Ga. Supreme Court fires pot-smoking, door-smashing judge
The state Supreme Court today ordered that a north Georgia magistrate be immediately and permanently removed from office, upholding a recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
A just-issued summary of what the court said about Anthony Peters of Catoosa County includes this:
Today’s seven-page opinion details the findings of the commission’s investigation, which include Peters’ weekly use of marijuana during a two-month period in 2010, an incident in which he kicked in the doors at the house of his sister-in-law’s estranged husband, another time when he pointed a gun at himself and told another judge he was not afraid to die, and his appearance in 2010 on a local cable television show in which he called the chief magistrate judge “spineless” and revealed the identity of a confidential informant of the Catoosa County Sheriff’s office. The next day, while the sheriff was being interviewed on a TV talk show, Peters called in and, disguising his voice with various foreign accents, called the sheriff a “spineless jelly spine.”
Peters’ conduct violates the Code of Judicial Conduct, the opinion says, and under the Georgia Constitution of 1983, “[a]ny judge may be removed, suspended, or otherwise disciplined for willful misconduct in office,…or for conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the judicial office into disrepute.”
Peters admitted much of the misconduct at a hearing in April before the Judicial Qualifications Commission but said he felt he’d been disciplined “enough” by having been placed on paid administrative leave since June 16, 2010.
“Notwithstanding Judge Peters’ personal belief that he has already received appropriate discipline, the record reveals that Judge Peters has not sought treatment for his admitted drug problems and has done nothing to show that he has any ability to live up to the high standard of conduct expected of members of the judiciary in Georgia,” the opinion says.
“Instead, he spent his time while on administrative leave publicly disparaging the Chief Magistrate Judge and the Sheriff of Catoosa County and endangering the life of a confidential informant by exposing his identity. Such willful misconduct is clearly ‘prejudicial to the administration of justice [and] brings the judicial office into disrepute.’”
“The public deserves much more from its judicial officers,” today’s opinion says, “and those judicial officers who cannot give the public what it deserves – confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary – do not deserve to continue to hold judicial office.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
107 comments Add your comment
Mj
September 6th, 2011
10:07 am
I think people who think pot is ok on any level are not the ones who have to experience people who are high. They aren’t the parents, the children or general public who has to experience this “laid back” attitude people think they have when high. You aren’t laid back you are out of control, losing brain cells and taking food out of your kids mouth. It was the drug that made him act a complete idiot. If smoking is so spiritual why aren’t people smoking daisies too?
a moderate
September 6th, 2011
10:07 am
Since the Judicial Qualifications Commission started its work, there have been fewer than 30 judges resign or removed from the bench, out of over 1,800 judges in Georgia. Not all judges are corrupt. There are just a few special “winners” out there that make everyone else look bad.
left/right, i care
September 6th, 2011
10:10 am
Will Jones – Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis,September 6th, 2011,9:52 am—wow hon, what are YOU smoking?
left/right, i care
September 6th, 2011
10:13 am
Mj ,September 6th, 2011, 10:07 am— thank you mj! words of truth. everyone cannot handle what pot does to them, for some people- it is like smoking a cigarette, for others, it is as bad an experience as heroin or crack would produce. do what you do, but do not expect everyone else to accept it or you.
Donald Sinyard
September 6th, 2011
10:23 am
Why is this man not in jail? What a boob…..
Botanical Test Pilot
September 6th, 2011
10:25 am
Mj, you were absolutely right; I just smoked some daisies and I can see Jesus smiling down at me.
J.R.C.780
September 6th, 2011
10:26 am
All the judges in Cobb County should be investigated. They are such a self-protecting, closed group that it’s almost impossible to hear about their negative character flaws, which would affect their jobs. For instance, one judge always bought a hoard of lottery tickets to court and checked them while litigants were arguing in front of him. When he stopped hearing voices, he would look up and say he’d take the matter under advisement. Of course, the law clerk, who also was there, would make a decision on the matter and the judge would sign it. And it is whispered that there are many more and worse character flaws that would abhor the public. Fox 5, CBS Atlanta, or someone, please investigate these people.
