C. Carter Williams Suspended

C. Carter Williams, a West Virginia circuit judge, was suspended for six months without pay and fined $5,000 by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals for coercive and retaliatory conduct following a July 2021 traffic stop. Moorefield Police Officer Deavonta Johnson stopped Williams for driving with a cell phone in his hand; rather than accept the stop, Williams berated the officer, called the officer's supervisors to complain, and drove to the mayor's house to personally lecture her about the stop.

The state's chief justice wrote that Williams' call to the officer's supervisor "can only reasonably be interpreted as coercive," and that the calls that followed were "a blatant invocation of his office."

The court's order also noted a documented pattern predating the incident: Williams had been pulled over three other times in 2020 and 2021 without being ticketed, including one instance where a trooper stated he declined to ticket Williams for a seatbelt violation specifically to avoid stirring up trouble in felony cases where Williams was the presiding judge. The six-month suspension exceeded the three-month suspension recommended by the state's Judicial Hearing Board.