Before he retired in 2023, John Nieman spent more than 30 years as a criminal defense attorney in Guilford County, including four years as the county’s chief public defender. In all that time, he had never seen an attorney jailed for criminal contempt—until now.
On August 24, Guilford District Court Judge Ashley Watlington-Simms sentenced Assistant Public Defender Juan Felipe Zuluaga, 54, to five days in jail for repeatedly disrupting court proceedings. The judge alleged in a court document that she warned him four to five times to stop talking.
“I’ve never heard of a judge going directly to a jail sanction for an attorney for contempt,” Nieman said. “That was just very surprising.”
In North Carolina, Zuluaga appears to be only the second attorney jailed for criminal contempt in the past five years. In 2023, a Dare County judge found an assistant capital defender guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced him to the maximum 30 days in jail; the attorney, who is appealing, ultimately spent only one night behind bars. Legal experts and criminal defense attorneys say that, while judges often warn attorneys about contempt charges during courtroom proceedings, it is exceedingly rare for a judge to jail an attorney for criminal contempt.
Zuluaga, a 16-year veteran with the Guilford County Public Defender’s Office, was released on a $500 unsecured bond after three days in jail. He has filed a notice of appeal and has an October 5 hearing in Guilford Superior Court.
“I will not get into the facts of this matter other than to say that I was trying to stand up for my client,” Zuluaga said in an August 28 Facebook post.
Preston Edwards, his attorney, issued a lengthy statement in which he said Zuluaga denies all the allegations.
“We look forward to proving his innocence and ensuring that the right for defendants to have zealous advocates in court is not infringed by fear of incarceration,” Edwards said.
Zuluaga appears to have broad support in Guilford County’s legal community. Nearly 20 private criminal defense attorneys, assistant public defenders, and other former judicial officials attended his August 26 bond hearing, Edwards said.
Zuluaga began his legal career in private practice in 2005, but became a public defender five years later. He also had a 29-year career in the U.S. Army, which included deployments to Iraq and service as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer, Edwards said in his statement.
Nieman said he doesn’t know what happened that led to the contempt charge, but he has known Zuluaga for a long time. The two attorneys worked together during Nieman’s 20 years in the Guilford County Public Defender’s Office.
“He is one of the finest human beings you’ll ever meet, and I have nothing but great respect for him,” he said.
A Courtroom Conflict
It’s not clear exactly what happened on August 24 in Courtroom 3C at the High Point courthouse.
In North Carolina, most district court proceedings are not recorded, so there’s no official transcript. But on August 31, Watlington-Simms, who has been a district court judge since her appointment in 2020, filed a 6-page order detailing her version of events.
On that day, Zuluaga was representing Jalen Xavier Curtain, a 33-year-old High Point man facing charges of misdemeanor assault on a child under 12 and ethnic intimidation following an incident in late July. Zuluaga requested his client’s $1,500 bond be reduced, but Watlington-Sims denied the request. A bench trial was scheduled for August 24, according to online court records.
Several of the state’s witnesses did not show up to court, so Guilford County prosecutors wanted Watlington-Simms to continue the trial to another date. Zuluaga objected, but Watlington-Simms continued the trial to September 23. Zuluaga requested another bond reduction. The judge denied that request, too, according to the order.
In her order, Watlington-Simms wrote that she considered the case closed and was preparing to hear the next one when Zuluaga made a “verbal outburst” and attempted to ask the judge a question. Watlington-Simms considered the request improper, though her order doesn’t say what Zuluaga asked.
“Despite the Court’s ruling, Counsel Zuluaga continued with his outburst and proceeded to ask his question, which delayed the other proceedings from being called before the Court by the State,” she said.
The judge said she warned Zuluaga several times and asked him to leave, but Zuluaga refused. She said Zuluaga insisted “I am not being disrespectful,” “I deserve respect too,” and “I am just advocating for my client.” When Watlington-Simms reminded Zuluaga of State Bar rules against “undignified and discourteous conduct,” she said he replied, “They have rules for you too.”
Watlington-Simms said she warned Zuluaga that he could be subject to criminal contempt, with a maximum 30-day jail sentence, if he didn’t stop and leave the courtroom. Zuluaga, she said, continued to disrupt the courtroom.
The judge said she left the bench briefly and while she was gone, Zuluaga made statements that he would rather go to jail for 30 days than apologize and that he would take an Ambien to sleep while in jail.
In her order, Watlington-Simms also alleges that Zuluaga violated several State Bar and local court rules by being more than two hours late to court, failing to follow certain court procedures and making false statements.
Guilford County Chief Public Defender Jennifer Rierson did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Amanda Bunch, a spokeswoman for the Office of Indigent Defense Services, declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Abigail Peoples, president of the Greensboro Bar Association, also declined to comment.
Daniel Spiegel, assistant professor of public law and government for the UNC School of Government, said criminal defense attorneys are trained to be zealous advocates for their clients, and there’s always a risk that they could be cited for contempt. In many cases, judges will warn attorneys when they’re in danger of crossing that line, he said.
But it is rare for a judge to actually sentence an attorney to jail time, he said.
Watlington-Simms, a former prosecutor, has been in the spotlight before for different reasons. In 2023, she ordered bailiffs to seize the notes of then-News & Record reporter Kenwyn Caranna, who was observing juvenile proceedings. The next year, she denied a request from Mike Tadych, an attorney who represents Caranna and the paper, to access either a transcript or an audio recording of the 2023 hearing so he could properly appeal her ruling.
Tadych (who also represents The Assembly) has petitioned the North Carolina Supreme Court, saying that Watlington-Simms and other court officials have stifled his efforts to appeal.