Those Lying Liars
September 6th, 2011
10:28 am
I was trying to count the number of judges who’ve been forced to resign or kicked out of office against their wills in the last year in this state, but eventually I ran out of fingers and toes to count and I knew if I wanted to continue I’d have to unzip my pants. So I just got disgusted and said screw it.
findog
September 6th, 2011
10:37 am
Will, you need a prosecutor to file the charges; or you could get an attorney to sue them and once Dick had to finally testify under oath he would get what Scooter got: conviction for lying. Keep up the good fight dude…
carla roqs
September 6th, 2011
10:37 am
@lying- that is a shame, SMCH
Ronin
September 6th, 2011
10:44 am
@BRW 9:11, the drug test cost is chump change compared to the money you would save on people who fail the test and don’t get a check. I have no problem if they do drugs, but not on my dime via state and government entitlement programs.
Legalize weed and tax the crap out of it. The war on drugs is an abysmal failure and basically another government jobs program.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
10:49 am
left/right, i care
September 6th, 2011
10:10 am
Will Jones – Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis,September 6th, 2011,9:52 am—wow hon, what are YOU smoking?
—
Read “The New Pearl Harbor,” “hon.” It’s a free download on Google Scholar: peer-reviewed scholarship by a theologian of proven integrity…a sedulous, irrefutable proof of Bush’s and Cheney’s treason on 9/11…if you actually care about America.
I know I do, having taken The Oath, on my life, twice, “to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC.”
If that’s too much trouble for whatever patriotic sentiment you pretend to to have, just watch “Mineta 9/11 testimony” on YouTube, as the former secretary of transportation purges his soul of the witness he had of Cheney’s treason.
Everybody knows, including G-d, Bush and Cheney committed 9/11. Why do you pretend not to?
They must hang that America prosper once more, by G-d.
PR
September 6th, 2011
10:53 am
Did you expect him to act responsibly? He’s from up in the hills of N. Georgia. Those people got what they deserved. They put this clown and power and then were surprised he was a moron.
markie mark
September 6th, 2011
10:55 am
wow, will jones….see many black helicopters lately??
and for those of you who want to legalize pot….unfortunately, as long as a 10 year old can plant seeds and grow pot without a multimillion dollar investment like a brewery or distillery, it aint gonna happen.
Sherry
September 6th, 2011
10:57 am
Okay! Folks, tell me what is the difference in that Judge using pot and our Welfare Recipients. There both getting paid by the government. Why should he lose his job? At least he was working for a living.
I think all Welfare Recipients should pass a screen every month before they can pick up a check……
JQC
September 6th, 2011
11:01 am
Thank God for Mike Bowers who heads up the JQC (and should have been Governor of our Great State in years gone by) and his Investigator Richard Hyde. I understand the money problems with the state budget but if some additional funds could be found to help the JQC find additional ways to hire additional investigators a great deal more good could be done to get those off the bench that need to go…like Anthony Peters. Mike and Richard….you guys are my heroes! Keep up the great work you are doing for all Georgia citizens.
Dahlonega Dave
September 6th, 2011
11:08 am
R. Perry prayed for rain and God has sent fires of biblical proportions to Texas. God don’t like Rick.
godoggo
September 6th, 2011
11:30 am
RAMZAD said:
September 6th, 2011
8:39 am
I could swear that the judges and the police were in bed together- particularly in Cobb County
.
*RAMZAD, You can’t imagine the “Incestual” relationship in the Family Courts in ATL……Attorneys and Judges formally married to supposed “expert witnesses”, Judges that can finalize their personal Divorces in 5 days, yet allow Attorneys to milk the general public daily of Valuable assets to keep the wheel of corruption and their jobs.
Open records act can show there is interesting correlation between those involved in the system and those that are not…..I found 3 Judges, 5 Attorney’s, and several expert witnesses who finalized their Divorces in days………..Whereas, the general public is used to “run the Gravy Train” with their assets.
