MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A state ethics panel on Wednesday censured a municipal judge who cursed and threatened a traffic court defendant, telling her that he would “bust her ass” if she sued his adult son.
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary ruled that Leeds Municipal Judge Clifton Price had violated the canons of judicial ethics with the 2020 courtroom outburst. Price was censured and ordered to apologize to the woman.
The panel said the outburst occurred after a traffic court defendant asked for a new judge because she believed that Price’s son was a passenger in a vehicle that had hit her car in 2018 and left the scene. The hit-and-run was unrelated to the infraction before the court.
