Montgomery Judge Johnny Hardwick seriously injured in domestic incident, son charged

February 24, 2024

Judge Johnny Hardwick

Judge Johnny Hardwick, the presiding judge of Montgomery County’s Fifteenth Judicial Circuit remains hospitalized after authorities say he was attacked and seriously injured by his son over the weekend.

His son, 36-year-old Khalfani Hardwick, is charged with first-degree domestic violence-assault and certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm.

New court records made public Monday say Khalfani Hardwick stabbed his father multiple times in the face and shot him in the face before fleeing the scene.

The assault happened about 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Hardwick home.

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Deputies immediately saturated the area and located Khalfani Hardwick’s abandoned vehicle on Trotman Road. A short time later, deputies located him on U.S. 231, and he was taken into custody.

Judge Hardwick, a circuit judge since 2001, is the current president of the Alabama Association of Circuit Court Judges.

A Montgomery native, the judge is a 1973 graduate of Alabama State University. According to a news release from the university in August, Hardwick helped spearhead the “Golden Class” (50-year) reunion of his college graduating class, which made a more than $250,000 donation to their alma mater, the largest single donation by a Golden Class in recent years.

An updated condition for the judge has not been released.

Khalfani Hardwick in 2017 pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree assault in the 2014 shooting of another man. He was initially charged with attempted murder.

According to court documents, he shot the man in the back of the head and “left him for dead.”

Court records show Khalfani Hardwick received a 3-year suspended sentence with three years of probation.

He spent 19 months on probation before he petitioned for an early release.

According to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, Khalfani Hardwick graduated from Alabama State University with a degree in accounting while on probation and was offered a job. He could not, however, be seated in a CPA certification class while on probation, hence the request to be dismissed.

“He has accepted his punishment for his actions an embraced the opportunity to better himself,’’ the Pardons and Paroles paperwork stated, adding that he had a “stable” home life.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office opposed the request, noting that the Pardons and Paroles board requires all violent probationers serve a minimum of 24 months before consideration of early termination.

“The defendant entered a guilty plea to assault in the second degree for shooting the victim in the back of the head and leaving him for dead, which is absolutely a crime of violence,’’ the AG’s office argued.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge John E. Rochester granted the early release on Nov. 5, 2019.

Khalfani Hardwick was booked into the Montgomery County Detention Center a 9:03 p.m. Saturday and remains held without bond.