Agency charged with monitoring judges in peril

Georgia’s system for protecting its residents from rogue judges is in peril.

To balance this year’s budget, the General Assembly significantly cut public money for programs that administer judicial discipline and judicial training for the state’s 1,700 judges.

The cuts are impeding investigations of judges accused of corruption and limiting training for those who sit on the bench, including the hundreds of Georgia judges who are not attorneys.

Only after receiving a strongly worded letter last week from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears did the General Assembly decide against a Senate plan to wipe out virtually all state money for training judges.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates complaints and punishes errant judges, is already one of the most slimly staffed in the nation. Commission members say they are now so short of money that they have halted some investigations.

“Right now, we have got judges who have serious charges against them that we can’t investigate,” said Robert Ingram, a commission member.

State law requires the commission to keep complaints and investigations confidential, but judicial commission members said accusations pending against judges involve ignorance of the law, significant breaches of judicial ethics and corrupt use of public money.

Attorneys say the stakes are high because judges are independent players who have a significant impact on the lives of the people who come before them.

“Judges and juries are the last protection we have of our liberties and our property,” said former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers, who has worked as a prosecutor for the commission. “To have people who are engaging in misconduct while performing as a judge is unacceptable in a society like ours.”

Commission members say non-attorney judges are disproportionately the subjects of investigations. More than one in four judges, or about 500, are not lawyers, according to Georgia’s Institute of Continuing Judicial Education. Twenty-one states allow judges who do not have law degrees, reports the American Judicature Society in Chicago.

State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said he was sympathetic to the commission’s arguments to preserve its budget. But he said the severity of the state’s budget shortfall dictated the cuts.

“They are stretched thin,” Smith said. “I believe that.”

Every state with more than 1,000 judges — except Georgia — employs at least two full-time lawyers to investigate complaints, as do most states with as few as 300 judges, according to the American Judicature Society.

Georgia’s commission is staffed by an attorney who works part time, a secretary and an investigator who is hired when needed — or when the commission can afford him.

The staff reports to the seven-member Judicial Qualifications Commission, created by the Georgia Constitution and made up of attorneys, judges and residents. The commission members are unpaid volunteers.

In contrast, Texas has about 3,700 judges, of which a significant number are not lawyers; to monitor about twice as many judges as Georgia, the Texas disciplinary commission has a much larger staff and triple the budget. The commission’s 14 employees include six lawyers and three investigators.

The Georgia commission still owes thousands of dollars in legal fees for its high-profile prosecution of Brooks Blitch, a veteran Superior Court judge in South Georgia. Blitch resigned last year after being accused of 13 instances of serious judicial misconduct. Blitch was also indicted on federal corruption charges last year.

The vast majority of the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s work, including complaints it receives, must be kept confidential under the law. Public charges are filed only in rare cases.

A range of serious cases against judges are pending, said Commission Chairman Ben F. Easterlin IV, an attorney at the King and Spalding law firm. Among the cases:

• A judge who used public money to buy gifts for courthouse employees and computers for family members.

• A judge who set a bond while presiding over a case and then inappropriately posted the bond for the defendant and contacted the victim to seek resolution.

• A judge accused of multiple drunken driving charges.

• A judge who owes significant back taxes.

• Judges who communicated with the parties in the case outside of court, which violates judicial ethics.

• Judges who jailed people for offenses in which jail time is not allowed under the law.

“It’s largely people who think they want to handle people’s problems and solve them without worrying about what the law is,” Easterlin said. “You can’t do that.”

Ingram, the commission member, said he understands that state government must cut spending because of the budget crunch. But he said some government functions need to be preserved.

“You can’t allow judges who are violating the law to continue to sit on the bench,” he said.

Although it handles most cases privately, the commission did pursue formal charges last year against Misty L. May, a chief magistrate in Glascock County, near Augusta. May was accused of improperly handling court money, failing to file required reports and issuing a warrant in a case in which she was a witness.

The state’s judicial training program is designed to help judges, especially non-attorneys, avoid the sort of actions that could lead to a disciplinary investigation.

“It’s easy to say the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, but you need to understand what those words mean, you need to understand what probable cause means,” said Cheryl Fisher Custer, a former Rockdale County district attorney who is the part-time executive director of the qualifications commission. “If you have no training at all in the law, you need to have that as a background.”

A bill approved by the General Assembly would allow a suspension in continuing education requirements in 2009 and 2010 for probate and magistrate court judges.

Judicial training is organized by the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education in Athens. The state cut the institute’s budget by about 15 percent five years ago and an additional 9 percent for this fiscal year, said Rich Reaves, the institute’s director.

The Georgia Senate proposed cutting all public funding for judicial training in next year’s budget. But the House and Senate ultimately agreed not to take such a drastic step.

Sears, the state Supreme Court chief justice, warned legislators last week that changes in court funding proposed by the Senate interfered with the constitutional separation of powers.

Sears said in a letter that some reduction in training costs might be appropriate given the financial crisis. But she said “the total elimination of training funds for judges and magistrates is ill-advised.”

Judges in magistrate court handle a variety of serious issues in a “People’s Court” setting, including warrants, first appearances when bonds are set, landlord-tenant disputes, small claims, child support matters and traffic offenses, including DUIs. Probate court judges deal with wills and estates, commitments and guardianships, as well as traffic matters and minor drug offenses.

“Those are all very important things that affect our basic freedoms,” said former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Marietta attorney who has represented judges facing charges from the commission.

As to providing just a week or two of training for new judges, Barnes said: “I think that’s shameful.”

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Judicial Qualifications Commission

Seven-member body created by the Georgia Constitution to conduct investigations and hearings related to judicial misconduct or corruption. Two board members are judges appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia, three are attorneys appointed by the State Bar of Georgia and two are non-attorney residents appointed by the governor.

Staff: Part-time executive director, administrative assistant and contracted investigator

Fiscal year 2009 state appropriation: $257,000

Institute of Continuing Judicial Education

Provides required training to the state’s judges, court clerks and other court personnel. About 3,000 people trained annually with 50,000 hours of training.

Staff: Seven full-time and two part-time staff members plus volunteers who teach classes.

Fiscal year 2009 state appropriation: $1.18 million

Headquarters: Athens

Source: Institute of Continuing Judicial Education, Judicial Qualifications Commission

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WANT TO BE A JUDGE?

Education required:

• Superior Court, State Court, Juvenile Court judges: law degree

• Magistrate Court, Probate Court; Municipal Court judges: high school diploma or GED* in most jurisdictions, law degree in some jurisdictions.

Training requirements:

• Non-attorney Magistrate Court judges: two 40-hour training sessions during their first two years on the bench.

• All Magistrate Court judges: 20 hours annually and mentoring program for new judges.

• Probate Court judges: Orientation for new judges plus 12 hours of training annually. No special training for non-attorneys.

• Municipal Court judges: 20 hours of training for new judges, 12 hours annual training thereafter. No special training for non-attorneys.

• Superior and State Court judges: orientation for new judges, 12 hours annual training.

• Juvenile Court judges: 12 hours annual training. No orientation required.

*Most non-attorney judges are in rural areas of the state, but some smaller metro counties have non-lawyer judges.

Source: Institute of Continuing Judicial Education, Judicial Qualifications Commission