Post by Jim on Jun 13, 2009 20:38:40 GMT -5
Georgia news and it's right in my neck of the woods. Sounds like this Judge said some nasty cuss words to the wrong people!
By CARRIE TEEGARDIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s director has filed a judicial complaint against high-profile Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Connelly. The unusual complaint alleges Connelly violated judicial ethics by repeatedly cursing at law enforcement officers over their handling of a drug investigation.
The judge was upset, according to the GBI complaint, because she believed agents investigating illegal drug activities asked a confidential informant about her.
“Judge Connelly stated that the agents had brought up her name regarding drug use,” GBI director Vernon Keenan wrote in a letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Connelly has never been investigated by the agency for illegal drug activity.
Judicial ethics require judges to treat the parties who appear before them impartially. They are supposed to be “patient, dignified and courteous” with anyone they encounter in their official capacity, according to Georgia’s Code of Judicial Conduct. They also are not supposed to exhibit “bias or prejudice” in their words or conduct, the code says.
The Chattooga County-based judge, who is the daughter of famed Summerville attorney Bobby Lee Cook, didn’t mince words, according to the complaint.
In the first of three in-chambers confrontations in February, the judge ordered a drug task force agent to “sit your sorry ass down” and then proceeded to admonish the agent with “vulgar and profane language,” according to an account of the incident included in Keenan’s complaint.
The judge did not respond to numerous interview requests from the AJC. Messages from a reporter were sent via phone, fax and e-mail.
In his complaint letter, GBI director Keenan wrote that in his 37 years in law enforcement he has interacted with judges frequently and has the “utmost respect” for the work they do. “Never in my years of law enforcement have I felt the need to make a complaint to the Judicial Qualifications Commission,” Keenan wrote. “Judge Connelly’s conduct, however, must be addressed.”
While the judge apparently believed that agents were asking questions about her as part of a drug investigation, it’s unclear whether they really were.
“It is important to understand that Judge Connelly is not the target of a DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] investigation,” Keenan wrote in the complaint letter. “It is apparent, however, that Judge Connelly does not believe this as evidenced by her actions.”
Connelly is a judge in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, which encompasses four northwest Georgia counties. Connelly recently married and changed her name to Kristina Cook Graham, according to her administrative assistant. Her name was still Connelly at the time of the complaint.
The complaint pits Georgia’s statewide law enforcement agency against Connelly, whose father is one of the South’s best-known attorneys and is believed to be the inspiration for the television series “Matlock.”
The complaint is being investigated by the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission. The little-known commission is a seven-member body of judges, attorneys and non-attorney citizens who serve as volunteers. It is staffed by a part-time director, an administrative assistant and an investigator. Georgia’s is one of the most slimly staffed judicial oversight organizations in the nation and is out of money to pay for investigations in the current fiscal year, said Cheryl Fisher Custer, the commission’s director.
Money for investigations will be available, but very limited, when the new fiscal year begins next month, she said.
The commission is required by law to keep complaints filed against judges confidential. But correspondence of Keenan and other public officials is subject to the Georgia Open Records Act. The AJC obtained a copy of the complaint letter through an open records request with the GBI.
If an investigation confirms a case of judicial misconduct, the commission can reprimand a judge or call for informal sanctions. The commission can also issue a Notice of Formal Proceedings, a public action similar to an indictment. If a trial on the accusations leads to a finding of inappropriate behavior, the commission can recommend censure, suspension or removal from office to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which makes the final ruling.
The GBI’s complaint letter states that the GBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the local Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force began an investigation of drug activities in 2005. The GBI redacted information in the letter that described the focus of the investigation. But the letter states that as part of that investigation, a confidential informant was interviewed by agents in 2008 and asked about illegal drug activities disclosed by criminal defendants and other witnesses.
After a trial in February, the judge ordered one of the agents who had testified in the case to her chambers and “told him that she understood he had been involved in questioning the [informant] about her.” She ordered another agent involved in the case to join the meeting and told the agents she was disappointed that she could not trust “local law enforcement officers in her own county,” according to the letter.
The agents told the judge they did not actively participate in the interview, which prompted the judge to become “enraged,” according to the letter. She called the agents “scum, [profanity] and lower than the scum that the agents brought before the court,” according to the letter.
Before ordering them to “get out,” she told the agents she would no longer believe them and never wanted to see them again.
The following week, the judge summoned to her chambers the commander of the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force as well as the sheriffs of Walker and Chattooga counties. Connelly was “very irate and cursing continually during the entire conversation,” according to the complaint. The judge said the sheriffs and task force commander should have notified her that her name was being mentioned in a drug investigation, according to the account in the letter.
According to Keenan’s letter, Connelly ranted during that meeting about a writer on the Internet who was “telling lies about her.”
“Judge Connelly then stated that a lot of people get killed and that she might start killing some herself,” according to the letter.
A judge acting in the way the GBI complaint described would be “abusing the power of her office for personal reasons,” said Monroe H. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University and one of the nation’s foremost experts on judicial ethics.
Two days after the judge met with local sheriffs and the drug task force commander, she summoned veteran GBI Agent Del Thomasson to her chambers after he testified in a case. Thomasson brought his supervisor into the room and activated a tape recorder.
During the meeting, the judge told Thomasson’s supervisor that Thomasson is “playing a very dangerous game,” according to a GBI transcript.
The supervisor asked whether the judge was threatening the agent and in what regard she considered the agent, a highly regarded veteran, to be dishonest.
The judge did not elaborate.
“I didn’t threaten,” she said, according to the tape. “You can get out now. Get out of my office. Get out of my office. Del, don’t you ever speak to me again on the street. Don’t you ever speak to me or any member of my family. Now get out of here! Get out of here!”
