BEFORE THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL QUALIFICATIONS

STATE OF GEORGIA

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)In re: lnquiry Concerning ) Docket No. 2012-31Judge J. William Bass, Sr. )

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NOTICE OF FORMAL PROCEEDINGS

To: Judge J. William Bass, Sr.State Court of Grady County

This is to notify you that the Judicial Qualifications Commission (the

"Commission"), after conducting an investigation of complaints against you,

has concluded that formal proceedings should be instituted for the purpose

of determining whether you have committed the acts enumerated below

and, if so, whether you are guilty of violations of the law, the Code of

Judicial Conduct, willful misconduct in office, or other conduct prejudicial to

the administration of justice which brings your judicial office into disrepute.

The purpose of these proceedings is to determine whether.

COUNT ONE

A. You violated Canon 2A ("judges shall respect and comply with the

law") and/or Canon 38 ("judges should be faithful to the law") of

the Code of Judicial Conduct when you, without legal authority,

ordered the collection of funds as "Administrative Costs" from

criminal defendants.

B. You violated Canon 28 ("judges shall not lend the prestige of

judicial office to advance their private interests") and/or Canon 2A

("judges shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public

confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary") of the

Code of Judicial Conduct when you wrote and, on or about July 3,

2012, delivered a document to the county governing authority

requesting a salary increase (See Exhibit A). This document gave

the appearance that your salary increase was warranted by the

amount of funds you caused to be improperly collected by State

Court.

C. You violated Canon 2A ('judges shall respect and comply wÍth the

law") and O.C.G.A S 16-10-1 (Oath of Office), when you íllegally

charged costs and exacted payment from defendants, without

legal authority, for the benefit of the county and you, as the State

Courl Judge of Grady County, in order to "maximize" the collection

of revenue which the county was not otherwise entitled to receive

from defendants.

COUNT TWO

You violated Canon2A ("judges shall respect and comply with the

law") and/or Canon 38 ("judges should be faithful to the law") of the Code

of Judicial Conduct when you improperly sentenced criminal defendants

charged with DUl, first offense, to a "fine, including all surcharges and add-

ons" to pay only $300. For DUl, second offense, you improperly sentenced

criminal defendants to pay only $600, including surcharges. This was in

violation of O.C.G.A. S 40-6-391 insofar as surcharges are required to be

assessed in addition to the minimum statutory fine. Your conduct willfully

deprived the State of Georgia, and other approved entities, of receiving

surcharges which were required by law to be imposed by you and remitted

to the State.

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COUNT THREÉ

You violated Canon2E ("judges shall not allow their family, social,

political or other relationships to influence their judicial conduct or

judgment") and Canon 3C(4) ('Judges shall avoid nepotism") of the Code of

Judicial Conduct when you appointed your son, William Bass, Jr., to serve

as State Court Judge of Grady County, in your absence.

COUNT FOUR

You violated Canon 3C (ludges shall avoid ex pafte communications)

when you engaged in a private Facebook chat with a "friend" who

contacted you on behalf of her brother about a DUI matter which was

pending in Grady County. The friend discussed with you the ramifications

of a DUI and whether her brother could keep his license for work. She

described to you that her brother had a young family and he needed "to

drive to sell property." Your friend also advised you that she knew that her

brother had an attorney. After receiving this private Facebook message,

you engaged the friend in a lengthy conversation, although you were

specifically advised that her brother "ha[d] an attorney." ln your response

to her you provided legal "advice" about how her brother should "get this

matter in to State Courl" from the court in which it was pending, so that you

could adjudicate the matter. You further advised the defendant's family

member that once the matter got into the State Court that you would

"handle it from there." You also improperly provided legal advice to the

Facebook friend about how her brother should present his case to the

court, telling her in quoted language what her brother should say when his

case was called. You also indicated to her what the sentence would likely

be should the blood alcohol be "low" and it was his "first offense." Although

the friend provided you her brother's name, and that you knew that you had

received ex parte information about the defendant and his circumstances,

you did not recuse yourself from hearing this matter or disclose on the

record that you had engaged in an ex parte communication about this case

when the matter came before you. This conduct violates Canon 3E. Then,

you reduced the DUl, allowing your Facebook friend's brother to plea nolo

contendere to reckless conduct, a non-traffic offense, imposing a fine of

$300 and an illegal imposition of administrative costs in the amount of

$700. You also accepted a nolo contendere plea for an open container of

alcohol violation and illegally sentenced the defendant to pay no fine, and

imposed in lieu of a fine, administrative costs in the amount of $200, in

violation of O.C.G.A. S 40-6-253.

This conduct violates Canon 28 insofar as you allowed your social

relationships to influence your judicial conduct and judgment. You further

conveyed to your Facebook friend the impression that you were in a special

position to influence the handling of this DUI case.

COUNT FIVE

You violated Canon 1, Canon 2, andlor Canon 3 of the Code of

Judicial Conduct by engaging in the following acts of misconduct.

