James U. Downs

James Uriah Downs, sometimes known as Jud Downs (born September 15, 1941), is an attorney and retired senior resident superior court judge of North Carolina. His jurisdiction included five counties of District 30A in the 8th Judicial Division of the western part of the state. A Democrat, Down was appointed to the court in 1983 by then Governor James B. Hunt.

James Uriah "Jud" Downs
North Carolina Superior Court Judge for the 8th Judicial Division
In office
1983 – September 1, 2013
Succeeded byWilliam H. Coward
Personal details
Born (1941-09-15) September 15, 1941
Shreveport, Caddo Parish
Louisiana, USA
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Sue Downs (married 1975–1988, divorced)
Sherry Sorrells (married 2004)[1]
RelationsU. T. Downs (grandfather)

C. H. "Sammy" Downs (uncle)
Jam Downs (cousin)

Alice Daigre Downs Thomas (aunt by marriage)
ChildrenKat Downs Mulder
ParentsJ. Earl Downs and Helen Whitener Downs
ResidenceFranklin, Macon County
North Carolina
Alma materVirginia Military Institute
Loyola University New Orleans School of Law
OccupationLawyer and retired judge
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1966–1968
RankCaptain

After Downs retired from the bench in 2013, he returned to the private practice of law. He had an office in his adopted city of Franklin in Macon County.

Biography

A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Downs is the son of J. Earl Downs and Helen (Whitener) Downs (1908-2007). He attended local schools and graduated in 1963 from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He returned to Louisiana to study law, receiving his law degree in 1966 from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans. He served for two years in the United States Army, from 1966 to 1968, and was discharged at the rank of captain.[2]

Judge Downs is descended from a political family with roots in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana. His paternal grandfather, Uriah Thomas Downs, a mercantile businessman, was the mayor of Pineville, Louisiana, from 1914 to 1924 and the sheriff of Rapides Parish, based in Alexandria, from 1924 to 1940.[3] In November 1939, U. T. Downs was among nineteen men indicted by a Rapides Parish grand jury for malfeasance in office, on a variety of charges.[4] He died in 1941, the same year that his namesake grandson was born.

Judge Downs's father, J. Earl Downs, an educator-turned-businessman, served from 1954 to 1962 as the Public Safety Commissioner in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was elected at-large under the city commission government, which combined legislative and executive functions, as each commissioner led a city department. (In 1978 the charter was changed to a mayor-council form of government.) Earl Downs was unseated in 1962 in the Democratic primary election by George W. D'Artois, a deputy under the Parish Sheriff. D'Artois was reelected and held office until 1976.[5]

Earl and Helen (Whitener) Downs (1908-2007) retired to Franklin, North Carolina, to be near their son and his family. Earl and Helen Downs are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Franklin.

Judge Downs's uncle, C. H. "Sammy" Downs, was also a politician, serving as a member in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature in the 1940s and the 1950s, and as an advisor to governors Earl Kemp Long and John McKeithen. A former educator, Sammy Downs practiced law in Alexandria, Louisiana.[6] Judge Downs's cousin, Jam Downs, is the retired district attorney for Rapides Parish. His aunt by marriage, Alice (Daigre) Downs Thomas, the first wife of Sammy Downs and mother of Jam Downs, was a sister of Louis J. Daigre, Jr., a prominent consulting engineer in Alexandria.[7]

After his original appointment to the court, Judge Downs was elected to the bench four times without opposition. He presided over numerous capital murder trials and many complex civil trials. According to the Macon County News, he was "known for his fairness and integrity."[2]

Judge Downs retired when he reached the mandatory age of seventy-two on September 1, 2013. In the spring of 2014, he joined the law firm of Sigmon, Clark, Mackie, Hanvey, and Ferrell in Hickory in Catawba County. He also maintains an office in Franklin. His practice will concentrate on eminent domain, wills, trusts, property disputes, and employment matters.[2]

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times in Asheville, Downs:

By all accounts, ... carried out his duties with wisdom and impartiality, running an efficient courtroom and clearing dockets like a judiciary machine. And he did so with a benevolent iron fist and the occasional bark that let the courtroom know he would suffer no lawyerly shenanigans or failures to follow his procedures.[8]

In 2009 Downs controversially gave a light sentence, all but four months of which was suspended, to Charles Alexander Diez, a firefighter who had shot at a cyclist's head, hitting his helmet. The sentence drew outrage from bicycle activists both in Asheville and nationally.[9][10]

References
  1. "All Marriage & Divorce results for James Uriah Downs". search.ancestry.com. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  2. "Judge Downs returns to private practice". The Macon County (North Carolina) News. April 17, 2014. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  3. Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana: Wilderness, Colony, Province, Territory, State, People, (Chicago and New York City: American Historical Society, Inc., 1925), pp. 245-246
  4. "Many Public Officials in List of Nineteen Indicted". Biloxi, Mississippi: Biloxi Daily Herald. December 1, 1939. p. 1. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  5. Bill Keith, The Commissioner: A True Story of Deceit, Dishonor, and Death. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company. 2009. p. 81. ISBN 9781-58980-655-9. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  6. "Crawford H. "Sammy" Downs". The Baton Rouge Advocate. May 15, 1985. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  7. "Alice Daigre Downs Thomas", Alexandria Town Talk, August 22, 1994
  8. Barbara Blake (October 5, 2013). "A profile of the colorful Judge James Uriah Downs: Superior Court Judge James U. Downs ruled with wit and wisdom, balancing humor with razor-sharp judiciary skills". Asheville Citizen-Times. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  9. Former Asheville firefighter gets 4 months for shooting cyclist, Mountain Xpress, 20 November 2009
  10. Profile: Mike Sule – Asheville On Bikes, 18 August 2010,
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