Jonathan Young Reprimanded Suspended

Jonathan Young, a Circuit Court judge for Tennessee's 13th Judicial District (Putnam County), was suspended by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct in July 2022 for the remainder of his term after soliciting sex from a married woman who had a child-adoption matter pending before him — her husband was seeking Young's approval to adopt one of her children. The board's suspension order found Young requested explicit photographs from the woman and met with her multiple times outside court, including at a hotel in Cookeville, where they had sex.

This was not Young's first sexual-misconduct finding: in October 2020, he was reprimanded by the same board for sending messages ranging from "flirtatious to overtly sexual" — including a photo of himself in his judicial robe — to female lawyers and women with cases pending in his court. His 30-day suspension began in late July 2022; his term ended August 31, 2022, after he had already lost his Republican primary re-election bid that May.