Judge in Atlanta cheating case: Trial ‘made me crazy’

Judge Jerry Baxter, the fiery judge who oversaw the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial, said the months-long case took a toll on him personally, even joking that it "sort of made me crazy."

In an interview with the Atlanta's Grady High School student newspaper, The Southerner, the candid judge said the trial — believed to be the longest in Georgia history — was difficult to deal with daily, but ultimately brought national attention to a pervasive problem.

"Sometimes you don't realize how you're affected until it's over with, and I think I've got a little bit of post-traumatic syndrome," he told the newspaper. "It was just very difficult to go, day after day, after day, after day, and just do it for such a long period of time. … [I took] it one day at a time. If I tried to deal with it thinking about the whole thing, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it."