OPINION: Has Mark Patey been treated unfairly?

Former General Sessions Judge Mark Patey has been in the news in Jackson for much of the year, and when it looks like he’s done in the spotlight, he steps back in.

Before I get into this, let me go ahead and say now - I’ve known Judge Patey since my first few weeks after moving to Jackson nearly 19 years ago.

I moved here in the spring of 2008, and his daughter, Madison, was one of the better tennis players in the area that year playing at University School of Jackson. 

And of course, before 2021 when Mark’s father, Buddy, passed, you didn’t know any member of the Patey family without knowing Buddy.

And I’m sure Buddy would’ve been proud of Mark for being appointed judge nearly 18 months ago.

So having said all that, Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced during his Facebook live broadcast Monday afternoon that Patey had pulled his name from the conversation for the Jackson City Judge position - leaving Caroline Ballentine, Collin Morris, Nathan Pride and Kortney Simmons as the final four for the position.

But if you’ve been living under a rock or just work up from a coma that started sometime last year, here’s a quick recap of the Mark Patey drama:

• May 2025 - Patey is appointed by the Madison County Commission as General Sessions Judge until the position is up for election in May/August of 2026
• Fall of 2025 - multiple complaints are filed against Patey for lack of time management and other weaknesses at running a courtroom with the Board of Judicial Conduct and the county commission
• December of 2026 - Patey pulls a petition to run for election for General Sessions Judge
• January of 2026 - The Post publishes a story highlighting some of the complaints against Patey including a log of times he kept courtroom staff and bailiffs from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office past typical working hours and a few extreme cases after 10 p.m.
• February of 2026 - After the deadline to file a petition to run for office, the Republican State Executive Committee (SEC) removes Patey from the ballot for the office he was serving in
• March of 2026 - Patey began frequently missing work and coming in late even more than he had already been
• April of 2026 - After multiple times not showing up for work with no Plan B for a substitute to carry out the role of General Sessions in Madison County, the State Supreme Court took the responsibility away from him and turned it over to Circuit Court to ensure General Sessions would be taken care of before ultimately being suspended by the Board of Judicial Conduct (BJC) later that month.
• September of 2026 - Patey emerges at the special called Jackson City Council meeting after a stay in the hospital while his severe depression was treated
• October of 2026 - Patey interviews for the City Judge job, during which, it’s announced by Teresa Luna, assistant City Attorney, that if he were to be appointed to the City Judge position that he would be subject to another review from the BJC and would probably not be allowed to preside over cases
• November of 2026 - Patey removes his name from Judge consideration

A lot of chatter online has been about whether or not Patey has been treated fairly during this process, and there’s good reason for that.

It seems as if special aim has been taken at Patey by different people for different reasons since his original appointment.

And a lot of people in Madison County and beyond have a similar opinion to mine of Mark Patey the man - he’s a nice, caring individual that will help you out if he can and loves his family.

Is that the case though?

I think so. There was a lot of back-and-forth publicly and otherwise in 2025 about whether or not he should’ve been the appointee. Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley, now-current Judge Jen Free and Bill Milam were all up for the job as well with a lot of support before the vote apparently being for Corley.

And as court went awry to the point that Sheriff Julian Wiser’s overtime budget for his bailiffs in the Criminal Justice Complex was easily blowing that line item before the end of the calendar year (halfway through the fiscal year), that generated more criticism from the sheriff’s office, the court clerk’s office and other attorneys and clients having to spend unnecessary amounts of time for Patey to arrive at court when they’re told to be there at 8:30 a.m. and often, he wasn’t walking in until after 10 (a few extreme times not at all for the morning session).

So every criticism against Patey for that is warranted.

Patey supporters have asked me why there’s not a time log for other judges because Patey isn’t the only judge that has time management issues.

There’s something to that because the one time I’ve been involved in a case in Madison County Court, Judge Christy Little was going to call a recess anyway because there was a retirement reception she was going to, but we needed it anyway because one of the lawyers was running behind.

But Judge Christy Little or any of the Circuit Judges or either Chancellor the District has had this year haven’t kept their staff until well after dark in summer on a regular basis and inflated County budgetary line item.

And I will say there was one time when Patey was treated unfairly that wasn’t called out and should’ve been in real time.

That’s a failure on my part.

But when the SEC pulled Patey from the ballot in February and pulled no one else in its seven-county region (the State Senate district that runs from Perry County to Lake County) when there were plenty of people to pull.

He was pulled because of his voting record. Republicans who fail to vote in at least three of the previous four state and federal primary elections are ruled not bonafide members.

And according to former Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris, who was a member of the SEC at the time, Patey was pulled from the ballot because he wasn’t bonafide and Free, who was the only other person on the ballot, was.

If a bonafide Republican is on the ballot, a non-bonafide person will be removed, according to Harris.

But there’s a fact many don’t know. Harris and Crockett County’s Shannon Haynes, who were members at the time but are no longer on the SEC with State Party Chair Scott Golden, pulled Patey off the ballot but left a handful of Madison County Commission candidates on the ballot that should’ve been removed - mostly County Commission candidates. 

There were multiple county commission candidates in Henderson County given a waiver and allowed to run when they weren’t bonafide and their opponents were. One of them was Harris’ nephew.

So, yes. Patey was not treated fairly then.

And then that instance opened the flood gates to Patey’s depression that caused him to miss work and have to be admitted to the hospital and set off a lot of drama that you can argue was or was not necessary.

Patey told the City Council last week that he’s healed of that depression and has moved on.

But any chance he had of being chosen for this position - which I have a hard time believing he had any real shot - was essentially burned when Luna read the statement from the BJC last week.

Apparently Patey plans to continue practicing law now that he’s no longer presiding over cases and is back at his practice on Liberty Street in Downtown Jackson.

I hope he does well, and I hope he gets the peace he hasn’t had for much of the last year.

He’s a decent human being who deserves that if he doesn’t get to continue in his dream job as a judge.

Brandon Shields is the managing editor of The Jackson Post. Reach him through e-mail at jksnpost@gmail.com. Follow him on X.com @JSEditorBrandon. Follow him on Instagram @EditorBrandon.