Georgia Judge Removed Over ‘Baseless’ Jailing, Mistreating Staff

A Georgia probate judge was ordered off the bench and barred from running again for seven years after Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday found the judge showed “flagrant disregard for the law, court rules, and judicial conduct rules.”

Douglas County Probate Court Judge Christina Peterson violated Georgia’s code of judicial conduct during several incidents, the Georgia Supreme Court said in an unsigned decision. They include jailing a woman for contempt of court “without explanation or justification” and using a panic button to summon court staff when there wasn’t an emergency, the court said.

In light of the “the extremely concerning nature of some of those violations, in particular with respect to the criminal contempt matter,” removal is the appropriate sanction, the court said.

Peterson was sworn in for a four-year term in December 2020. Following a Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission misconduct probe and hearing, the commission in March recommended the Georgia Supreme Court remove her from office.

Peterson challenged the commission’s findings, arguing that it hadn’t shown she committed sanctionable conduct. The state Supreme Court affirmed the findings on a dozen judicial code violations.

Peterson violated codes requiring judges show respect for the law, promote public confidence, and dispose of matters fairly, the court said, when she made a “baseless” contempt ruling.

In 2021, she jailed a woman who sought to amend her marriage license application to include the name of her father. The woman, a US citizen born in Thailand, showed the probate court a birth certificate, which had been translated from Thai to English, that said it was not recommended as a legal document.

Peterson “ultimately determined that the petitioner was trying to defraud the court” and sentenced her to the maximum allowable term of incarceration for contempt—20 days—with the option of serving two days if she paid a $500 fine, the Georgia Supreme Court said. The petitioner was “in good faith trying to correct” an “innocent mistake,” the commission’s hearing panel had said.

Peterson also violated codes requiring judges be “patient, dignified, and courteous” to court personnel when she made multiple “frivolous” requests for middle-of-the-night courthouse access, the court said, citing the hearing panel. She violated these codes again when she subsequently “abused the courthouse panic button system when, losing patience after waiting only several minutes, she accelerated her deputy escort’s arrival via that button rather than by phone or email,” the court said, affirming the commission’s findings.

Peterson further violated judicial codes by suing her neighborhood homeowners association in “bad faith"—offering to drop the lawsuit if the association held a new election, and telling the association its counsel was giving it bad legal advice, the court said. “Peterson’s actions in communicating with represented parties about the lawsuit she had filed against them paint a picture of a judge who will bend the rules when it serves her self-interest,” the court said.

The court said Peterson was ordered removed from office effective upon the Tuesday opinion.

Justices Sarah Hawkins Warren, Charles J. Bethel, John J. Ellington, Carla Wong McMillan, Shawn Ellen LaGrua, and Andrew A. Pinson joined the per curiam opinion. Justice Verda M. Colvin was disqualified from the case.

Justice Nels D. Peterson wrote separately, concurring with the court’s findings but noting that suspension without pay is a permissible sanction for some violations. Justice Michael P. Boggs joined the concurrence.

An attorney for Peterson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Akin & Tate PC and Elizabeth Studdard White, of Atlanta, represent Peterson.

The case is Inquiry Concerning Judge Christina Peterson, Ga., No. S22Z0180, 6/25/24.