room, Overbey said he felt Young would be happy to see how many people are supporting him.

“I think, if I were in his shoes, it would certainly warm my heart,” he said.

While he would not say if he agreed with the assertion of some at the gathering Tuesday, that recent coverage in The Daily Times was “unfair”, Overbey said the stories in the paper and the man he knows just don’t jive.

“What I’ve read has not been consistent with the judge I have appeared before,” he said, saying Young was always courteous and respectful to those appearing before him.

In his address to the group, Cunningham was blunt about the immigrant situation, saying the woman, Ana Calixto, did not meet the requirements of receiving a protective order to begin with.

“And these are facts that could have been garnished, had anybody done the legwork,” he said, alluding to what he called an “unfair attack” by The Daily Times’ Sept. 12 article, and articles following on the original Calixto story. “I’m not a reporter, but I went to the courthouse and I found out things in just a snap that anybody could have found out if they had bothered to look.”

Because Calixto did not claim she had been physically abused, or been subject to threats of physical abuse by her husband, she did not meet the criteria to receive a protective order, and that’s why Young dismissed the request, Cunningham said.
“So those elements weren’t there, and as the judge, he had no alternative but to dismiss that petition,” he said. “And he did.”

Cunningham went on to reiterate a response to an appeal by Calixto released by Young, which said the woman was in the U.S. illegally and that there were “in the court’s mind, serious legal questions to be answered before the case proceeds further.”

Immigrants

Cunningham spoke for several minutes on Calixto’s status as an immigrant.

“But folks, if you’re here illegally, you’re here illegally,” he said. “And when the judge looked at Mrs. Calixto, she walked up with a green card and handed it to him, and it had expired.

“Now if my driver’s license expires Oct. 29 ... and I’m out driving Nov. 1, I’m illegal,” he continued. “Same thing with a green card, if it expires in June, which hers did, she’s illegal.

“And the way to handle those kinds of things, is to get legal,” he said. “If your green card’s bad, get another, but until you do, you are illegal. And I don’t care what you call it, you’re illegal.

“Now the liberal left, they don’t like you using those words,” the former U.S. Attorney added. “It’s supposed to be undocumented, or whatever the devil is politically correct, but if they ain’t legal, they ain’t legal.”

Calixto’s employment authorization card from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department — of which The Daily Times has obtained a copy — indicates it is good through Jan. 5, 2009, making her currently a legal immigrant.

Legal experts contacted by The Daily Times for previous stories, such as Vanderbilt adjunct law professor Linda Rose, assert that legal, or illegal, status of a person has no bearing on their “right to fundamental due process if they are on U.S. soil.”

Speaking of a different story in The Daily Times about Young, Cunningham said the facts weren’t all there. He cited the assertion of a woman seeking a divorce in front of Young that she had to burn furniture to stay warm because, she claimed, her husband was not paying an adequate amount of support.

“You know the furniture that was burned to stay warm, that was furniture awarded to that man by the court — it was his momma’s antique furniture — and his ex-wife set it on fire,” Cunningham said, though not citing the source of his information. “Why the devil isn’t that in the paper? Wouldn’t that have been newsworthy?

“I didn’t read that, did y’all read that?” he asked, as those in the audience said a collective “no”. “And you’re not going to.”

Blog ‘attacks’

Cunningham said he was “troubled” by the negative press given to his friend, whom he has known since high school.

“To see him ambushed, Shanghaied, sidewinded, and everything that’s been done to him angers me,” he said, adding Young has had 23 years of unblemished service to Blount County. And it’s not just coming from traditional media, he added.

“Judge Young’s not only been attacked by the unfair reporting, he’s been attacked by some of these bloggers,” he said. “And the bloggers that do the attacking — if you ever have time to look at that trash — are always anonymous.

“If you’re going to do that, at least have ... the testicular fortitude to say it to my face,” he said.

“How many people in here have been the recipient of a kindness from Dale Young? Raise your hand,” he asked, as a roomful of hands shot up.

Speaking after the meeting, Cunningham said he was simply not happy with Young’s portrayal in The Daily Times.

“It disappoints me,” he said. “Because it’s not The Daily Times I grew up with.

“I have not met anybody who is not upset or troubled by the unfairness of the reporting.”

Also speaking after the meeting, Berrong said he supports Young completely.
“I can’t say enough positive things about Judge Young,” he said.

“I wholeheartedly agree with Mayor Cunningham’s statements,” he added.