Find this article at:
www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/06/14/gbi_judge_complaint.html
By CARRIE TEEGARDIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s director has filed a judicial complaint against high-profile Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Connelly. The unusual complaint alleges Connelly violated judicial ethics by repeatedly cursing at law enforcement officers over their handling of a drug investigation.
The judge was upset, according to the GBI complaint, because she believed agents investigating illegal drug activities asked a confidential informant about her.
“Judge Connelly stated that the agents had brought up her name regarding drug use,” GBI director Vernon Keenan wrote in a letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Connelly has never been investigated by the agency for illegal drug activity.
Judicial ethics require judges to treat the parties who appear before them impartially. They are supposed to be “patient, dignified and courteous” with anyone they encounter in their official capacity, according to Georgia’s Code of Judicial Conduct. They also are not supposed to exhibit “bias or prejudice” in their words or conduct, the code says.
The Chattooga County-based judge, who is the daughter of famed Summerville attorney Bobby Lee Cook, didn’t mince words, according to the complaint.
In the first of three in-chambers confrontations in February, the judge ordered a drug task force agent to “sit your sorry ass down” and then proceeded to admonish the agent with “vulgar and profane language,” according to an account of the incident included in Keenan’s complaint.
The judge did not respond to numerous interview requests from the AJC. Messages from a reporter were sent via phone, fax and e-mail.
In his complaint letter, GBI director Keenan wrote that in his 37 years in law enforcement he has interacted with judges frequently and has the “utmost respect” for the work they do. “Never in my years of law enforcement have I felt the need to make a complaint to the Judicial Qualifications Commission,” Keenan wrote. “Judge Connelly’s conduct, however, must be addressed.”
While the judge apparently believed that agents were asking questions about her as part of a drug investigation, it’s unclear whether they really were.
“It is important to understand that Judge Connelly is not the target of a DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] investigation,” Keenan wrote in the complaint letter. “It is apparent, however, that Judge Connelly does not believe this as evidenced by her actions.”
Connelly is a judge in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, which encompasses four northwest Georgia counties. Connelly recently married and changed her name to Kristina Cook Graham, according to her administrative assistant. Her name was still Connelly at the time of the complaint.
The complaint pits Georgia’s statewide law enforcement agency against Connelly, whose father is one of the South’s best-known attorneys and is believed to be the inspiration for the television series “Matlock.”
The complaint is being investigated by the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission. The little-known commission is a seven-member body of judges, attorneys and non-attorney citizens who serve as volunteers. It is staffed by a part-time director, an administrative assistant and an investigator. Georgia’s is one of the most slimly staffed judicial oversight organizations in the nation and is out of money to pay for investigations in the current fiscal year, said Cheryl Fisher Custer, the commission’s director.
Money for investigations will be available, but very limited, when the new fiscal year begins next month, she said.
The commission is required by law to keep complaints filed against judges confidential. But correspondence of Keenan and other public officials is subject to the Georgia Open Records Act. The AJC obtained a copy of the complaint letter through an open records request with the GBI.
If an investigation confirms a case of judicial misconduct, the commission can reprimand a judge or call for informal sanctions. The commission can also issue a Notice of Formal Proceedings, a public action similar to an indictment. If a trial on the accusations leads to a finding of inappropriate behavior, the commission can recommend censure, suspension or removal from office to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which makes the final ruling.
The GBI’s complaint letter states that the GBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the local Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force began an investigation of drug activities in 2005. The GBI redacted information in the letter that described the focus of the investigation. But the letter states that as part of that investigation, a confidential informant was interviewed by agents in 2008 and asked about illegal drug activities disclosed by criminal defendants and other witnesses.
After a trial in February, the judge ordered one of the agents who had testified in the case to her chambers and “told him that she understood he had been involved in questioning the [informant] about her.” She ordered another agent involved in the case to join the meeting and told the agents she was disappointed that she could not trust “local law enforcement officers in her own county,” according to the letter.
The agents told the judge they did not actively participate in the interview, which prompted the judge to become “enraged,” according to the letter. She called the agents “scum, [profanity] and lower than the scum that the agents brought before the court,” according to the letter.
Before ordering them to “get out,” she told the agents she would no longer believe them and never wanted to see them again.
The following week, the judge summoned to her chambers the commander of the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force as well as the sheriffs of Walker and Chattooga counties. Connelly was “very irate and cursing continually during the entire conversation,” according to the complaint. The judge said the sheriffs and task force commander should have notified her that her name was being mentioned in a drug investigation, according to the account in the letter.
According to Keenan’s letter, Connelly ranted during that meeting about a writer on the Internet who was “telling lies about her.”
“Judge Connelly then stated that a lot of people get killed and that she might start killing some herself,” according to the letter.
A judge acting in the way the GBI complaint described would be “abusing the power of her office for personal reasons,” said Monroe H. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University and one of the nation’s foremost experts on judicial ethics.
Two days after the judge met with local sheriffs and the drug task force commander, she summoned veteran GBI Agent Del Thomasson to her chambers after he testified in a case. Thomasson brought his supervisor into the room and activated a tape recorder.
During the meeting, the judge told Thomasson’s supervisor that Thomasson is “playing a very dangerous game,” according to a GBI transcript.
The supervisor asked whether the judge was threatening the agent and in what regard she considered the agent, a highly regarded veteran, to be dishonest.
The judge did not elaborate.
“I didn’t threaten,” she said, according to the tape. “You can get out now. Get out of my office. Get out of my office. Del, don’t you ever speak to me again on the street. Don’t you ever speak to me or any member of my family. Now get out of here! Get out of here!”
Find this article at:
www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/06/14/gbi_judge_complaint.html
