Judicial watchdog agency issues statement in contested DeKalb election
The state judicial watchdog agency on Friday issued a statement seeking to correct a
potentially misleading flier circulated by DeKalb County State Court judicial candidate Roderick Bridges.
Bridges, a Decatur lawyer, is challenging incumbent Dax Lopez. Among other things, Bridges' flier notes that he is a Christian, while Lopez, who is Jewish, is not. The flier also includes a line that says "suspended," with a note that Bridges has "never" been suspended and that Lopez was blocked by a Republican after President Barack Obama nominated him last year to be a federal judge.
On Friday, Mark Dehler, director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees the judicial code of ethical conduct, said Bridges' flier infers or implies that Lopez had been suspended from the bench. Because the JQC is the only agency that can suspend judges, the agency decided to set the record straight.
"Unequivocally, Judge Lopez has never been suspended, reprimanded or otherwise sanctioned by the JQC," Dehler said.
When asked about his flier, Bridges said it never actually said that Lopez had been suspended from the bench.
"But we did not do a good on that, making our point clear," Bridges said. "At some point in time, we'll release a statement saying we did a poor job on this mailing. I'm not a politician."
The non-partisan election is this Tuesday.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
