Duties & Organization
Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon was elected judge of the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County in August 2022. As Judge, he hears appeals from the nine lower magistrates and presides over the major crimes docket, hearing the most serious felony cases at the Court. Judge Sugarmon is also responsible for the administration of the court's Administrative Services Division, Court Services Division, and Child Support Services Division. 

About Judge Sugarmon

Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon is a 1978 Graduate of Morehouse College with a Degree in Banking and Finance. After college he worked as a Commercial Loan Specialist with Northwestern Mutual in Chicago, IL, and then returned to Memphis to take a job with NBC Bank as a Commercial Loan Analyst.

 In 1980 he left Memphis to attend Howard University School of Law graduating in 1983. Judge Sugarmon passed the Tennessee Bar Exam and was admitted October 1983. That same month he became a part-time Trial Attorney with the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office and an Associate with the firm of Wharton and Wharton.

In 1992 Judge Sugarmon became a partner in the firm of Noel and Sugarmon handling Criminal and Civil Litigation cases. In 1998 Judge Sugarmon was appointed to Division II of the Memphis Municipal Court and has been re-elected four times.
A native Memphian, Judge Sugarmon is the son of the late Judge Russell B. Sugarmon and the late Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis. His parents exposed he and his sisters to the cultural, social, religious, and ethnic diversity of Memphis.

Judge Sugarmon attended Morehouse College, from which he received a B. A. degree in banking and finance. Sugarmon entered Howard University School of Law, where he was third in his first-year class and graduated in the top five percent of graduates. Returning to Memphis after graduation in 1983, he passed the Tennessee Bar Exam on the first attempt and was admitted to the bar that October.

August 4, 2022 Judge Sugarmon was elected Judge for the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.