A judge described improper contact by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, as the reason another judge stepped away from a case involving a friend of the North Georgia legislator's.
The case involved Mark Lindsay, a Fort Oglethorpe building inspector when he was arrested by the GBI in 2010. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Lindsay was having an affair with a woman who worked as a bookkeeper. She used forged checks from her employer to buy Lindsay at least $50,000 in gifts. They included a Yamaha Rhino, a 16-foot trailer, a 40-inch flat-screen television, an electric smoker and a .44-caliber pistol.
By October 2013, Lindsay’s case had still not gone to trial.
Mullis, the powerful chairman of the state Senate’s Rules Committee, said he was approached by a friend who was concerned that three years had passed since the arrest and there still hadn’t been a trial.
“When I ran into the judge, I asked him if I could talk about the case,” Mullis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mullis said Superior Court Judge Brian House told him to proceed. The senator said he told the judge that he felt his friend was being “railroaded” — and that prosecutors were using delaying tactics to pressure Lindsay into a guilty plea.
“I never asked (the judge)” for anything,” Mullis said. “I have a right as a citizen to speak my mind.”
Days later, House recused himself. But only in a court filing submitted by the local prosecutor last month was it revealed that House separated himself from the case “as a result of the contact on the Defendant’s behalf by Senator Mullis.”
Lindsay’s case came up in January. In a bench trial, Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. found Lindsay guilty on seven counts of theft by receiving. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Van Pelt referred to Mullis’ contact with House as “impermissible communication.”
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