After a nearly five-month absence, Shelby County Criminal Court 9 Judge Melissa Boyd is still away from the bench.

Several of Boyd’s colleagues have taken over for her while she has been gone, namely Shelby County Criminal Court Division 8 Judge Chris Craft who calls her docket every morning at 9 a.m.

Craft said it hasn’t been easy to cover both her courtroom and his own and he’s had to play catch-up on the weekends.

Judge Melissa Boyd temporarily stepping away from bench due to illness

“We have plenty of help. But when she comes back, we don’t want to have a huge backlog, and we don’t want to have people sitting in jail,” he said. “But we do what we can.” 

In a recent interview with The Daily Memphian, Boyd said she plans to return to work on Nov. 1. 

She also gave more details about why she left, saying she reached an agreement with the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct to step down after a series of complaints and an order of protection were filed against her.

The board, which oversees disciplinary proceedings for judges in the state, considered her absence a suspension, Boyd said.

Board officials would not comment for this story. The agreement between Boyd and the board was not made public. Complaints made against judges or disciplinary actions taken against them are confidential unless the board opts to release them.

Boyd confirmed that she has continued to be paid while she is gone. Per Article VI Section 7 of the Tennessee constitution, a judge’s pay can’t be increased or diminished while they are elected. Boyd makes about $17,000 monthly, according to state employee salary records.

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Boyd said the agreement required her to fulfill certain conditions before returning, which included completing judicial training and undergoing a three-day psychiatric evaluation.

Her training is being done through the National Judicial College, a program that trains judges nationwide and is housed at the University of Nevada’s Reno campus. 

Earlier this month, she said she was scheduled to go through the program Oct. 9-19 and would pay out-of-pocket for it. 

Boyd said she hasn’t undergone the psychiatric evaluation and doesn’t plan to before returning, citing a high cost – which she estimates at $6,000 – and an ultimate belief it would be unnecessary. 

“There’s no one that knows me that would say I have a conduct problem or behavior problem or psychiatric problem or any other problem,” she said.

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Boyd said she is not concerned about how skipping the evaluation could affect her ability to return. 

“I don’t care because guess what? The people elected me. In order for me to be removed, they have to go to the state legislature,” she said. “Let them do it.”

Agreement came after series of complaints, Boyd said

Boyd received a public reprimand from the board May 8 for allegedly soliciting donations to a local school through Facebook posts in which she was wearing her judicial robe.

In The Daily Memphian interview, she defended her actions, saying they were done in good faith.

“I don’t care because guess what? The people elected me. In order for me to be removed, they have to go to the state legislature. Let them do it.”

Shelby County Criminal Court 9 Judge Melissa Boyd

“It was what I was taught as a person, period. I was trying to bring resources to a school in Orange Mound,” she said. 

According to the reprimand, the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct contacted her on Dec. 21, 2022, and informed her it had opened a full investigation into her posts. She replied after the 14-day response deadline had already passed.

The board contacted her again on March 22 to tell her it had expanded the investigation to include her failure to respond in a timely manner, according to the reprimand. 

Additional documents that Boyd gave to The Daily Memphian show another complaint was filed Nov. 30, 2022, by Boyd’s former campaign manager, Lashanta Rudd. It alleges what the board described in the complaint as “threatening and intimidating statements and behavior and alcohol abuse.”

The complaint describes two tense interactions that occurred nearly a month apart, including one in October 2022 when Boyd allegedly went to Rudd’s house during the night.

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Then, in November, Boyd allegedly confronted Rudd.

“During this discussion, you became aggressive, pointed your finger at Mrs. Rudd, and then put your hand over her mouth and told her to ‘shut up,’” according to the letter the judicial conduct board sent to Boyd. 

Boyd also allegedly told Rudd she “better not mess with her because she is a judge,” according to the complaint. 

Boyd confirmed the suspension from the board came after Rudd filed a second complaint and an order of protection against her. She did not provide copies of those documents, which also are not publicly available.

That order of protection appears to have been lifted because Boyd’s record has been expunged, according to the General Sessions Criminal Court Clerk’s office.

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While Boyd confirms the complaints and order of protection exist, she denies the allegations. She also takes issue with the way they were handled by both the board and the lawyer who represented her. 

“The board didn’t do what they were supposed to have been doing. I had no chance to contradict it,” she said. 

She said that the board did not properly notify her and her lawyer, who is not identified per judicial conduct board rules, did not allow her to submit texts as proof of what occurred between her and Rudd.

“Just because somebody says something and somebody else has some contradicting evidence, that should be admitted. I didn’t get that chance,” she said.

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The Daily Memphian initially reported in May that Boyd had stepped away from the bench. At the time, several of her colleagues anticipated Mark Ward, who she unseated in the August 2022 county judicial election, might come back to handle her caseload. 

Earlier this year, the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts appointed Ward as one of Tennessee’s five senior judges. His four-year term was effective June 1.

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Ultimately, Ward did not return to his former courtroom because several of Boyd’s colleagues have kept up with her docket in her absence. 

Although they have been able to keep up with the workload, Craft said Boyd’s vacancy is still felt.

“If we only had nine judges, our workload would go up about 10% for each judge,” Craft said.