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DEL.ICIO.USAn attempt to remove the Clinch County judge — for spending money without authority, and for being a stick-in-the-mud
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last July, we told you about the scrutiny that one of rural Clinch County’s most powerful politicians, Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III, was under.
It’s gotten worse for him.
He’s been notified that the state Judicial Qualifications Commission has started proceedings against him to determine whether he is guilty of “willful misconduct” that “brings your judicial office into disrepute.”
This is a rare action. Perhaps five judges have been ordered dismissed by the JQC in the last 20 years. And it’s much more serious than those noises by House Speaker Glenn Richardson to have a Fulton County judge impeached.
The Clinch County commission claimed Blitch had usurped its control of the county budget by holding back thousands of dollars in court fines and fees and dictating how those funds are spent.
The JQC has gone much further, hitting Blitch, chief judge of the Alapaha Judicial Circuit, with 58 counts of alleged misconduct — including giving preferential treatment to family and friends, and generally acting like a crabby old man.
You can see the entire document here.
Specifically, the JQC says this to Blitch:
“You issued court orders and other official documents directing the collection of fees from defendants in criminal proceedings and directing the payment of funds from those fees without lawful authority and contrary to state law, during the period including, but not limited to, 1992 to 2006.”
This is Count 27:
“You exhibited intemperate and injudicious behavior by stating to [Circuit Court Administrator Berrien] Sutton that he should inform his wife, Lisa Sutton, court administrator, that her assistant, Kalynn McLaine, should be fired for alleged criticisms made against your son by Ms. McLaine’s friend. You further stated she was a ‘concubine’ and that her friend was a ‘stupid son of a bitch.’
Things get pretty rough down in Clinch.
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Comments
By catlady
November 2, 2007 7:36 PM | Link to this
Same thing goes on all over, just hushed up.