Central KY judge reprimanded for ‘hostile, impatient, undignified’ conduct

This story first appeared in the Kentucky Lantern.

A Central Kentucky judge has been reprimanded for yelling at juvenile defendants and more, according to an agreed order released Friday by the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission.

The commission found that District Judge Bolton Bevins violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by engaging in “hostile, impatient, undignified and discourteous conduct demonstrating bias, lack of impartiality, lack of judicial decorum and abuse of judicial authority.”

Bevins “waived formal proceedings” and “has agreed to this disposition,” according to the reprimand which Bevins signed Thursday.

According to the document, he “has already implemented corrective measures” and “has committed to receiving additional training and mentoring.”

Bevins is a judge in the 14th judicial district made up of Bourbon, Scott and Woodford counties.

Bevins also violated the conduct code in his “failure to exercise judicial temperament” and “failure to follow the law” through “gross, persistent and unrestrained erroneous use of the contempt power and failure to follow the proper procedures set forth in the law,” according to the reprimand.

For example, he didn’t allow a juvenile defendant and the youth’s counsel who were in his court in June 2024 to answer questions, the filing says. During this case, Bevins “angrily stated that he was tired of listening to the ‘medical excuse crap’ and told the defendant to ‘Go!’” When the juvenile attempted to leave, the reprimand says, “Bevins raised his voice and addressed the defendant in a very loud and inappropriate manner stating, ‘get back in here.’”

In another instance, Bevins “stated that he was going to sentence the defendant to two weeks in jail for failing a grade” and didn’t allow the defendant’s lawyer to argue against that call.

In a February 2025 case, the reprimand says, Bevins told a juvenile who had missed a day of school that “if the defendant missed one more day of school, he would send him to jail” after the judge “abruptly raised his voice and banged on the desk.”

In that same case, “Bevins also raised his voice and very loudly stated, ‘no, I don’t want to hear anything’ and ‘get out’ to the defendant’s mother when she asked to speak,” the order says.

In March 2025, Bevins presided over an arraignment for a defendant who “required an interpreter but did not have an attorney present.”

During this hearing, he “stated ‘what kind of mental defect’ causes someone to act the way the defendant acted,” the order says. “When the Defendant attempted to respond that the circumstances were not those which were alleged in the citation, Judge Bevins ordered her not to speak.”

The commission found Bevins violated five rules from the code of conduct.

“All of these actions by Judge Bevins demonstrate bias, a lack of impartiality, a lack of judicial decorum, an abuse of judicial authority and undermine public confidence in the integrity, impartiality and independence of the judiciary,” the reprimand states.