Once the Attorney’s involved discover net worth, there is a “Net conflict” that results….by the people that are supposed to represent you. I spent over 120K just mediating……And they wonder Why we feel the way we do……but i do believe in Karma….and have seen it at work : )
I asked my Attorney “Is there no moral compass in this Industry”…..He said, “Well, that’s just one of the normal processes of divorce”. I now volunteer and consult with people going through the minefield…….The children are the ones that lose in the end.
Holler if ya hear me ?
wayne
September 6th, 2011
11:32 am
Obviously this man is suffering from delusions, and or alcohol abuse. Statistically smoking marijuana typically creates paranoia. For this mans own health he should have a long talk with a therapist, it just doesn’t make sense that smoking would create a level headed judge to get so high-strung, there must be some deeper darker problems in his life far more destructive than marijuana.
Well
September 6th, 2011
11:33 am
What took so long????
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
11:36 am
Adulterating pervert Mike Bowers is heading up the JQC? The fox is guarding the hen house.
JT
September 6th, 2011
11:40 am
Where’s his picture??????? Don’t you think we need to put a face with this disturbed individual? IJS…..
wayne
September 6th, 2011
11:42 am
@ MJ, It seems you have a very narrow mind when it comes to the subject of this narcotic, but to say the people who smoke it are potentialy taking food from their kids mouths is a sign of steortypical stupidity on your part. Drugs of any kind do the same thing when you break it down to the core, if you are mad and upset and you get drunk you are going to be even worse with anger. Drugs amplify the problems people have if they are to weak minded to deal with them while they are sober, as simple as that.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
11:43 am
markie mark
September 6th, 2011
10:55 am
wow, will jones….see many black helicopters lately??
—
Actually, “Einstein,” any Atlantan looking up saw plenty of “black helicopters” during the Olympics and otherwise.
Get “with it:” read “The New Pearl Harbor,” Griffin, Ph.D., or know you’re a traitor, or have less than a room temperature I.Q.
Pyroclastic flow at the WTC proves controlled demolition.
Col. George Nelson’s analysis (the top USAF crash analysis officer) proves no 757 at the Pentagon, and thousands on Capitol Hill witnessed the “white jumbo jet’s lumbering turn directly overhead” the morning of 9/11, as it overflew the Pentagon down Columbia Pike as the shockwave of the missile strike’s impact reached them across the Potomac.
One People, One Truth, One G-d, One America.
Don’t be a moron or a traitor.
carla roqs
September 6th, 2011
12:25 pm
will jones, why do you not spell out ‘God’?
Michael
September 6th, 2011
12:31 pm
Most of what judges hear every day is same thing, different names.
Angel
September 6th, 2011
12:39 pm
Whether the government is seen as doing a bad job or not atleast they have made a step toward getting rid of someone who was not mature enough to be in the system. The law is a complicated thing and as long as it is run by humans, which it always will be, there will be plenty of things for us to disagree with. Now wether we do something about it or not is up to us.
Michael
September 6th, 2011
12:46 pm
The 5 day divorce happens when everything is resolved with a settlement agreement, the agreement is filed with the divorce petition and an answer filed that admits the allegation of the petition. If you spent $120k on mediation that means you also would have spent that arriving at a settlement agreement before filing the divorce. It’s not the lawyers, it’s you.
nocumentum
September 6th, 2011
12:57 pm
Strike another blow against sane drug laws. If anything, this guy should’ve been smoking more pot.
Vince
September 6th, 2011
1:02 pm
The guy abuses prescription pills for years, then smokes pot from March to May 2010, and the pot gets the headlines?? Lol Galloway or whomever decides on the headline needs to get a clue. The abuse of prescription drugs, alcohol and cigarettes are all more dangerous than pot and kill 100s of thousands of people a year…Number who die from Pot smoking yearly? NOT 1 death attributed to the God-Given herb
Voting for future
September 6th, 2011
1:10 pm
Im more worried about the liberals taking over for the judges being removed. We just dont stand a chance here.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
September 6th, 2011
1:27 pm
atlanta@ic.fbi.gov
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
1:38 pm
That’s right folks, I am still hung up on Dick Cheney. Pass the meds because I need ‘em!
