DISORDER ON THE BENCH
In recent years, one judge after another has resigned in disgrace in the face of a Judicial Qualifications Commission investigation into misconduct. Among them:
- Chief Magistrate Court Judge Bryant Cochran in Murray County resigned after it was disclosed he pre-signed arrest warrants for police to fill out when he wasn't in the office. Bryant was recently indicted on federal civil rights charges for conspiring to plant drugs on a woman shortly after she publicly accused him of propositioning her in his chambers.
- Fayette County Chief Judge Paschal English resigned after it was disclosed he was having an affair with a public defender who appeared before him. A week before that, fellow Fayette Judge Johnnie Caldwell stepped down after leaving a rude and sexually suggestive message on a local attorney's voice mail.
- Longtime Chief Judge William F. Lee Jr. in Coweta County resigned while being investigated for cutting a deal for a convicted sex offender without notifying the victim or the prosecution.
- Amanda Williams, chief judge of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, retired after being formally charged by the JQC with behaving in a tyrannical manner and locking up some drug court defendants indefinitely with orders they have no access to their family or lawyer. Fulton County prosecutors continue to investigate her alleged misconduct.
- David Barrett, chief judge of Enotah Judicial Circuit, stepped down after he brandished a handgun in court to make a rhetorical point to an alleged sexual assault victim as she testified on the witness stand.
A southwest Georgia judge has been tapped to head the state’s judicial watchdog agency, which in recent years has ousted dozens of wayward judges off the bench.
Superior Court Judge Ronnie Joe Lane of the seven-county Pataula Judicial Circuit will become the new director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission on July 1. He will step down as a judge and succeed Jeff Davis, who will become the next executive director of the State Bar of Georgia.
Lane, 67, said he sought the new job to make sure the watchdog agency stays vigilant and aggressive.
“There were people who thought I’d be lax on judges because I am a judge,” Lane said in a telephone interview from his chambers in Donalsonville. “Those people don’t know me.”
He added, “I’m not going to say we’re going to go out and hang everybody. We’re not going to do that. But I want the commission to remain strong and viable, to investigate a judge when it’s warranted and, when necessary, take action to remove people who should not be on the bench.”
Just this month, Lane issued a ruling against a judge in his own circuit. When it was disclosed that Clay County Magistrate Judge Charlotte Shivers had approved a search warrant based on an affidavit signed by her nephew, Deputy Sheriff Locke Shivers, Lane suppressed evidence seized in a criminal investigation involving scrap metals.
Lane also ordered Judge Shivers to stop issuing any warrants based on affidavits signed by the sheriff or any of his deputies, and he ordered Judge Shivers to stop presiding over hearings in which the sheriff or his deputies were going to be witnesses.
“Ronnie Joe Lane is a man of utmost integrity who demands the highest ethical standards for himself and his judicial colleagues,” said Davis, the outgoing Judicial Qualifications Commission director. “This appointment ensures continuity of the commission’s mandate to protect the public from unethical judges.”
Lane will report to seven appointed commission members — two lay people, two judges and three attorneys. He will work closely with JQC investigator Richard Hyde, who has uncovered corruption and misconduct throughout the judiciary and was one of the special investigators who exposed test-cheating in the Atlanta Public Schools system.
Lane, who grew up on a small farm in Miller County, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1968. He then served as an Army officer in Europe and in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for combat service. He left the Army in 1973 to attend law school at the University of Georgia.
Lane said when he first became a lawyer, he appeared regularly before a tyrannical local judge. “I vowed to myself I’d never be like that,” Lane said.
The rash of resignations by judges who made spectacles of themselves has damaged the reputation of the state’s judiciary, he said.
“For that reason, I’m going to beef up our education of judges,” Lane said. “We need to teach these people what to stay away from.”
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