By Associated Press
Bessemer, AL – A judge in the Bessemer division of Jefferson County has been suspended with pay while ethics charges made against him are investigated.
Circuit Judge Dan King was suspended Thursday after being accused by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission of 16 ethics violations.
The accusations stem from an order King issued in November to set aside the rape conviction of a man King represented before becoming a judge, and from an order in which King accused a fellow judge of succumbing to political pressure in a ruling related to bingo.
King will be suspended until the Alabama Court of the Judiciary makes a ruling on the case.
Ralph "Buddy" Armstrong, an attorney for King, said Thursday that King has not seen the complaint and will respond after he reads it.