NC Supreme Court censures Harnett County judge who drove drunk with daughter in car
The North Carolina Supreme Court censured a Harnett County judge on Friday for driving drunk with his minor child in the car and attempting to use his judicial title to avoid prosecution.
The judge, Jason Kimble, pleaded guilty to a Level One DWI in 2024 after his arrest the previous year, when he was found to have a 0.23 BAC — nearly three times the legal limit.
In its unanimous order, the court wrote that Kimble “failed to respect and comply with the law and conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
The court stressed that Kimble’s conduct was particularly troubling because it happened on a work day during regular court hours while he was picking his child up from school.
However, the justices wrote that he had conducted himself “in an exemplary manner” since his arrest by self-reporting his conduct to judicial authorities, going to rehab and pleading guilty to the crime.
“Under these facts, censure is the minimum acceptable consequence for respondent’s conduct,” the court wrote.
The Supreme Court is also empowered to suspend or remove judges who violate the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
Justice Phil Berger Jr., a Republican, wrote separately to say he thought Kimble, also a Republican, should have resigned.
“District court judges function where the law meets the average citizen — domestic cases, traffic offenses, relatively minor violations of criminal law,” he wrote. “They are not shielded from public view like monks in the judicial monastery but are the real faces of justice in their communities.
“With this comes somewhat of an obvious truth: a judge who cannot govern his own conduct has no claim to govern anyone else’s,” Berger wrote.
The News & Observer left a phone message for Kimble on Friday afternoon.
What led to the charge
According to the Judicial Standards Commission, which investigates ethics complaints against judges, the incident occurred on Sept. 25, 2023, when the State Highway Patrol responded to a collision in Harnett County.
The trooper encountered Kimble, who admitted to “bumping” into the other vehicle. Kimble’s 13-year old daughter was in the front passenger seat of his car.
After initially refusing to take a breath test, Kimble later agreed and blew a 0.23 BAC.
When the trooper informed Kimble he was under arrest, he reminded the trooper that he was a judge and named other members of the State Highway Patrol that he knew. He pleaded with the trooper to charge him with a lesser offense than a DWI and said, “You are going to ruin my career.”
While in the patrol vehicle, the in-car camera captured Kimble cursing the trooper.
After being taken into custody, Kimble was charged with DWI, reckless driving to endanger, misdemeanor child abuse and failure to reduce speed.
The very next day, Kimble called the Judicial Standards Commission to report himself.
After pleading guilty to the DWI, Kimble was sentenced to 24 months in the misdemeanant confinement program, which houses people convicted of drunk driving at county jails. He received a 60-day credit to his sentence for the time he spent at an inpatient treatment facility after his arrest.
