The only daughter of music powerhouse Wynonna Judd is facing three new charges. This is not the first time the 28-year-old has encountered legal trouble. Wynonna has spoken about her daughter’s trouble with the law before.
Information released by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia stipulates details concerning Grace Pauline Judd Kelley’s second arrest this year (2024). According to their database, the 28-year-old daughter of music icon Wynonna Judd was taken into police custody on August 3.
Wynonna Judd and Grace Pauline Judd Kelley at the “Little Women” Broadway show on March 23, 2005. | Source: Getty Images
Grace was charged with three State Court counts which include “driving while license suspended or revoked (misdemeanor),” “motorcycle equipment not used properly,” and “fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.”
Although she ended up spending one day in jail, she was released on bond for $2,750. This marks the second time in 2024 that Grace has run into trouble with the law, as she was arrested earlier this year (2024).
On May 23, which was a Thursday, a news outlet published a statement that Grace had been released from Elmore County Jail. She had spent over a month and a half at the facility before her release, having been arrested back in April.
The outlet reported that Grace had been taken into custody on grounds concerning obstructing governmental operations and indecent exposure charges which occurred on April 5.
Documents obtained from the court state that she had exposed her bosom and lower body at I-65 and Highway 14’s busy intersection.
Once she was located by police officers, Grace, who sat on the edge of the roadside, reportedly refused to comply with them. Court filings reveal that she pled guilty to both charges.
At this time, Grace’s last known address was listed as somewhere in Eufaula. The 28-year-old has had quite a colorful past embedded in legal trouble.
Last year (2023), Grace found herself in jail again, this time at Tennessee’s Putnam County Jail. She was arrested on May 1, 2023, for violating a restraining order and order of protection. Additionally, Grace was in violation of her parole.
Speaking on her arrest, which included a disheveled mugshot, a Tennessee Board of Parole spokesperson divulged, “I can confirm that Ms. Kelley’s parole was revoked to the expiration of her sentence following an August 11, 2023 revocation hearing at Putnam County Jail.”
Her release date back then was reported as October 19, 2023. Over a year prior to her 2023 arrest, Grace was arrested on August 28, 2021, on account of violating the terms of a previous probation.
In this instance, she was sentenced to serve time in prison until March 16, 2024. However, she was released early on December 29, 2022, by the Tennessee Department of Correction.
“The Tennessee Board of Parole reached a final decision following Grace Kelley’s Dec. 12, 2022 parole hearing, recommending releasing her to parole supervision with the following post-release conditions: cognitive-behavior programming, substance abuse treatment programming, release to halfway house, and community service work until employed,” read a statement made by a parole spokesperson.
Months before her scheduled early release, Grace was granted furlough (a temporary leave of absence) on March 25, 2022, because she was pregnant with her daughter at the time.
Years before the aforementioned details, Grace was arrested and sentenced to serve eight years in prison. In June 2018, a media outlet reported that she had been serving time at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tennessee, since April of that same year (2018).
While she was eligible for parole on February 4, 2019, her initial release date was for August 10, 2025. According to the media outlet, Grace had pled guilty to the manufacturing, possession with intent, delivery, and sale of drugs in Williamson County Court in May 2017. This was before she was charged with manufacturing and delivering in nearby Maury County.
After Grace was released early in November 2019, the next year (2020), Wynonna sat down for an exclusive interview in which she addressed her daughter’s legal troubles for the first time. “I’ve got one on patrol and I’ve got one on parole,” the country star began, referring to both her daughter and son, Elijah Judd.
Far from taking on a judgemental or disappointing tone regarding Grace’s sordid past, Wynnona noted, “I’ve got kids who have made great successful choices. I have just as much to say about the testimony. [Emphasis] on the word ‘test,’ of both my children saying, ‘Wow, that didn’t work.'”
Wynonna Judd and Grace Pauline Judd Kelley at the “Lilo and Stitch” premiere in Hollywood, California, on June 16, 2002 | Source: Getty Images
Uplifting her daughter with encouraging words, Wynonna asserted, “I will tell you this. My daughter is the strongest Judd woman in our ‘herstory.'” The “Mama He’s Crazy” artist also confessed that she, too, might have shared the same or a similar story with Grace had it not been for music.
Naomi and Wynonna Judd at the American Music Awards in 1987. | Source: Getty Images
“How she got there — I would not go that way, but I was also sequestered. I was on a bus with my mother. Kind of hard to get in trouble. That could have been me if I didn’t have music,” Wynonna Judd disclosed.
