Tennessee Attorney Faces Criminal Charges

The Tennessean reports on criminal charges brought against an attorney

A Middle Tennessee lawyer is facing charges after police say she destroyed evidence for a client.

Sumner County criminal defense lawyer Jocelyn Mims was indicted by a grand jury on several charges Wednesday after Hendersonville Police said she found then deleted pornographic images of children from her client's cellphone, a press release said.

The client faces several felony charges and had retained Mims in 2021, the release notes. It did not name the client.

Mims was being held at the Sumner County jail Friday on $80,000 bond. She's been charged with tampering with evidence, making false reports to an officer and intentionally failing to report child sex abuse.

This isn't Mims' only run-in with law enforcement.

Disbarred and reinstated

The lawyer was previously disbarred after she pleaded guilty in November 2008 to one count of conspiracy and one count of criminal attempt to introduce drugs into a penal facility.

Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley confirmed Mims' prior history Friday.

Police say Mims had an affair with a client and conspired with him and his mother to smuggle drugs into the Gallatin jail, which led to her prior charges and guilty plea.

According to an arrest affidavit from the case, Mims scheduled a meeting with the unnamed inmate during a furlough in Wilson County and gave him a plastic cup containing 58 Xanax tablets, eight Xanax bars, a quarter ounce of marijuana and some tobacco rolling papers.

After her arrest, Mims continued to see the inmate and brought her 8-year-old daughter to one of their visits, court records say.

The Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility disbarred Mims in 2009 after her guilty plea, saying her actions violated rules of professional conduct.

Nashville Attorney David Raybin represented Mims at the time. He argued that her conviction was not final and asked the board to reconsider.

During an appeal of her case, Mims said she used non-prescribed and illegal drugs, including marijuana from the ages of 16-49, cocaine from ages of 24-49 and LSD from the ages of 17-19, and she admitted to using mushrooms when she was 18, court documents show.

Mims also argued in her appeal that the trial court erred by denying her judicial diversion, so she could have her record expunged, records show.

The appeals court ultimately ruled against her.

In May 2016, Mims applied to have her license reinstated. Her request was granted by the Supreme Court of Tennessee more than a year later, in July 2017.

Based in Gallatin, Mims went to Vanderbilt Law School and received her license in 2004, according to the Tennessee Bar Association.

She's scheduled to appear in Sumner County Criminal Court on Nov. 17.

(Mike Frisch)