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Clerk of Courts Davis held in contempt, sentenced to jail

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Calling it the “most undignified display of behavior” he’s seen in all of his years in the law, Washington County President Judge John DiSalle held Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis in contempt of court for her refusal to transfer juvenile case files upon his order and sentenced her to serve at least 15 days in jail.

Nearly nine months after Davis defied DiSalle’s order on Nov. 24 to facilitate the removal of the files from her office, the contempt hearing was finally held Thursday morning in which the judge ruled that she committed official misconduct as an officer of the court, displayed disobedience and exhibited misbehavior in the presence of the court.

In finding her in contempt, DiSalle sentenced Davis to serve 15 days to six months in the Washington County jail, pay a $5,000 fine and the costs of prosecution.

“It was the most undignified display of behavior of all the years of my career,” DiSalle told Davis during her sentencing. “I’ve never seen something so offensive.”

Brenda Davis

She was handcuffed and immediately escorted from the courtroom, which had a couple dozen people in attendance for the proceeding with a heavy presence of sheriff’s deputies stationed around the building. Many attorneys and court staff watched as she was led out of the building and to a sheriff’s vehicle before being driven across the street to the jail for booking. Davis said nothing as she walked out in handcuffs surrounded by an entourage of deputies.

The minimum sentence Davis will serve is 15 days, but she’s likely to be paroled after that time and finish the remainder of her punishment on probation. After she’s released, she must comply with a list of provisions – including following DiSalle’s future administrative orders – as part of her probation or she could face revocation. Davis was emotionless as she listened to the sentence.

Before being sentenced, Davis spoke in court and attempted to apologize to DiSalle, but it was clear in the judge’s mind that the damage had already been done.

“I would like to apologize for any actions that were construed by the order. I wasn’t expecting to be assaulted by sheriff’s deputies on two (occasions),” Davis said before DiSalle interrupted her. “I have followed court orders and will continue to follow your orders.”

“I accept your apology, but it’s too late,” DiSalle said.

She claimed her refusal to follow the judge’s orders was because she wanted more time to read it and consult with her personal attorney since her office didn’t have a solicitor at the time. But DiSalle responded that she never came to his courtroom upon his request that fateful day to explain herself, which could have expedited the process.

“It could’ve ended in three hours, but it didn’t,” DiSalle said of numerous appeals filed by Davis that prolonged the situation. “I spent half a day on this that should’ve been done in 10 minutes.”

Thursday’s contempt hearing lasted more than an hour and became testy at times as DiSalle and Davis’ attorneys, James DePasquale and Charles Gallo, went back and forth on the merits of the case.

At the onset of the hearing, DiSalle explained the history of the case that dated back to last summer when Davis waived many of her duties, including her office’s functions involving juvenile case files. He cited a Sept. 17 meeting between himself, Davis, Court Administrator Patrick Grimm and her office’s solicitor at the time, Dennis Makel, in which it was explained to her that the waiver was invalid.

“The meeting broke down and you vowed to file an amended waiver, which you did,” DiSalle said.

She amended the waiver and then eventually withdrew it altogether, and then appealed the situation to the state Commonwealth Court when it was clear that the court would eventually be moving the files. She then sent a letter to Grimm stating she would not allow the transfer of the juvenile case files.

“Any attempt to remove the files will be met with opposition,” Davis wrote in the letter, which DiSalle read aloud in court.

All of that led to the events of Nov. 24 in which DiSalle wrote the order transferring the juvenile case files from her office to the Juvenile Probation Office. But Davis refused to comply with that order and blocked sheriff’s deputies from taking the files, even going so far as slamming the vault door where they were stored so they could not be retrieved. She later refused to go before DiSalle to explain her actions before claiming to suffer from back pain following the altercation with the deputies.

DiSalle played two videos during Thursday’s hearing, including the one showing her interaction with the deputies. After the 10-minute video of the incident was played for the audience, the judge disputed her claim that she was assaulted in which she appeared to fall to the ground and lay there for several minutes while medics tended to her. The state Attorney General’s office investigated the incident and declined to file charges against anyone.

DePasquale argued that the issue related to the juvenile case files being moved was rectified within three hours of the initial incident when other workers in the clerk of courts office facilitated the transfer.

“Nothing occurred in the courtroom directly in front of your honor. And what did happen was cured in a few hours,” DePasquale said of the files.

DiSalle said Davis refused to come into his courtroom when he was there and that she could be heard “screaming” in a hallway about the situation. He added that she “absconded” by leaving the courthouse that day, although DePasquale said that she was seeking medical treatment for unspecified injuries.

“I can’t see how you can say this took three hours,” DiSalle said of DePasquale’s argument that the situation was fixed quickly. “We spent countless hours, days.”

Gallo also said that Davis was within her rights to continue appealing the judge’s orders to the state’s higher courts and that he as her attorney made a “good faith argument” about her office’s right to control the juvenile files. She filed multiple appeals that eventually reached the state Supreme Court, which rejected her argument in June and set the stage for the contempt hearing. DiSalle originally scheduled the hearing shortly after the Nov. 24 incident, but he rescheduled it multiple times due to the appeals.

DiSalle said during the hearing that there continue to be problems in the clerk of courts office, and that Davis has been “obstinate” in dealing with some issues in recent months.

“Matters that used to be routine have become an ordeal in the courthouse,” DiSalle said.

Even with the contempt hearing now behind her, Davis could face other legal problems after it was revealed in May that the state Attorney General’s office is investigating whether she manipulated electronic time cards for her employees to pay them when they weren’t working. No charges have been filed against anyone in that case as of Thursday.

Davis, a Republican who defeated incumbent Frank Scandale for the position in 2019, is in the middle of her first term in office. Scandale, a Democrat who served one term, was charged shortly after that November 2019 election and accused of stealing more than $97,000 from his department over several years. He pleaded guilty in October 2020 and was ordered to pay nearly $118,000 in restitution and sentenced to home confinement.

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