36th District judge 'unfit,' should be removed from bench, state commission says

by Kara Berg

Detroit ― A Detroit judge is "unfit" for the bench and should be removed from the position, according to a report from the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.

The commission determined each of 36th District Court Judge Kahlilia Davis's multiple acts of misconduct are "egregious in their own right," according to the organization's decision and recommendation for discipline that was released Friday night. Davis was accused of failing to record court proceedings, refusing to abide by a performance plan the court set up for her and blanketly dismissing cases from a specific process server because she did not trust him.

Judge Kahlilia Davis - Facebook.com

"When Respondent was not prejudicing the actual administration of justice or missing work or incorrectly applying the law or disrespecting her colleagues and administrators or conducting unrecorded proceedings, Respondent tried using her status as a judge while out in the public for improper personal gain," the JTC wrote in its report.

The commission called her "incorrigible and incapable of conforming her behavior to the standards required of a judge."

Davis was suspended by the Michigan Supreme Court in June 2020 and has not been on the bench since. She is not running for reelection because the Michigan Secretary of State determined she lied on her affidavit of identity and therefore was not eligible. Davis is a judge through January 2023.

Davis' attorney, Michael Alan Schwartz, did not respond Monday to a request for comment. In previous court filings, Schwartz has said the JTC made "some unfortunate observations that are not appropriate." He did not like that the commission made its own decisions on matters after members didn't find the fact-finder's conclusions to be sufficient.

Schwartz said Davis made some mistakes, but that the fact-finder, Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Cynthia Stephens, showed in her August report that the JTC didn't prove misconduct.

The case will now go to the Michigan Supreme Court for a disciplinary decision. The JTC recommends the Supreme Court remove Davis and suspend her without pay for six years. The suspension would only become effective if she ends up on the bench again during that period.

JTC: Davis lied during probe

The commission, a state watchdog agency that investigates judicial misconduct, noted its unhappiness with the fact-finder's decisions, which "absolved her of every instance of the most serious misconduct." The fact-finder ignored important evidence and resolved every credibility determination in Davis' favor, it wrote.

In its report to the Supreme Court recommending discipline, the commission noted its disagreements. The JTC also said Davis knowingly made at least 13 statements that she knew to be false, according to the JTC's response to Stephens' report.

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Cynthia Stephens' fact-finding report on 36th District Court Judge Kahlilia Davis was critized by the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.  David Guralnick, The Detroit News

"Dishonesty in these circumstances erodes the public’s confidence in the judiciary," the commission wrote in its report to the Supreme Court. "(Davis') misconduct has been the subject of repeated media coverage in Wayne County, which casts not only (Davis), but the judiciary as a whole, in a negative light."

The JTC determined there was evidence that Davis had:

• Incorrectly and "incompetently" applied contempt law and ordered thousands of dollars to be unjustly paid.
• Believed a process server to be untrustworthy, so she dismissed or adjourned every case that server brought to her, without considering the merits of the case, even after the chief judge ordered her to stop. The JTC said more than 22 cases were proven to have been affected by the judge's conduct.
• Routinely showed up late, missed days of work and performed the job poorly, according to the report. The State Court Administrative Office stepped in to make a performance plan for her, in which Davis refused to participate. Instead, she attacked the people assigned to help her "with discourteous and unprofessional written threats and barbs, including biblical quotes insinuating that her colleagues and the administrators should or would go to Hell."
• Disabled the video equipment in her courtroom because she didn't want colleagues or court administrators watching her. She did not have a court reporter, however, so she conducted most of her court proceedings with no record. Davis recorded some proceedings with her personal phone and published one of the hearings on Facebook Live. The JTC determined she repeatedly lied under oath about this.
• Parked in the handicap loading zone, blocking the side door of a disabled person's car, at her gym while displaying a Detroit police "official business" placard. She showed her judge's badge to the Detroit police officer who responded after the person whose car was blocked called police.

 Schwartz said a lot of the issues JTC brought up were only because Davis was treated unfairly by the 36th District Court after she was elected. He said she was the only judge not allowed to have a court reporter and she did not receive training on the video equipment, which was not mandatory to use.

Schwartz said it is possible the 36 District Court chief judge was trying to sabotage Davis, and that Davis' health issues complicated her role. The fact-finder found that most of her absences from work were due to medical reasons.

"With the health problems that Respondent suffered, she did her best to work to the fullest of her ability," Schwartz wrote.

Davis suspended multiple times

Davis was elected in November 2016 and began her term in January 2017. She was initially assigned to the landlord-tenant docket and remained there until October 2017. At this point, then-Chief Judge Nancy Blount removed her from presiding over any cases and set up her performance improvement plan.

Blount's plan required Davis to attend work daily. Later, Blount requested she report her arrival and departure times.

Davis refused to do so, however, and said the actions were "unfair and unnecessary," according to the JTC report. She began sending Blount, the regional court administrator and the 36th District Court administrator emails containing biblical passages that they found "threatening and baffling." Davis routinely told them to "find someone else to harass."

The judge sent 12 such emails, even after a meeting with the regional court administrator and her attorney, according to the JTC report. Immediately after the meeting, Davis sent another email that began with "You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good?"

During this time, Davis was an auxiliary judge, which essentially functioned as a substitute judge, Davis testified during the JTC investigation.

Blount assigned her to the business license docket in January 2019. Davis requested a court reporter, but the 36th District Court administration did not send a court reporter because she had video recording equipment, according to JTC records.

Davis was again suspended in March 2019 for failing to record the business license hearings. In January 2020, she was assigned to the traffic misdemeanor docket.

The JTC filed its formal complaint against Davis on March 16, 2020. She was consequently suspended again in June 2020 by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Two months later, she filed a federal lawsuit against the 36th Circuit Court alleging she was discriminated against and harassed. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in June 2021.

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36th District judge 'unfit,' should be removed from bench, state commission says