The head of the state’s judicial watchdog agency announced Friday he is stepping down from the job once his replacement is found.
Two years ago, Ben Easterlin was hired as director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission. The agency, responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct, can bring formal charges against judges.
“This was going to be a short-term thing, to get the commission back on its feet,” said Easterlin, 70, a former president of the State Bar of Georgia. “You want to be able to do the things you want to do while you’re still able.”
Valdosta lawyer Pope Langdale, who chairs the JQC, said the agency will soon ask for applications from lawyers who want the job. "We're going to be expeditious about it," he said, predicting the selection process would take a few months.
Langdale thanked Easterlin for his service. “He was the right person at the right time,” he said.
Easterlin became director when the state Legislature changed the way the JQC functioned, splitting the commission into two panels. One is an investigative arm that can bring formal ethics charges against a judge. The other is a hearing panel that decides whether the accused judge violated the code of judicial conduct.
The hearing panel’s findings and recommendations are passed on to the Georgia Supreme Court, which has the final word.
Before the law was changed, the JQC removed dozens of jurists from the bench, including one who was caught having a tryst with a local public defender and another who brandished a handgun in open court. But in the past two years, the commission brought only a few charges against wayward judges.
In June, the JQC investigative panel filed ethics charges against Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Terrinee Gundy, accusing her of chronic tardiness and absenteeism — and then covering it up.
Last year, the JQC brought charges against Superior Court Judge Mack Crawford of the Griffin Judicial Circuit, accusing him of the theft of more than $15,000 in court funds. After the investigative panel filed charges, the commission's three-person hearing panel, after holding a trial, recommended that Crawford be removed from office.
Last month, the Georgia Supreme Court delayed making a decision on Crawford’s removal, releasing a court order that was critical of the JQC’s legal filings in the case.
