The state is investigating a North Georgia judge for allegedly asking a woman to be his mistress when she appeared before him to take out a criminal arrest warrant, the woman and her lawyer said.
The alleged incident occurred April 9 after Angela Garmley says she was assaulted by three people who once rented a trailer from her and her husband in Murray County. Garmley said when she went to take out the warrant, Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran propositioned her for sex when she was alone with him in his chambers.
"He asked me if I cheated on my husband," Garmley, 36, of Chatsworth, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He said he wanted to have a mistress he could trust."
Cochran says that never happened.
"We're denying all allegations," Cochran, who was reelected last month, said Wednesday. "The truth will come out. Right now, I'm not exactly sure what's going on."
Cochran did not sign the warrant on April 9. Instead, Garmley said, he asked her to return to court a few days later and to wear a dress but no underwear.
"He said if I did that I would be very satisfied with the decision he'd make on my case," she said.
Garmley said she did not follow through on Cochran's request to show up in the requested attire in his chambers. But she said she did later text him a photo of herself wearing only underwear because she felt pressured to do so.
Garmley's lawyer, McCracken Poston, a former state legislator from Ringgold, said Garmley is cooperating with an ongoing investigation of Cochran by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the state agency that regulates judicial conduct.
"She does not want this to happen to anyone else," Poston said.
Jeff Davis, director of the judicial watchdog agency, said he could neither confirm nor deny whether the commission is investigating the case.
Garmley said that within minutes after she left Cochran's chambers on April 9 he began calling and texting her. At one point, Garmley said, she turned on her cell phone's speaker so her sister could hear what Cochran was saying.
Sherry Sane, Garmley's sister, said that during one phone call she heard Cochran proposition Garmley and ask her to return to court wearing a dress and no underwear. "He also asked her to bring him a prepaid phone he could use to call and text her with," Shane told the AJC. "He said, 'I don't want to be using my government phone.'"
Garmley said she does not have recordings or text messages of Cochran's alleged propositions.
But she provided the AJC a recording of a call she received from Cochran after Garmley's husband confronted the judge about the allegations. During that confrontation, Garmley said, her husband told Cochran that Garmely's sister had overheard their conversations.
During his phone conversation with Garmley, Cochran said, "Let me ask you a question and I'll ask it point blank. Does she have access to your messages or anything along those lines, or is what she telling him just hearsay?"
Garmley responds that her sister has seen the messages but doesn't have them in her possession.
Cochran says, "We have not done a damn thing. I know we joked around and stuff on the text messages, but I don't know."
The judge said he been receiving phone calls about the allegations and expressed concern the local TV station may ask him about them.
"I'm just going to say point black, that I've done nothing inappropriate," Cochran said. "Nothing inappropriate has ever happened. It's politically motivated and that's the truth. And if they [the television station] want to interview you you can tell them the same thing."
When asked Wednesday about that phone call, Cochran acknowledged that he had had several conversations with Garmley but declined further comment.
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