Deep Throat
September 6th, 2011
1:49 pm
I know of a judge in Clarkston who does the same thing. No one in law enforcement did anything when I reported him.
The Bald Eagle
September 6th, 2011
1:58 pm
Really AJC? We’ve got a judge who is breaking and entering, waving around guns, releasing sensitive information that can ruin investigations and endanger lives and the AJC hones in on pot smoking? Really? That’s the least of this former judge’s offenses.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
2:20 pm
Clown jokes about treason, afraid to use his or her own name.
Beyond all the physical proof of a missile at the Pentagon and controlled demolition at the WTC, here’s a quick and easy proof of Cheney’s treason you find so amusing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y
Alabama Communist
September 6th, 2011
2:22 pm
No doubt the Judge got some bad Weed that was really Angels Dust and he had thought he was in a Republican Tea Party Paradise
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
2:24 pm
…and here’s what got Dan Rather canned: telling the truth on the controlled demolition of WTC’s Bldg 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATH0I1Fxuag&feature=watch_response
…and a known adulterer is the watchdog on judicial integrity?
Emma
September 6th, 2011
2:29 pm
Okkkkkk! At first before I read the entire story and just the headline I was thinking to myself SO WHAT he smoked weed! But AFTER reading the ENTIRE article…this dude needed to smoke WEED, to RELAX! Don’t BLAME it on the weed, he was off the chain by himself!
Lana
September 6th, 2011
3:11 pm
Deegee…inmates running asylum
Harshin' his mellow
September 6th, 2011
3:18 pm
Wait…the man got violent after smoking weed? Uh, no. There was something else in that bud.
me2
September 6th, 2011
3:34 pm
Wish the judicial review board would look into why those judges in Atlanta only work a couple hours a day when they have a case log that is so badly backed up.
Queen Nerfballteedi
September 6th, 2011
4:00 pm
People often forget that judges are just glorified lawyers.The same ambulance chasing lawyer that probably have made a buck or two off of others’ misfortune. The same corporate lawyer that has lied and stolen to get ahead. The same divorce Lawyer that charges you $300 for a 15 min conversation. I still have no idea why anybody should stand when a glorified lawyer walks into the room.
Lib in Cobb
September 6th, 2011
4:02 pm
Sounds like this man is ill and the grass is being blamed. I have never known anyone to act this way who smokes.
big daddy
September 6th, 2011
4:59 pm
All judges are crooks. It’s just that some get caught and some don’t.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 6th, 2011
5:00 pm
Our Courts ought to be shrines of our civil religion: where G-d Almighty reigns by Our Creed’s “Annuit Coeptis,” and Its Righteousness is established for the People in Truth and Justice.
Anything less is anti-American and anti-G-d.
Thomas Jefferson
September 6th, 2011
5:22 pm
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Shaunaerriella
September 6th, 2011
5:27 pm
The guy sounds like a real trip. I think he has potential to be the next new daytime TV judge.
“Judge Anthony”. He could preside in different foreign accents, and smoke weed during the testimony. Surely they can fit him somewhere on the schedule twixt Judge Judy, Judge Alex, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Hatchett etal.
Hilarious
September 6th, 2011
5:28 pm
I am the only one who thinks this guy is hilarious. He actually called in a radio talk used foreign accents to disguise his voice. That’s great. Who says marijuana doesn’t enhance your personality. The rest of you stodgy boring losers can go on eating yourselves to death. . .Anthony Peters rocks!
Richard Braswell
September 6th, 2011
6:28 pm
This admitted pot smoking wing-nut disgraces the entire Georgia judicial system and gets no jail time. Georgia’s judicial prudence is on par with the educational ability of the Atlanta Public School System. Had the judge been on probation for simple possession and failed a piss test, he would have been violated and sent to state prison. Monkeys….