Heads up, if you’re looking for a side job as you practice in Tennessee, selling weed probably isn’t it. It remains a crime to sell weed in Tennessee, as does moving large amounts of it. This goes double for any judges, looking to boost up their income — former judge Perry Stout is timely proof. WJHL has the story:
The Tennessee Supreme Court has disbarred former Johnson County Sessions Judge Perry Stout, who recently pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking charges.
The court’s board of professional responsibility entered the order Tuesday after hearing the case against him on May 24. It effectively bars Stout permanently from practicing law in the state, as Tennessee’s Supreme Court in 2020 eliminated its rule allowing attorneys to request reinstatement after five years.
You should know better! If you’re a judge looking to make extra pay, do what the professionals do: make it to our highest court despite a sexual assault scandal, lament about how sad it would be if you had to step down from the court to make more money, and then be the Steph Curry of being paid under the table:
Jokes aside, it was especially bad that Stout decided to deal drugs as a side hustle once you consider that he ultimately may have trafficked the weed that kids would later get sentenced for selling:
Evidence presented during the hearing indicated Stout’s actions “had an adverse effect upon the Johnson County community as a whole, including a loss of confidence in the legal process within Johnson County.”
The order also mentioned the fact that as a juvenile judge who was also dealing marijuana, “Mr. Stout’s trafficking of a controlled substance could easily have resulted in juveniles appearing before him on matters which included possession, use, or further distribution of the same controlled substance which Mr. Stout’s illegal business venture brought into the State of Tennessee and Johnson County.”
Stout is now being held at the Morgan County jail. Hopefully he won’t see too many familiar faces.
Ex-Judge Perry Stout Disbarred From Practice Of Law [WJHL]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
#Tennessee #Supreme #Court #Disbars #DrugTrafficking #Judge
