Superior Court upholds contempt of court judgment against Clerk of Courts Davis
The state Superior Court has upheld the contempt of court judgment against Washington County Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis, citing her “bizarre conduct” nearly two years ago when she attempted to block the transfer of juvenile case files from her office.
The appellate court’s filing Friday backed President Judge John DiSalle’s decision last August when he sentenced Davis to serve 15 days in the Washington County jail and pay a $5,000 fine for defying his court order and creating a scene in the courthouse.
Brenda Davis
The three-judge panel said Davis “blazingly took matters into her own hands in defiance” of the court through her “outrageous” behavior and that DiSalle was within his rights to find her in contempt. The eight-page order alludes to few details in the “unpleasant series of events” during the Nov. 24, 2021, incident, but cited portions of DiSalle’s own opinion he wrote to the Superior Court on April 6 explaining what occurred that day and why he decided to hold Davis in contempt.
In the incident, Davis refused to allow sheriff’s deputies to enforce DiSalle’s order when they attempted to move juvenile case files from a vault inside her office to the probation office, prompting them to briefly handcuff her and attempt to bring her before the president judge. But Davis refused to enter the courtroom as DiSalle prepared to take the bench and she could be heard arguing with deputies before attempting to leave the courthouse. Deputies tried to stop her again in the basement hallway, according to surveillance video of the incident, but she fell to the ground and laid on the floor for nearly 17 minutes before being treated by medics and then left the building to seek further medical care for back pain.
Attorneys for Davis argued in their appeal that she should not have been held in contempt because the actions never took place “in the presence of the court,” meaning directly in front of DiSalle. However, the appellate court disagreed, noting that the president judge could hear the commotion, which carried into other sections of the courthouse.
“Here, the trial court, while waiting for the Appellant to appear, heard the Appellant causing a commotion in the hallway, while at the same time resisting the trial court’s direction to appear,” the Superior Court wrote in its opinion. “Under the facts of this case, there is no question that the Appellant’s conduct obstructed the administration of justice, and we need look no further as to whether her belligerent actions satisfied this element of direct criminal contempt.”
President Judge John DiSalle
The court also adopted “well-reasoned opinion” by DiSalle in which he explained the history of the case and detailed the incident. He wrote that Davis waived a variety of her duties during the summer of 2021 over disagreements with the court and county commissioners, prompting him to reassign various functions and move several employees to other departments. However, Davis refused to comply with his administrative order regarding the juvenile files that culminated in the November 2021 spectacle, DiSalle wrote in his opinion.
“This case represents the breakdown of an orderly system of justice. It answers the question of what would happen if an official were to ignore the law, or worse, sabotage the functions of a branch of government,” DiSalle wrote while referring to Davis as a “contemnor” in his opinion. “Her job is to follow the rules and orders of the court. She chose not to do so in dramatic fashion.”
DiSalle then asked the Superior Court to watch the courthouse surveillance video of the incident, which showed Davis “sliding down the wall (and) rolling around on the ground, all while contorting herself to take ‘selfies’ and videos” using her cellphone.
“As stated, this was the most undignified and disgraceful display of behavior in the courthouse that the court has witnessed throughout his career,” DiSalle wrote in his opinion. “The Contemnor’s behavior was an affront to the court’s orderly procedure and authority, and to the structure and powers of the unified judicial system.”
Davis was immediately taken to jail after her Aug. 4, 2022, contempt hearing with DiSalle after exhausting her legal appeals to his administrative order. Her attorneys, James DePasquale and Charles Gallo, appealed the contempt of court judgment days later while Davis was serving her 15 days in the county jail, and it took more than a year for the appellate court to affirm DiSalle’s ruling. Neither DePasquale nor Gallo responded to phone messages seeking comment Monday.
Davis, a Republican who was elected to office in 2019, lost her reelection bid in the May primary to Ray Phillips, who will now face Democrat Bobby Dellorso in the Nov. 7 general election.