The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday banished a pot-smoking, door-smashing North Georgia judge from the bench, saying it had no confidence in his integrity.
Anthony Peters, who served as a Catoosa County Magistrate Court judge, underwent a rare trial in April before the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which recommended his removal for bringing "disrepute upon himself and the entire judicial system."
In a unanimous ruling, the state's highest court agreed. The court noted Peters had smoked marijuana while he was a judge and had once accompanied his sister-in-law to her estranged husband's home and kicked in two interior doors. He also once walked into the county courthouse, pointed a gun at himself and told a fellow judge, "I am not scared. Are you scared?"
A few days later, Peters appeared on a local cable television talk show, held up the photo of a man and then identified him by name and disclosed he was a confidential informant for the sheriff's office. The following evening, when the local sheriff appeared on the same show, Peters called in and, disguising his voice with various accents, called the sheriff a "spineless jelly spine."
Peters, 49, said his problems began when he was seriously injured in a 2005 all-terrain vehicle accident. He argued he had been disciplined enough by being put on paid administrative leave -- collecting his $63,000 annual salary -- since July 16, 2010.
But the state Supreme Court disagreed. It noted Peters "has not sought treatment for his admitted drug problems and has done nothing to show that he has any ability to live up to the high standard of conduct expected of members of the judiciary in Georgia."
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