Now-former Shelby County Judge Melissa Boyd enters guilty plea in criminal case

Now-former Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Boyd Friday morning pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment, and was given diversion.

The guilty plea comes after two tumultuous years for the first-time judge, and only days after she resigned from the position.

Boyd will not serve any prison time under the plea, and if she completes her diversion, the charges will not be entered into Boyd's record. Part of that diversion is for Boyd to enter into a 28-day in-patient facility for substance abuse treatment.

"When you come out, you must immediately report to Shelby County Veteran's Court," said Senior Judge Roy Morgan, who presided over the case. Boyd is a military veteran.

Veteran's court focuses on helping veterans who end up in the justice system after returning home. The program includes random, mandatory drug testing and counseling. Boyd will have to complete the entire program without running afoul of the program's requirements.

Boyd's diversion with the veteran's court could include additional in-patient treatment.

Boyd — who was indicted for coercion of a witness, a class D felony, and harassment, a class A misdemeanor — has been in jail custody since her bond was revoked on March 27 after she tested positive twice for cocaine.

The felony coercion charge was dismissed as part of the plea.

"Prosecutors should try to help people," District Attorney Frederick Agee, who represents Crockett, Gibson and Haywood counties, told press after the hearing. "We do that in a couple of different ways. One way is when we send people to treatment. Another way is when we send them to prison. It's my philosophy, in the district I prosecute in, that those prison beds should be reserved for violent offenders. Miss Boyd is a veteran. She has an addiction problem. She needs an opportunity to get clean and sober, and she now has an opportunity."

Though Boyd's two attorneys — Carlissa Shaw and Arthur Horne III — felt confident in taking the case to trial, the two said a positive thing, like Boyd receiving treatment, could come from "imperfect circumstances."

"I think everyone, including General Agee, wants to see Melissa Boyd in a better place," Horne said after the hearing. "We all want to see her healthy. We all want to see her deal with her addiction. And we all want to see her live and have a good quality of life, and move forward with her life. She's no longer a judge. We don't know what her future holds as a practicing attorney.

"...She does have a long road ahead of her. Sometimes, like Miss Shaw said, what other people thought was a bad thing has got uses for good. I think that this is probably the best preordained outcome that we could have asked for."

How did the charges against Boyd come about?

The charges stemmed from allegations from Boyd's former campaign manager that Boyd would show up at her house late at night, text the campaign manager about her divorce, ask about the campaign manager's current relationships and that she used her role as a judge to attempt to get the campaign manager to recant past allegations. Boyd's attorneys later said that the two women had once been in a romantic relationship.

A no-contact order for that woman, Lashanta Rudd, was entered into the plea. Rudd said in court Friday that she did not want Boyd to contact her in any way, like "voice messages" and recordings "of her having sex with other women."

Leading up to Friday's plea, Boyd was reprimanded multiple times by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct due to the allegations that she was harassing her former campaign manager, that she had an addiction to marijuana, cocaine and alcohol, and that Boyd used her judicial position to solicit donations for a local school.

More: Timeline for Judge Melissa Boyd's reprimands

She was due for a removal vote in the Tennessee General Assembly Thursday, but resigned two days prior, canceling the vote. A bipartisan committee had unanimously recommended that she be removed from the bench.

Boyd had returned to Memphis after receiving treatment for "severe" alcohol, marijuana and cocaine addiction at a facility in Atlanta when she tested positive for cocaine. As part of her bond conditions, she was to undergo random drug screens with Shelby County Pretrial Services.

During her bond revocation hearing, Morgan said that Boyd had not reported to pretrial services for mandatory reporting outside of her drug tests since returning from the rehabilitation facility.

How did we get here?

The Board of Judicial Conduct first recommended that Boyd be removed in January. The board has the power to issue reprimands and recommend removal, but cannot remove a sitting judge. Only the General Assembly has the power to alter a judge's pay or remove them from the bench.

Boyd had been suspended from the bench for months prior to her resignation and told The Daily Memphian in an interview that she intended to eventually return to the bench.

More: Officials want a Memphis crime lab to expedite DNA, ballistics testing. Big questions remain

In the committee hearing to recommend Boyd's removal to a joint session, members of the board estimated that Boyd had been receiving $17,000 a month, her whole paycheck, while she was suspended.

Boyd was elected to the Shelby County Criminal Court Division 9 bench in 2022, unseating incumbent Mark Ward. Her first public reprimand, for soliciting school donations in her judicial robe, came in May 2023. Since then, she has had three public reprimands — one of which was the board's recommendation that she be removed from office.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected], or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Former Shelby County Judge Melissa Boyd pleads guilty to harassment