Carroll County Associate Judge Joe Don McGaugh is suspended without pay for one year beginning March 1st. The decision was handed down by the Missouri Supreme Court following a review of a disciplinary proceeding involving the Carroll County Judge.
The Commission on Retirement, Removal, and Discipline had recommended the associate circuit judge be suspended for six months without pay for violating several rules of the judicial code of conduct. In 2024, the commission issued a notice alleging 12 violations of the code of judicial conduct that constituted misconduct and incompetence. Those included multiple instances, beginning in 2018, in which Judge McGaugh took cases under advisement and failed to timely dispose of them, including multiple cases in which it took him a year or more to enter a decision despite inquiries from the attorneys, parties, and court staff as to the status of the cases.
The court found that under the facts and circumstances of this case, discipline in excess of the recommended six-month suspension is warranted to maintain the standards of judicial fitness.
Judge McGaugh requested the suspension be served under disability, but that request was denied.