Too Late To Remove
The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a recommendation to remove a judge who had already resigned
[Former Chief Judge of the Habersham Magistrate Court] Johnson, however, submitted his resignation to Governor Kemp shortly after the Hearing Panel filed its Report and Recommendation. Removal from office is the only sanction the JQC seeks, and we cannot remove a former judge from an office he no longer holds. Accordingly, we dismiss.
Admitted allegations
According to the formal charges, which Johnson admits are true and correct, on the evening of October 18, 2021, the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office received a call regarding multiple gunshots fired in the residential area where Johnson lived. Travis Jarrell, the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant who responded to the call, knew Johnson and knew that Johnson lived in the area, so he went to Johnson’s house to ask Johnson whether he had any information about the gunshots. After Jarrell rang Johnson’s doorbell, Johnson opened the door and pointed a loaded AR-15 rifle at Jarrell. Jarrell, who feared for his safety, fled to his patrol vehicle, and Johnson dropped the rifle. Johnson then spoke with Jarrell but told Jarrell he did not want their conversation to be recorded. As Johnson and Jarrell spoke, Johnson called Jarrell by his first name and several times asked Jarrell to turn off his recording device. Each time, Jarrell informed Johnson he could not turn off the recording device. Johnson, who was angry, visibly intoxicated, unstable on his feet, and spoke with slurred speech, admitted to Jarrell that he had fired an AR-15 rifle from his porch that evening while intoxicated.
Eight days after the incident, Johnson told the JQC Chief Investigator that the day of the incident was a “blur” because he had been drinking excessively, but he remembered sitting in his chair and hearing his wife’s “chatter,” which aggravated him and caused him to “snap.” Johnson admitted he then went to the porch and fired multiple rounds from the rifle into the ground, and when Jarrell came to his house in a marked patrol vehicle, he answered the door with the loaded rifle pointed at Jarrell’s head.
Footnote
Our dismissal is without prejudice to the JQC reinstating charges against Johnson in the event he becomes a judge or judicial candidate in the future.
Now Habersham reported on the findings of the Judicial Qualifications Commission Hearing Panel
In its report to the Georgia Supreme Court, the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) Hearing Panel rebuked Johnson for his actions related to a domestic dispute at his home on October 18, 2021. During that incident, Johnson broke his wife’s car window, repeatedly fired an AR-15 into their backyard while drunk, and briefly aimed the firearm at a law enforcement officer. The panel said the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office gave the now-suspended judge “preferential treatment” by not arresting and charging him.
The panel also addressed a complaint JQC filed, then later withdrew, that Johnson attempted to use the prestige of his office for his own interests when he asked the investigating deputy to turn off his recording device.
(Mike Frisch)