Douglas Clark Reprimanded

The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards publicly reprimanded Seventh Judicial District Judge Douglas B. Clark in May 2024 for failing to be courteous, patient, and impartial, and for failing to perform his judicial duties competently and diligently. Multiple witnesses told the Board that Clark's face turns red, he crosses his arms, raises his voice, and at times screams on the bench, and that he repeatedly interrupts witnesses and ignores procedural timelines. The Board also found Clark failed to timely sign release orders — meaning defendants who were orally ordered released during morning hearings sometimes sat in jail for hours afterward simply because the paperwork wasn't signed. This wasn't Clark's first encounter with the Board. In 2021, he had already entered into a deferred disposition agreement over his "angry and aggressive demeanor" and the same kind of failure to competently perform his duties. The 2024 reprimand followed the Board's finding that Clark violated that 2021 agreement by engaging in additional misconduct of the same kind.