The presiding judge of Montgomery's municipal court on Thursday was suspended without pay for 11 months after agreeing that he had violated canons of judicial ethics regarding the jailing of poor people who couldn't pay fines.

Judge Armstead Lester Hayes III was suspended under an agreement he reached with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC). He will get credit for the amount of time he has already served under suspension since the original charges were brought in November. His suspension ends Oct. 1.

The agreement was approved by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on Thursday.

Under the agreement Hayes is adjudicated guilty of seven charges of violating the Canons of Judicial Ethics as alleged in the JIC complaint. Hayes also will have to pay the $4,312 cost of the proceeding, including the amount incurred by the JIC, according to the agreement.

While the Montgomery city court made changes in 2014 to prevent poor people from being jailed without proper procedures and efforts to make sure other alternatives are considered, the Court of the Judiciary expressed concerns in its order on Thursday.

"In considering the complaint filed in this matter, this court finds the allegations deeply troubling," the Court of the Judiciary stated. "In adopting the parties' proposed resolution, this court notes Judge Hayes's acceptance of responsibility in this matter; his apparent efforts, beginning in 2014, to remedy the problems that eventually gave rise to this proceeding; and his cooperation with the Commission (JIC) in attempting to resolve this matter."

"This court also notes that Judge Hayes's current term as Presiding Municipal Judge is set to expire in January 2018, roughly four months after he completes his suspension in this matter," the court stated.

Hayes' attorney responded Thursday with a statement regarding the suspension.

"Judge Hayes is a good man. He was a good judge and he will be in the future," according to a statement released by Hayes' attorney Joe Espy. "He has been the driving force behind judicial reform in Montgomery and Alabama."

"Judge Hayes has enormous respect for the Court and the process," Espy stated. "The problems that led us to today primarily deal with the administration and operation of the Municipal Court and the application of certain legal principles in that Court, most of which were addressed and resolved by Judge Hayes and the Court staff over two years ago."

"He accepts full responsibility as you would expect of a man of his character," Espy stated. Judge Hayes has received overwhelming support from the community and he sincerely appreciates the prayers an support of so many people."

In the agreement Hayes denies certain allegations in the JIC complaint, but agreed that others had occurred, among them the following:

- On many occasions prior to 2014, Hayes incarcerated traffic offenders for failure to pay fines and costs without first, in compliance rules to make a making sufficient inquiry into the offenders' financial, employment, and family standing to determine if the offenders had the ability to pay court-ordered financial assessments; determining reasons for offenders' inability to pay or failure to pay; and/or considering alternatives to incarceration other than initially providing additional time to pay, resulting in the incarceration of indigent defendants, in some cases for several months.

- On numerous occasions Hayes failed to permit a traffic offender to fully explain the reason for either the offender 's failure or inability to pay court-ordered financial assessments.

- Judge Hayes ordered some defendants to a private entity called Judicial Correction Services, an entity which was commonly referred to as a private-probation company. Hayes delegated to JCS the judicial functions of ordering monitored defendants to appear in court to show cause why they should not be removed from Judicial Correction Services's oversight and/or issuing a summons to a 'probation revocation' hearing. In connection with his use of Judicial Correction Services, Judge Hayes placed some municipal court defendants who appeared before him on what was nominally referred to in the court's order as 'probation' even though they had not received a suspended sentence or any jail time, but had been given only fines and court costs.

JCS at one time had contracts with more than 100 cities across Alabama. The company was subject to a number of state and federal lawsuits that claimed it was responsible for continually adding on fees of indigent defendants and threatening jail if the fines and fees were not paid. The company late last year announced it was leaving Alabama amid the claims of abusive and unconstitutional practices.

The JIC, however, stated that JCS was responsible for only collecting less than a quarter of the Montgomery court's collections.

JCS was allowed to charge defendants a $10 start-up fee followed by a $40 per month "supervisory fee, according to the JIC charge. In 2010, for example, JCS remitted to the city $2.4 million and retained $1.15 million for itself.

Collection tactics by the court had helped Montgomery's municipal court system collect millions of dollars in fees and fines that are three or more times the amounts collected in Birmingham and other large Alabama cities, according to the charges, according to the JIC's original complaint.

Hayes' and the court system made changes in the wake of three federal court lawsuits against Montgomery regarding the tactics of the court and jailing of poor defendants for inability to pay. The lawsuits have been settled.

Sam Brooke, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the suspension should serve as a warning.

"Nobody, not even a judge, is above the law. Today's sanctions against Judge Hayes are a reminder that it is absolutely illegal to jail someone simply because they are poor. The good news is, we believe the Montgomery court has changed its practices," said Brooke. "The bad news is, for far too long, jailing those who could not pay was standard practice."

"Any other judge who is still doing this should be on notice their practices won't be tolerated."

Hayes COJ Agreement by KentFaulk on Scribd