Dumas was charged by the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary for failing to be on the bench when court is scheduled to begin; for hiring her own daughter without considering qualified candidates; and for overusing a statute that allows judges to occasionally appoint a replacement. A response to the charges is due from Dumas this week.
Investigators for the court's disciplinary panel allege that Dumas appointed someone to handle her docket 33 times in 2008 and 12 times between January and March of this year, with many of the appointments going to the same attorney. The filing doesn't say who that attorney was.
The court also alleges that Dumas is consistently late for the 9 a.m. docket while citizens are waiting to be heard. "It is alleged that by her frequent absence from her duties as General Sessions Judge, Judge Dumas has willfully failed to 'devote full time to the duties of such office,'" Joseph Daniel, disciplinary counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, wrote in the report.
Dumas, who has been an elected judge in Nashville since 1998, declined to comment through an employee who said that Dumas could not speak about the charges because the case is ongoing.
There is no penalty while the charges are pending, said Laura Click, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Once Dumas has filed a response to the charge, a hearing will be scheduled within 60 days.
Punishment for Dumas if the charges are substantiated could range from a public censure or reprimand to a recommendation for removal from office. Dumas can't be removed from office by the court of the judiciary, but that action could be recommended, Click said. Removing Dumas from office would take an act of the state legislature, Click said.
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