Former Cullman County District Judge Kim Chaney will receive a public hearing next week on an ethics complaint filed against the newly-retired judge earlier this month.

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary has set a hearing for Chaney’s ethics case for Monday, Feb. 24, two weeks after the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) reasserted allegations made in 2017 that accuse the five-term judge of appointing his son, local attorney Alex Chaney, to more than 200 cases, some of which came before Judge Chaney’s court.

Chaney, the county’s longest-serving judge, retired mid-term earlier this month. He served as district judge for Alabama’s 32nd Judicial Circuit for 27 years, cultivating public goodwill through the creation of, and participation in, numerous advocacy programs for crime victims, at-risk youth, and drug rehabilitation candidates while in office.

In the wake of Chaney’s retirement, his caseload temporarily will be divided among the circuit’s three remaining judges. A temporary replacement will be appointed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, following a local vetting process that will see the Cullman County Republican Party’s executive committee recommend three applicants for the position.

Chaney’s long career met with controversy in 2017, when the Alabama Ethics Commission found probable cause to refer an ethics complaint against him to the Alabama Attorney General’s office. That complaint alleged Chaney had violated state ethics law by allegedly appointing his son to state-defended cases on the court docket.