Elizabethton could appoint “acting” judge at Thursday’s meeting

Criminal Court Judge and Elizabethton native Stacy Street has volunteered to serve as acting municipal judge in Elizabethton and could be appointed to that role as soon as Thursday’s city council meeting. Jason Holly was reelected municipal judge on November 5 but has been unable to serve since the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility temporarily suspended his law license October 28. Elizabethton’s city charter says the council can appoint an acting judge. The council can appoint “and fix the compensation” of an acting judge if the city judge is absent or unable to serve. Street said that he neither could nor would “accept compensation in any form,” saying in news reports that he was just trying to help out the city, which has seen its court docket start to balloon during Holly’s absence.