By Rosie Manins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — The metro Atlanta judge arrested outside a Buckhead nightclub after allegedly hitting a police officer has lost her job in response to 30 ethics charges brought by the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission.
Douglas County Probate Judge Christina Peterson, 38, has been fighting judicial misconduct allegations since she was elected to the bench in an uncontested November 2020 election. In late March, the JQC’s hearing panel recommended that Peterson be removed from office, citing her “systemic incompetence.”
The Georgia Supreme Court decided Tuesday that Peterson’s removal from the bench is warranted.
“In light of her multiple violations of the (judicial code) rules in relation to several matters—some of them reflecting a flagrant disregard for the law, court rules, and judicial conduct rules; the pattern of violations that the (JQC) director proved by clear and convincing evidence; the extremely concerning nature of some of those violations, in particular with respect to the criminal contempt matter; and her behavior during the JQC inquiry, we conclude that removal is the appropriate sanction,” the court said.
The court’s decision comes just days after Peterson was arrested at the Red Martini Restaurant and Lounge shortly after 3 a.m. on Thursday.
The case before the state Supreme Court did not include the criminal charges.
Peterson had already lost her bid for another term in office, defeated in the May Democratic primary by Douglasville attorney Valerie Vie, who does not face a Republican challenger in the November general election.
Peterson said that her arrest by Atlanta police was “a setup” and that she was only trying to help a woman who was being attacked outside the club. She is charged with battery and felony obstruction.
Body camera footage of Peterson’s arrest was released Friday night by the Atlanta Police Department. It shows Peterson repeatedly yelling “let her (expletive) go” at an officer while pushing the officer.
The officer stated in an incident report that Peterson punched him in the chest and neck area. He said Peterson repeatedly swore at him when he asked for her name and birth date while she was handcuffed.
After being released from the Fulton County Jail on a $5,000 bond Thursday afternoon, Peterson held a news conference at her attorney’s office, where her recollection of events was backed up by two women who said they were involved in the nightclub incident.
Alexandria Love said she was attacked by a man she doesn’t know while waiting in line for food outside the club, and that Peterson was the only person who immediately tried to help her. Love’s friend, Madison Shannon Kelly, said Peterson didn’t intend to hit the officer.
Peterson’s attorney called for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to review the case. He said the charges are frivolous and should be dropped. Love and Kelly said they didn’t know Peterson before the incident.
In the JQC case, Peterson is charged with violating the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct in a variety of ways. At one point, she faced 50 separate counts, but 20 were withdrawn or dismissed.
Peterson, a University of Georgia School of Law graduate who practiced as an attorney for several years before taking the bench, was accused of inappropriate social media posts, unnecessarily jailing and fining a woman who sought to amend her marriage license and letting wedding participants into Douglas County’s courthouse after hours without permission. She was also abusive toward a fellow judge and other county officials, obstructed access to public records and had improper contact with a litigant, among other things, the JQC alleged.
Commission members also took issue with Peterson’s conduct as a judicial candidate — she publicly made ribald jokes, solicited money for her birthday and promoted events at Atlanta bars in connection with her 2020 election bid. They also found fault with her behavior at a 2022 meeting of her homeowners association, saying she mocked several attendees and lobbed “petty and sarcastic retorts” while inappropriately trying to influence a pending lawsuit that she had filed against the association and its directors.
“And so she must go,” the JQC hearing panel said in its March 31 report to the state Supreme Court.
Peterson’s attorney in the ethics case asked the court in late April to reject the JQC’s “erroneous factual findings contradicted by the records” and its recommendation that she be removed from the bench.
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