Judge Wilfong’s poor judgment

The case of Randolph County Circuit Court Judge Jaymie Wilfong presents an awkward conundrum.

The first-term judge admits to a two-year long affair with Travis Carter, while Carter served as Director of North Central Community Corrections.  Carter and his agency worked with the judge to determine which defendants should be candidates for alternative sentencing.

Both Wilfong and Carter were married. They carried on their relationship clandestinely, although others in the courthouse and the community found out about it.  The affair included liaisons in the judge’s chambers, at the homes of an assistant prosecutor and another Randolph County attorney.

The state Judicial Hearing Board recently recommended that Wilfong be suspended for three years without pay, fined $20,000 and censured.  The final decision rests with the state Supreme Court.

A careful reading of the recommendation shows the Hearing Board is not simply acting as the morals police. The Board’s findings point to how Wilfong’s behavior violated the state Judicial Code of Conduct.  The Board determined the following:

–Wilfong compromised co-workers and others over whom she had power by confiding her secret with them, but then “implicitly and/or expressly requesting that they keep her secret.”

–The Judge represented to court officials and others her concerns about ethical implications with the relationship, said the relationship had ended, but then continued the affair.

–Wilfong “used her power as a Circuit Judge to further her improper relationship with Mr. Carter and to advance the interests of Mr. Carter” and the NCCC program.

–The Judge self-reported to the Judicial Investigation Commission, but only after she was contacted by an attorney for the JIC.

–Wilfong “demonstrated, over a two-year period, a fundamental lack of candor, judgment, integrity and fairness.”

The state Code of Judicial Conduct exists to “provide guidance to judges” governing their conduct and ethical standards.  The very first Canon reads, “A judge shall uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary.”

Canon number two says “A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s activities.”

These and other canons of behavior are important because judges wield tremendous power and authority over the people in their communities.  Public confidence in the judiciary is an important pillar of a civil society.

Judge Wilfong has fallen short of the principal tenets by demonstrating extraordinarily poor judgment that disqualifies her from sitting in judgment of others.





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