Court system owes accountability to public
A suspended chief magistrate judge in northeast Georgia says he can’t remember much of an October incident in which he allegedly aimed a loaded rifle at a sheriff’s lieutenant.
DEC 1, 2021 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAY 13, 2022
It’s all Pies n’ Candy for the Chief Magistrate
Last week, we reported for the second time about the curious case of Judge Gerald W. Johnson.
Johnson has, by most accounts, been an upstanding example of justice and integrity as Habersham County’s Chief Magistrate Judge for as long as he has held that position. He is well respected, and he has put in many years of service to this community.
We don’t question his service to this community. Whether folks’ opinions of Johnson changed after the domestic incident he was involved in on Oct. 18 is completely up to them. But when it comes to a public official, the silence about this situation has been disturbing.
First, since Johnson was not arrested that night, his name did not appear in the booking report that The Northeast Georgian runs every week. Johnson was not arrested despite Habersham County Sheriff’s reports that he fired a gun, screamed and broke things in his home in a dispute with his wife and – after being escorted from the premises by the responding officers – returned to the home again that night, another no-no in the world of domestic violence.
Though Johnson was not arrested, Sheriff Joey Terrell made the decision to report the incident to the Judicial Qualifications Division, a state organization that oversees judges and their conduct.
But that’s where the trail stops as far as the public is concerned.
Though Johnson has not been on the bench since Oct. 21, the director of the JQC refuses to say whether he is suspended.
Habersham County is still paying Johnson his salary and benefits while he is “away,” for lack of a better term. Johnson’s annual salary is $82,982.
An inquiry into the matter is on the docket of the Georgia Supreme Court, but all the motions and records are sealed.
Whether Johnson would potentially be accused of a crime is between him and our sheriff’s office and the district attorney. If there is no evidence of a crime, there is no reason to charge him with one.
But when it comes to a magistrate judge who makes decisions about people’s lives every day, the public is owed much, much more of an explanation as to how this is being handled.
Johnson was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the incident. Is he going to alcohol rehab treatment? Is he undergoing any other kind of counseling or getting any other kind of help?
These are things that Judge Johnson presiding over a domestic violence case would undoubtedly suggest for the folks in his courtroom. And we, the public on whom he passes judgements, deserve to know if he has taken his own advice.
We deserve to know what action state authorities are going to take in this case. If Johnson has no intention to return to the bench, it makes little difference to future defendants. But if he plans to return, the public deserves to know what actions were taken and what steps he has gone through to pronounce himself fit enough to make decisions that affect people facing the exact same situations in their lives.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged,” – Matthew 7:1
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