Shreveport Judge Sheva Sims Suspended For Judicial Misconduct

Shreveport City Court Judge Sheva Sims will be suspended from the bench without pay for 9 months. That’s the ruling from the Louisiana State Supreme Court.

The judges held a hearing on the recommendation from the Judicial Commission which called for a one year suspension for Sims. The Commission found Sims committed several violations including misusing a publicly-funded court vehicle, exhibiting improper judicial demeanor, and failing to follow state law on criminal bond conditions.

The judges have apparently determined that the misconduct exhibited by Sims represents “a pattern of misconduct.”

The ruling from the court says

The nature of the misconduct in this proceeding evidences a wide range of frequent and persistent overreach and excess in continuation of the same type of indifference towards the limits of judicial authority for which Judge Sims was previously disciplined.

The justices also determined that Judge Sims displayed “a consistent reluctance to accept or recognize her misconduct responding to Commission questioning with after-the-fact justifications and rationalizations, often shifting blame on to others.”

Judge Sims was suspended for thirty days without pay in 2015 for improperly holding a prosecutor in contempt for conduct that was not contemptuous and impermissibly dismissing fifteen criminal cases without the legal authority to do so.

What Is the State Supreme Court Ruling

"It is ordered that Judge Sims shall be suspended from office without salary for nine months. Judge Sims is also ordered to pay the Commission $5,801.28 in hard costs.

Chief Justice Weimer wrote this opinion:

“I dissent from the discipline imposed as too lenient. I would adopt a one-year period of discipline as recommended by the Judiciary Commission. This case involves numerous incidents of misconduct by an experienced judge.”

Justices McCallum and Penzato also dissented and called for the longer suspension for Sims.