A judge who declared medical disability last month was escorted out of the Hamilton County Courts Building on Thursday after throwing a tantrum in chambers, according to court personnel and attorneys who were nearby.
General Sessions Court Judge David Bales began turning over furniture and throwing another judge's possessions out of his office around 1 p.m., they said.
Bales, however, said there was no tantrum, but "more of a matter-of-fact situation."
Court personnel said Bales had planned to meet Thursday with Alex McVeagh, who will hold the judge's seat while he is on medical leave. The men planned to discuss the dockets in General Sessions Court, which handles about 50,000 criminal and civil cases yearly.
But when Bales showed up, he saw Judge Lila Statom had moved into his larger office and delegated her smaller room to McVeagh. He began kicking and throwing things and started to move several of her possessions out of his office and back into Statom's, court personnel said.
Bales said Statom had removed his belongings such as diplomas, flag poles and deer heads. Statom's desk, lamps and files had been moved into his office, Bales said.
"There was no throwing; there was no temper tantrum," he said. "I was merely returning Judge Statom's stuff out of my office she had taken over and returning it down the hall to her office."
Bales, who stepped off the bench in March after missing several months for cancer treatment, recently asked Gov. Bill Haslam to appoint a replacement until he can return to work. Haslam named McVeagh, 31, of the Chambliss Law Firm, to the vacant seat this week.
Bales left the building after courthouse officers called Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond to defuse the incident.
"He was not arrested and left on his own," Hammond said Thursday. "He's had a serious illness, he's upset and his wife's going through illness, and we just had a little chat and calmed him down."
The sessions judges did not return requests for comment.
McVeagh said in an interview earlier this week he is expected to start around May 1.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.