Judge Sheva Sims
BATON ROUGE – A Louisiana judicial disciplinary panel has recommended a Shreveport city judge be suspended for one year without pay for alleged ethical misconduct.
The Judiciary Commission of Louisiana also said Sheva Sims should reimburse it $11,602 for costs related to the investigation.
The commission began looking into Sims, who first was elected to the court in 2011, in 2024 following complaints of “multiple instances and types of ethical misconduct by (Sims) ... all of which reflect her continued belief that her position as a judge enables her to act with impunity,” the agency’s 71-page report filed November 13 states.
“Judge Sims’ varied misconduct in the present proceedings, which includes her extended use of a public-funded vehicle for her commute, a display of advocacy for a litigant and a pattern of failing to follow the law regarding required bond conditions — and which she disputes is wrongful — makes clear that Judge Sims continues to treat the court as her fiefdom and is indifferent to whether she is abusing or exceeding her judicial authority and acting contrary to the law or her ethical obligations, as further evidenced by her lack of contrition in the present proceedings,” the report states.
The commission says it began investigating Sims after numerous complaints against her by litigants and anonymous complaint as well as one by retired Justice E. Joseph Bleich, a judge pro tempore of Shreveport City Court.
Other claims against Sims included landlords accusing her of “rude and demeaning” behavior and improperly denying evictions they sought. In addition to using a court-owned car for her commute, an anonymous complaint said Sims told court marshals to provide fuel for the vehicle.
Sims also failed to impose mandatory bail for a defendant charged with second offense DUI, and she “released several defendants charged with domestic abuse battery or crimes of violence on their own recognizance and gave one defendant credit for time served before the occurrence of the traffic offenses before her.”
During disciplinary hearings, Sims defended her actions while admitting some legal errors. Still, she said nothing she did “should not give rise to a complaint and/or discipline.”
The state Supreme Court suspended Sims without pay for 30 days in 2015 “after she held a prosecutor in contempt for conduct that was not contemptuous and impermissibly dismissed 15 of the prosecutor’s criminal cases without any legal authority to do so, which were actions solely based upon Judge Sims’ personal frustration with the prosecutor’s justified refusal to privately meet with her,” the report states.
The judicial commission also previously admonished Sims “for being habitually late for court” and for seeking discipline against a deputy marshal she had no authority over.
The matter now goes to the state Supreme Court, which will determine Sims’ actual discipline.
