Hinds Co. supervisors seek recusal of Judge Weill
The Hinds County Board of Supervisors is asking the state Supreme Court to remove Circuit Judge Jeff Weill from presiding over three cases where he ordered the county to pay for private attorneys for indigent defendants during a dispute with the public defender’s office.
This month, the Board of Supervisors filed a motion with the state Supreme Court asking for a review of Weill’s refusal to recuse himself from deciding whether the appointment of private attorneys was necessary in the cases of criminal defendants.
“Judge Weill should have followed precedent and recused himself from this matter for the limited purpose of deciding the propriety of attorney fees,” said Anthony Simon, an attorney for the Board of Supervisors, in the court motion. “Beyond Judge Weill’s precedent of recusing himself in similar matters and well-articulated in those orders, a reasonable person would question how Judge Weill can be impartial in deciding the necessity of appointment and fees when this Honorable Court has ruled that he exceeded his authority in barring the public defender’s office.”
Weill said in his refusal order that the Board of Supervisors has continued to refuse to comply with his order for payment of the attorney fees.
Read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/hinds/2016/08/19/hinds-coount-supervisors-seek-judge-weill-recusal/88998906/