1l While on the bench, in Grady County State Court, you asked

members of the audience to vote for you in the upcoming election;

2l You routinely take Hispanic defendants out of the courtroom to

speak with them about their pending case, without a court reporter or the

prosecutor present, manifesting a bias or prejudice as to these defendants

based upon their race or national origin;

3l You have been verbally hostile, both in and out of court, when

confronting persons you believed voted for or supported your opponent in

the election;

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4l You paid the fine for a defendant you had sentenced for Theft

by Shoplifting;

5l ln court, you thanked members of the audience for voting for

you in the election;

6l You were belligerent to court employees that you said were

suppofting your political opponent;

7l ln couñ, you were verbally hostile to an attorney after he made

a financial contribution to your opponent in the election. You made a loud

and threatening statement in couft to the attorney: "l know you gave money

to my opponent. Don't come back;"

8l ln cour1, you have told the audience that you had been falsely

accused of having a sexual relationship with a member of your staff;

9l You threatened members of the Georgia State Patrol when you

believed that they were taking exception to some of your rulings by stating

"we'll just take those radars back" which were provided to the State Patrol

by the Grady County Board of Commissioners;

101 During the sentencing of a male defendant you made an

inappropriate reference based upon your perceived sexual orientation of

the defendant.

COUNT SIX

You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial

Conduct when you, acting in a prosecutorial role, have improperly

suggested to the State that pending criminal cases be dismissed by the

filing of nolle prosequi.

COUNT SEVEN

You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial

Conduct when you improperly used your judicial status in requesting that

the Sheriff not permit a bonding company to write bonds because you

believed the owner of the bonding company was not supporting your

candidacy for the State Court.

COUNT EIGHT

You have violated Canon 2A and Canon 28 of the Code of Judicial

Conduct when, during your campaign for judicial office, you made

numerous threatening and confrontational statements to the owners and

other employees of the private probation services company under contract

with the State Couft because they would not publicly supporl your

candidacy. Within days of your successful election, you retaliated against

the probation company by terminating the probation company's contract

with the court.

COUNT NINE

You have violated Canon 3C of the Code of Judicial Conduct when

following a recent court appearance you contacted a local attorney and

apologized for what you described as your "unusual behavior" in refusing to

accept a plea of a defendant represented by the attorney. Thereafter, you

sent the attorney an email wherein you attempted to induce the attorney to

engage in what you described would be "ex parte communications" which

may make the attorney "uncomfortable."

COUNT TEN

You have violated Canon 1 andlor Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial

Conduct, and O.C.G.A. S 16-10-1 (Oath of Office) when you have

improperly suggested that criminal cases be dismissed by the State

because you know members of the defendants' family.

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COUNT ELEVEN

The conduct in Counts One through Ten violates Canon 2 of the

Code of Judicial Conduct, and your Oath of Office (O.C.G.A. 516-10-1) as

provided in O.C.G.A. 545-3-1.

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Rule 5(b) NOTICË

Pursuant to Rule 5(b) of the Rules of the Judicial Qualifications

Commission you are hereby notified that you have a right to file a written

verified answer with the Commission to these charges. Your answer shall

be filed within thirty (30) days after service of this notice and shall consist of

an original and six (6) copies.

1¿.

This Él^V of December,2012.

DirectorJudicial Qualifications CommissionGeorgia Bar Number: 21081 5

Vfu* ; zØ{"t/rr,* lu N ryrgr¡an lr¡. n¡cflnan WCounsel for the CommissionGeorgia Bar Number. 604672

Michael J. BowersCounsel for the CommissionGeorgia Bar Number: 071650

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Judicial Qualifications CommissionP.O. Box 191Madison, GA 30650(706) 343-58e1

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Exhibit A

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I nesd my salary raised to $60,000 pgryear.

Ttthy shouldyou do it?

l. My'total i"-tr'onsation' is about $4q000 ofsalary a¡d $lir000 of lnEuranoe.Idon't take the insuranco, but ttrs stilIpørt olml compensøttoi, and,, by law, thøtøn'l be lowered whtle r øm tn o!ficà so, äistg my salary to

-Ego,óoo won,t cogt

tlto county one red cenÇ oonsidering that the couoty Laso't-had the bçæse offirmishing my insuance for oovoal years (and woo't h¿ve to do so for me nexttwo years)Z.r've never aske{ for any kind of rqise. Althougb thìs is a part time job, itrequires my attentiol on a full tlns bads. .4,4 becàr¡se people don't-t]ink thatjudges can practice law, it's simplyhardto earn a living.3' Thig courÇ because of the exta time and energr thet I spead, confibutes mol€than S350,000 per year to tho county. Although f dm't gei oonconted aboutir-a1s[e-noney for the oounty', I wórk h¡¡d to man¡Dize-what get's trrrned over. At$40,000 per year, the next judge will not be abre, or willing, toto tbat. The judgcTusj go boyond,the call ofthe job to produce that muoh for tnu sounty. To terpths income at thàt standârd, the jr¡dee has got to be ableto dwøe the time ardenergtrequired.4' I also fill in fot{" hobate Judge when she is out of tor¡r¡n, and, I?ve helped tbolvfagistate Corut whenever I am asked..,all ofthig at no charge tothe oouu-ty.

r_amyoyr state courtjudge.I wantto be abrs to continue tomake itperfom forthe counrty as it shoul á. r wout¿n,t øskyou to do thts, if r saw any øitwuøttye$erqeinber, tho perbrmanae of this cotut isn't an accident..J øit c,rylñrolfl"...Ihumbly ask for ybur support in this mdter

If you wieh to disouss wÍth me, pleaso oall me at[z4-1g59 a¡d I'll come to you.

Res¡Þctfully, 8il1 Bæs Sr.