Shelby County judge ordered to recuse himself from Young Dolph case by appeals court

The Shelby County Criminal Court judge overseeing the cases of the men indicted in connection with Young Dolph's shooting death in 2021 will recuse himself from the case.

The recusal comes over six months after Judge Lee V. Coffee said he would not be recusing himself and was spurred on by an order from the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals in late September.

Luke Evans, the attorney for Justin Johnson, one of the two men accused of shooting Young Dolph, sought to remove Coffee from the case because the judge had signed an order preventing Johnson from having contact from jail with anyone except his lawyer.

Evans argued the judge did that without hearing evidence, showing bias in the case.

The motion to recuse was filed by Evans after Coffee, while speaking in one of Johnson’s co-defendants’ cases on Nov. 22, 2022, said he had a "conversation with the chief jailer yesterday about a recording that was allegedly released from the jail by" Johnson. The call was made during a hearing for one of Johnson’s co-defendants, and Coffee said the call was initially made to discuss in-jail treatment for that defendant.

Evans argued that this constituted an ex parte communication since neither he, nor Johnson, was given notice. He also said he had not been served with the order restricting Johnson’s communications.

Coffee, in the April court proceeding, argued that the phone call with Fields was not an ex parte discussion since it happened while he was on the bench, and in open court.

The order limiting Johnson's contact with people stemmed from allegations that he had recorded a rap song through the jail's phone, which was then posted on YouTube.

The song's lyrics allegedly were about Johnson's life in jail.

"The court, in essence, made findings of fact and conclusions of law based on information gleaned outside of court proceedings," Evans said in an April court hearing. "There was no hearing...and the court made a finding about specific things to Mr. Johnson without giving him the opportunity to be heard, without giving anyone the opportunity to speak further with the jail, or even with Chief [Jailer Kirk] Fields, and fleshing out the facts."

During that April hearing, Fields was called as a witness and said he was unaware of any punishment against Johnson prior to the court order. He also said he found out about the song from news stories about it. The jail, according to Fields, then conducted an investigation and restricted the person who recorded the call's access to Johnson — but did not remove all of Johnson's contact with friends and family.

Evans then asked what policy was violated through the recording, and Fields said it did not actually violate the jail's policies, and that there were "a few people" who also recorded something from inside the jail and released it publicly.

"I can't say it violates the policy," Fields said in court in April, "but it violates the potential safety of Mr. Johnson based on the allegations, and that he's in jail."

Coffee, in his denial to recuse himself from the case in July, said the audio could compromise the court case's integrity, which is why he said he had not listened to it or looked for it.

"I have not seen this video, and will not see this video," Coffee said. "But talk to Mr. Evans and he is saying, 'Judge Coffee has pre-judged this case,' and nothing could be further from the truth. I know nothing about this case. I purposely avoided the press, the media and newspaper when a case is in these courts. I do not do an investigation on cases. People kept asking me, 'Have you heard this tape?' No, I haven't heard it. I don't want to listen to it. It isn't proper for me to listen to it."

Coffee did, though, amend the order limiting Johnson's contact, and allowed family to contact him as well as his attorney and the attorney's staff.

Evans appealed the Coffee's denial to recuse himself on Aug. 1.

In its reversal, the criminal court of appeals said “Judge Coffee’s phone call with the jailer clearly constituted an ex parte communication” since he was communicating with someone from outside the case about a pending criminal prosecution.

Though ruling that the call was an ex parte communication, the appeals court noted that fact was not what they were set to rule on. Instead, it said its purpose for the ruling was to determine whether Coffee would be questioned as an impartial trial judge.

“We conclude that a person of ordinary prudence, knowing all the facts available to the trial judge in this case, would question whether he could be impartial in these proceedings,” the ruling read. “Judge Coffee learned of the defendant’s recording from media reports and then, during a phone call on an unrelated issue, sua sponte (of his own accord) discussed with Chief Fields how such a recording could have been made. Although Chief Fields testified that releasing recordings of jail phone calls on the internet created a potential security concern for the jail, he did not seek out Judge Coffee’s assistance with managing those concerns in this case.”

Johnson was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Indiana in January 2022, after police in Memphis said he was involved in the shooting that killed Young Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., inside Makeda's Homemade Butter Cookies on Airways Boulevard on Nov. 17, 2021.

The indictment for Johnson, along with three other men included in the case, said the conspiracy to kill Young Dolph began on June 1 of that year.

The other man charged with shooting Young Dolph is Cornelius Smith, who has been appearing in court alongside Johnson.

More: Man believed to have helped Young Dolph suspect escape enters guilty plea

A third man, Hernandez Govan, was later arrested and added to the indictment. He was accused as the man who orchestrated the conspiracy to kill Young Dolph.

Johnson's brother, Jermarcus Johnson, was the fourth person to be indicted in the case. He entered a guilty plea in June after being accused of helping the men escape after the shooting and for delivering money.

He pleaded to three counts of accessory after the fact and faces between 6 and twelve years in prison for all of the charges.

Justin Johnson and Smith are slated to have their trials begin in March with a court date in December to handle any last-minute motions or plea agreements.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County judge ordered to recuse himself in Young Dolph case