"It was about the circumstances around the issuance of the two orders where I was ordered to appear before him," Goddard said.

Is Goddard impaired in some way, or is he saying that the investigation is about the local rules themselves (which were the circumstances of his being ordered to appear) and not necessarily the actions of Judge Meares?

I still consider it a major problem that our local rules may be invalid because public input wasn't sought by Judge Young. I am glad someone is investigating.

"Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference." --Voltaire

News Sentinel's role? I posted on BlountTalk the following observations about the News Sentinel's useless role in this. Or maybe the point is that it is useful to Hatcher et al.

On July 4, The Knoxville News Sentinel ran a story by Robert Wilson that offered as facts information that Wilson must have gotten from the very people who are and have been the subjects of Judge Meares’ inquiries. Judge Meares’ public efforts to find out who really wrote the courts’ “local rules” and who is responsible for erroneous reports about the size of his “backlog” of cases have annoyed some local attorneys and officials, some of whom most likely filed a complaint with the Court of the Judiciary. Somebody tipped Wilson off about a CoJ inquiry and Wilson then relied on those same people for his “information.”

Several months ago, Judge W. Dale Young felt compelled to write a letter to the Daily Times about the issue of Judge Meares’ caseload and backlog and used data provided to him that is false. The data was provided to Judge Young by Circuit Court Clerk Tommy Hatcher, who subsequently was the subject of Judge Meares’ inquiry. Wilson relies on Hatcher for his report about the CoJ inquiry.

Attorney Melanie Davis was part of a committee of the local bar association that had a role in the “local rules” written by Judge Young. Judge Meares required Ms. Davis to testify in open court about her role in that process, which annoyed Ms. Davis. Wilson relied upon her for his information about the CoJ inquiry.

Meanwhile, the same man whom Wilson claims is conducting this “probe” of Judge Meares for the CoJ months ago began a probe of Judge Young for his actions regarding a hearing for a protective order requested by a woman whom Judge Young improperly ruled was not entitled to a hearing because he believed her to be illegally in the country. The results of that investigation of a potentially major and fundamental injustice are unknown, as are the results of the investigation of Judge Meares for requiring public officials and attorneys to testify in open court.

I believe that Wilson gets paid only when his material is published, so maybe it does not pay for him to do a lot of investigative work. That might explain his earlier story ((link...))
where he claims not to be able to figure out Judge Meares’ motives, but if he wants to understand the real news story here, he should read this forum (i.e., (link...)
?blog=2) There is a lot more substance in many blogs about this issue than there is in the clearly self-serving “information” being fed to Wilson by the people whose actions Judge Meares is trying to uncover.