CRYSTAL JESSEE

Current office and 2026 campaign

Crystal Jessee is a Greeneville attorney running as an Independent for the Circuit Court Part II seat in Tennessee's Third Judicial District — which covers Greene, Hamblen, Hancock and Hawkins counties — on the August 6, 2026 ballot ¹². The seat was vacated in early 2026 when Judge William E. Phillips II was elevated to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, and the winner will fill the unexpired term ². Jessee previously sought the same seat in the May 2022 primary and lost ³. Her platform emphasizes expanding the district's drug-court program to include a veterans' treatment court; she has said, "We must be tough on crime while also being smart about solutions" ¹.

Background and education

Jessee is a native of Hawkins County who has spent much of her life split between Greene and Hawkins counties ¹. She returned to her family's farm in Bulls Gap after her father's death in 2022 and lives in Greeneville with her daughter, Kaitlyn ¹. She earned her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and has been licensed to practice in Tennessee since 2005 ⁴.

Career

Jessee operates the Jessee Law Office in Greeneville, is licensed in all Tennessee courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, and serves as a family-law mediator listed with the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts ¹⁵. She has previously served as a Child Support Magistrate for the Third Judicial District ³. Jessee represents multiple upper East Tennessee counties in opioid and insulin settlement litigation intended to direct settlement funds back into impacted communities ¹. She is a member of the Greene County Republican Women's Club, the Greene County Andrew Johnson Women's Club and Greeneville Eastern Star, and attends Pleasant Hill Methodist Church ¹.

Documented disputes and controversies

The Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility has publicly censured Jessee twice. In October 2014, the Court censured her (under her then-name Crystal Michelle Goan) over conduct related to her divorce from James Roy Klumb; a federal court had found that she violated the federal Wiretap Act and the Tennessee Wiretap Act by installing spyware on the computers of Klumb's employers to intercept his incoming email, and had awarded him $10,000 in statutory damages plus $10,000 in punitive damages ⁶. In April 2023, the Board issued a second public censure, finding that in a motion seeking recusal of Greene County General Sessions Judge Kenneth Bailey Jr. she had "made a frivolous statement concerning the judge's representation of his current wife in a prior divorce proceeding without making reasonable inquiry regarding the truth of this assertion" and had "made a reckless statement that the judge had endorsed her opponent in an election," violating Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3 (diligence), 3.1 (meritorious claims) and 8.2 (statements about judicial officials) ⁷. Jessee told the Rogersville Review she was "simply doing what was in my client's best interest" and noted that a public censure does not affect an attorney's ability to practice law ⁷.

Separately, in July 2023 Jessee was named a defendant in a civil complaint filed in Greene County Circuit Court by Avery L. Cawood, alleging fraudulent conversion of funds from a trust account of the law firm of her late husband, Thomas C. Jessee ⁸. The complaint alleges Cawood, described as a longtime friend of Thomas Jessee, provided a $100,000 short-term real-estate investment loan to be held in the Jessee & Jessee trust account in May 2021, and seeks compensatory damages exceeding $307,500 and punitive damages in excess of $1.22 million ⁸. A jury trial has been requested; no court date had been set at the time of reporting ⁸.

Family

Jessee's father died in 2022, prompting her return to the family farm in Bulls Gap ¹. She lives in Greeneville with her daughter, Kaitlyn ¹. Her late husband Thomas C. Jessee, an attorney in Greeneville's Jessee & Jessee firm, died on July 27, 2021 ⁸.

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