Superior Court judges in Cobb County were surprised to discover that they, along with 40 other metro Atlanta Superior Court judges, had incurred thousands in fines due to their failure to meet ethics requirements. Several Cobb judges offered a range of explanations for missing disclosures deadlines or failing to pay ethics fines on time.
"I have found that the reporting schedule of the commission can be very confusing." said Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Leonard.
Recently an investigation by The Georgia News Lab, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News found that most of the Superior Court judges in the past five years either missed filing the required disclosures to the state ethics commissions or went years without filing or paying. More than half of the Cobb County Superior Court judges fell into that category.
"I filed the personal disclosure the day I realized it was overdue," said Cobb County Superior Court Judge A. Greg Poole. "I believe the commission does a very good job nowadays of sending emails prior to documents falling due."
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