This story has been republished with permission from Tennessee Lookout. Read the original story here.
The final ethics complaint lodged against Shelby County’s district attorney by a state senator has been tossed.
District Attorney General Steve Mulroy released information showing the fifth and last ethics complaint filed against him by state Sen. Brent Taylor was dismissed by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, the state body that handles ethics charges against attorneys.
Mulroy, a Democrat, said the Shelby County Republican lawmaker filed “groundless accusations” against him about the way he resolved two different cases, both alleging improper “ex parte” communications — without opposing attorneys present — with two different judges.
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Another dealt with what Mulroy called a “meritless” charge involving Juvenile Court records in adult court dealing with setting bail.
Mulroy said the final case involved efforts he made with Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon to consider the use of juvenile records, which Taylor favored in legislation approved this spring.
“Even though the outcome was positive, the intermediate experience was not,” Mulroy said in his newsletter. “I had to spend a fair amount of time and effort reviewing records and correspondence, documenting to the board what I did and why. It gave me a renewed appreciation for how stressful, expensive, time-consuming and life-disruptive criminal accusations can be, even if they are ultimately dismissed.”
Taylor was prepared last year to seek an ouster vote against Mulroy for “dereliction of duty” but couldn’t muster enough support in the Republican-controlled Senate to have him removed. Taylor then said he was going to request an investigation to determine whether the DA should be removed, but that never came to fruition.
Mulroy, who defeated Republican DA Amy Weirich in the last election, caught Taylor’s ire, in part, for introducing a plan to give non-violent felons “diversion” if they were caught carrying firearms. It was to be done case-by-case for those without a violent past or criminal history, but because of the uproar Mulroy declined to put the policy into place.
Taylor did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
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