JACKSON, Tenn. — Jackson has a new City Court judge. At its meeting Tuesday morning, Nov. 3, the Jackson City Council voted to appoint assistant public defender Caroline Ballentine to the bench, WBBJ reported.
The seat opened after the death of longtime City Court Judge Blake Anderson on Sept. 5. Anderson had served on the bench for nearly three decades, The Jackson Sun reported.
Five attorneys applied and took part in open public interviews before the council last week. Besides Ballentine, the candidates were Jackson attorney J. Colin Morris, attorney and former circuit court judge Nathan Pride, family and civil defense attorney Kortney Simmons, and former Madison County General Sessions Court judge J. Mark Patey.
Patey withdrew his application on Monday, Nov. 2, the day before the vote. In April, the Board of Judicial Conduct suspended him, citing mental health issues, and that had stalled the process while the council worked out whether he was eligible, WBBJ reported.
The council set up the selection process itself. At the Oct. 27 special called meeting, each applicant gave an opening and closing statement and answered council members' questions about judicial philosophy and their applications and résumés. "This was a part of the process that our city council established," Mayor Scott Conger said at the time.
Because the council is the appointing body, residents could not question the candidates during the interviews. They could speak during public comment at Tuesday's meeting, where the vote was taken. Ahead of the meeting, Conger said the council had set up a runoff process that required five votes to win, with several rounds of voting possible.
Ballentine's start date and swearing-in had not been announced in the first reports on Tuesday. Raw 100.5 will share those details when the city releases them.
Sources: WBBJ, The Jackson Sun, City of Jackson