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Baltimore judge agrees to extend her probation in judicial discipline case
A Baltimore city judge agreed to extend her probation with the state’s Commission on Judicial Disabilities to resolve charges that she engaged in unprofessional behavior on the bench shortly after serving a suspension for similar issues.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Lynn Stewart Mays was suspended for five days and placed on two years’ probation in 2014 for “sarcastic, demeaning and mocking behavior.”
She consented last month to a one-year extension of that probation and to attend stress management sessions after being accused of sanctionable conduct two months after the previous complaints were resolved.
Stewart Mays, who has been on the bench since 2002, was accused in September of “unprofessional, condescending and threatening conduct” toward a prosecutor and a probation agent in separate incidents which were recorded by courtroom cameras and reviewed by investigators.
In December 2014, Stewart Mays questioned assistant state’s attorney Christine Goo’s failure to interview a witness in a case which had been continued for that purpose and told her, among other remarks: “If that’s your best, hang it up. If that’s your best, then maybe you should think about doing something else.”
In July 2015, she was critical of a probation agent’s report and said it “leaves a lot to be desired.”
The commission’s charges called Stewart Mays’ remarks “rude and disrespectful.”
Stewart Mays, who has denied any violation of judicial ethics rules as part of the agreement to extend and modify her probation, objected to the commission’s characterizations of her remarks. In her answer to the charges, she argued her admonishments in both instances were proper and criticized the investigation’s reliance on undisclosed and unidentified sources.
Stewart Mays was represented by Andrew Jay Graham of Kramon & Graham P.A. in Baltimore. Graham was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
