An Alabama judge has been suspended after she was accused of significant misconduct and abuses of power which allegedly included delaying cases so she could take her dogs for walks.
Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard was named in a 120-page complaint filed last week by Alabama's Judicial Inquiry Commission, a body that investigates allegations of misconduct by state judges.
The filing claims that Blanchard intimidated attorneys and retaliated against staff at Jefferson County Probate Court, including one clerk who allegedly missed the chance to say goodbye to her dying sister after she was reassigned to a new court following a disagreement with the judge.
Blanchard, 52, was elected to her position in 2024 and took the bench in January 2025. She presides over time-sensitive cases including adoptions, conservatorships, guardianships, involuntary commitments, trusts, wills and estates.
However, the complaint accuses her of regularly being late, delaying and rescheduling cases and generally failing to perform her duties in a timely manner.
On one occasion she allegedly left a patient languishing in hospital and separated from loved ones around Thanksgiving after postponing a hearing on her release.
The complaint states the patient was eventually discharged in time for the holiday after the hospital begged Blanchard for help.
The lengthy complaint detailed dozens of specific examples of alleged misconduct. It claimed that she was 'sometimes 30-45 minutes late' to hear dockets, in one case telling her staff that she was late 'because she had three dogs to walk.'
Alabama Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard has been accused of significant misconduct and abuse of power in a 120-page complaint by an oversight committee
Blanchard is accused of mishandling cases, regularly being late, bullying and retaliating against employees and attorneys
'On at least one occasion [Blanchard was] over an hour late, wherein the patients, social workers, psychiatrists, and patients' families were forced to wait on Judge Blanchard, wasting valuable time and resources,' the complaint stated.
She was accused of abruptly delaying hearings for weeks, which had real negative consequences for patients in hospitals seeking to be discharged.
In one case detailed in the complaint, a patient who was the subject of an involuntary commitment hearing originally scheduled for November 18 had her hearing suddenly rescheduled to December 2.
The hospital emailed Blanchard and her staff three times requesting the hearing be expedited so that the patient could be discharged in time to be home for Thanksgiving and avoid 'undue emotional distress,' per the complaint.
'With the cancellation and the rescheduling of her hearing to December 2, this patient will now remain hospitalized for an additional two weeks solely due to the lack of timely access to the hearing process,' the hospital wrote in its second email.
'This not only prevents her from being home with her family for Thanksgiving, but it also generates unnecessary hospitalization costs and creates avoidable emotional distress for the patient and her loved ones.'
Blanchard finally held the hearing and discharged the patient on November 20 after the hospital sent a third email explaining that the patient was lying in bed crying, according to the filing.
The complaint also listed 33 specific cases regarding estates, conservatorships and guardianships that have been pending for up to more than a year since they were filed, despite some of them being 'routine and brief in nature.'
The lengthy complaint detailed dozens of cases of misconduct, including one occasion when Blanchard allegedly told staff she was late because she had to walk her dogs. The judge is pictured (left) at a concert with a friend, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing
Blanchard allegedly removed cases from law firms and gave them to others based on personal disagreements. She has until June 25 to respond to the claims
Additionally, the complaint stated that Blanchard had 'a pattern and practice of bullying and retaliation against probate court staff' from her first day as probate judge and would reassign staff as a form of retaliation.
The complaint states that the judge, who is black, had made racially charged remarks about white chief clerk Amanda Reid.
Blanchard allegedly asked a staffer if they liked Reid, to which the employee replied that they did and 'had no issues with her.'
'Judge Blanchard then said, "Oh, I forgot you all like kissing white ass,"' the complaint said.
The judge also allegedly regularly reassigned staff from the Birmingham courthouse to one in Bessemer that had a significantly lower caseload and had no legitimate need for additional staff.
The complaint alleges the transfer were retaliatory as 'there were more than four times the number of open cases in the Birmingham Division versus the Bessemer Division.'
When staff requested to be transferred back to Birmingham, Blanchard ignored them or otherwise showed indifference, the complaint said.
In one case, a clerk asked to return to Birmingham and said her reassignment added 40 minutes to her commute and made it more difficult to visit her sister who was dying from cancer.
Blanchard never responded according to the complaint and 'shortly thereafter, the clerk’s sister died,' according to the filing.
The judge allegedly retaliated against staff by reassigning them to another court and acted indifferently when they explained the toll it took on their personal lives. She is yet to file a response to the allegations
The clerk was allegedly unable to make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye because she was 'stuck in traffic driving to the hospital from Bessemer.'
The judge is also accused of bullying attorneys by removing them as conservators, holding them in contempt without legitimate reasons and filing unfounded state bar complaints and baseless police reports.
She allegedly removed attorney Ripon Britton from the law firm Hand Arendall Harrison Sale as conservator simply because she 'did not trust him,' according to the filing.
Blanchard has until June 25 to officially respond to the complaint which is not an indication of any guilt, after which the Court of the Judiciary will determine whether to remove her from office, suspend her without pay or censure her.
The Alabama's Judicial Inquiry Commission said: 'The Commission cannot provide any information of any kind to anyone who contacts the Commission about a pending or prior complaint or investigation.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to Blanchard and Jefferson County Probate Court for comment.
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