Editor’s note: The Times is counting down 2020’s most noteworthy stories as determined by The Times editorial staff.

When former District Judge Kim Chaney retired from the bench earlier this year, he did so as Cullman County’s longest-serving active elected official.

Chaney’s retirement after a 27-year judicial career came in the middle of his 5th elected term — and it also came as a surprise to many. The co-founder or pivotal player in a host of well-regarded local outreach programs and law enforcement initiatives, Chaney’s name had long ago become synonymous with helping at-risk youth, drug rehabilitation, victim advocacy and more.

Clouding Chaney’s retirement was a concurrent state ethics investigation that, only days after his final day of service, yielded a ruling from the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) that found Chaney in violation of state ethics rules for assigning state representation on court cases to local attorney Alex Chaney, his son, dating from 2015 to 2017. Chaney’s many friends and well-dispositioned colleagues rushed to his defense following the ruling, with some confiding off-record that they felt the investigation had initially been launched based on a complaint that was politically motivated.

On Feb. 24, almost immediately on the heels of the JIC’s ruling, members of the Cullman Bar Association signed off on a letter voicing their united support of Chaney — both regarding the ethics matter, and his entire career on the bench. Local legal professionals, said the letter, “will be forever grateful to the devotion to the law, citizens, and the Cullman County Bar, Judge Kim Chaney has given during his time of service as deputy sheriff, an Assistant District Attorney, and as a District Judge.”

Chaney’s sudden departure lightly reshuffled the composition of the four-judge makeup on the 32nd Judicial Circuit (which itself holds jurisdiction over, and superimposes, Cullman County). Gov. Kay Ivey appointed then-serving county attorney Chad Floyd to fill the vacancy created by Chaney’s retirement, after vetting an overall recommended list of seven local nominees. The county commission subsequently recruited local attorney Emily Niezer Johnston to replace Floyd to provide the county with in-house legal counsel.