The Georgia Supreme Court removed a county probate judge who was recently arrested for allegedly shoving a cop in a profanity-laden scuffle outside an Atlanta nightclub.
Douglas County Probate Judge Christina Peterson was removed from office and banned from holding any judicial post in the state for seven years after Georgia’s highest court issued its opinion of disbarment on Tuesday.
But it wasn’t her highly-publicized and caught-on-bodycam-footage arrest that led to her removal from the bar.
Peterson, 38, separately “exhibited a pattern of judicial misconduct while in office,” the Judicial Qualifications Commission found in a probe into her behavior.
The embattled judge, who was elected and sworn into office in December 2020, was at one point facing a whopping 50 counts of alleged misconduct — the first of which was filed less than a year into her four-year term. Of those, 20 were dismissed, while a hearing panel investigated the other 30.
The panel found clear and convincing evidence to find Peterson guilty of 28 of the 30 counts and concluded that she should be removed from the bench, according to its March report.
The high court agreed and found that Peterson showed a “flagrant disregard for the law, court rules, and judicial conduct rules” — as well as a “pattern of violations” of judicial rules.
In one of the “extremely concerning” violations, Peterson held a woman who appealed to the judge to correct an error on her marriage certificate in criminal contempt. She then sentenced her to the maximum jail time of 20 days behind bars plus a fine “without explanation or justification,” the panel found.
She was also accused of letting unauthorized people enter the county courthouse after hours without proper screening and using deputies to work overtime on her behalf with taxpayer money, the court said.
Peterson’s inappropriate behavior extended outside the courthouse as well. She was accused of engaging in “hostile exchanges” with neighbors at her homeowners association meeting, while suing the association.
Her repeated behavior “did not demonstrate the decorum and temperament required of a judge,” the state supreme court said in its opinion.
The Georgia Supreme Court did not consider Peterson’s viral arrest Thursday in its determination as it was not part of the investigation. But the accusations against her only further damaged her reputation.
The judge allegedly pushed an off-duty Atlanta cop outside the Red Martini Restaurant and Lounge twice in the chest and was charged with simple battery against a police officer and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
Peterson interfered with the officer as he was trying to de-escalate a situation involving a security guard escorting a woman out of the club, police said. She allegedly knocked the cop’s hands away from the woman and pushed him in the chest twice during the 3 a.m. altercation, according to the department.
“Let her f–cking go, let her f–cking go,” Peterson yells at the guard and police officer, according to the footage released by Atlanta police and obtained by local outlets.
The judge was quickly handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser, where she shouted expletives and refused to give her name to the officer.
Peterson’s lawyer said she was trying to help the woman who was reportedly attacked by a man outside the club and that she did not mean to push the cop. Two witnesses, including the alleged victim, corroborated her account at a press conference Friday.
“He viciously attacked me, punched me in my face and Judge Peterson was the only one to help me,” she said.
Peterson’s attorney Marvin Arrington Jr. claimed she was only being a good Samaritan
“As the investigation continues to unfold and more facts come to light, we believe that Judge Christina Peterson will be completely exonerated of these charges,” her attorney Marvin Arrington Jr. said at the news conference.
