A profanity-laced tirade against state and federal agents along with snide comments questioning the statements of one agent in open court prompted a GBI complaint against a Chattooga County judge.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan filed a complaint with the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission against Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Connelly. The complaint alleges Judge Connelly violated judicial ethics through her conduct with police officers over their work involving a local drug investigation.
Judge Connelly has married since the February incident and her last name is now Graham. She did not return repeated calls for comment.
Commission Director Cheryl Fisher Custer confirmed that the complaint had been filed but could not say when or if there was an investigation pending against Judge Graham.
In the complaint letter dated March 12, Mr. Keenan alleges that Judge Graham "has impugned the integrity of a GBI agent by questioning his veracity in open court and in her chambers, as well as calling him into her chambers to demean him and subject him to profane language."
Judge Graham believed agents investigating a local drug case begun in 2005 had asked an informant about her. The letter explicitly states that the judge was not the target of an investigation but that she "does not believe this as evidenced by her actions."
According to the letter the judge ordered Lookout Mountain Judicial Drug Task Force agents Mike Howard and David Gilleland into her chambers during a Feb. 19 trial and questioned them about their involvement in an interview with a confidential informant. When agents tried to explain that they had not taken part in questioning and only assisted, she became "enraged" and called them "scum, son(s) of a (expletive) and lower than the scum that the agents brought before the court," according to the letter.
She then told the agents that she would never believe anything they had to say and yelled at them to "get out" of her chambers, according to the letter.
Four days later she requested a meeting with Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson, Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force Commander Larry Black and Chattooga County Sheriff John Everett in her chambers. She told the group that the agents should have notified them about comments made by the informant and they should have notified her.
During the meeting she began ranting about a woman on the Internet who was "telling lies about her."
The judge then said "that a lot of people get killed and that she might start killing some herself," according to the letter.
On Feb. 25 as GBI Agent Del Thomasson was being sworn in, Judge Graham asked him if he knew what the oath meant. He said yes. The judge said "I'm relieved," according to the letter. Agent Thomasson was also involved in the same investigation referred to in the letter.
As he left the stand, Judge Graham ordered the agent into her chambers, and he got his supervisor Assistant Special Agent in Charge Terry Pelfrey to go with him.
Agent Thomasson recorded the conversation.
Rich Reaves, executive director of the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education of Georgia at the University of Georgia, said Judge Graham's alleged questioning of an agent during his swearing in could cast doubt in jurors' minds about the truth of his testimony. He said the hostile nature with which she is alleged to have treated the agents both in and out of her chambers runs counter to the role of a judge -- to maintain an ordered and neutral courtroom during a trial.
He said if the allegations are true the actions could lead to an investigation by the qualifications commission.
Such an procedure could result in no findings and no investigation or an investigation that would gather evidence and testimony for a hearing. The commission would then make recommendations ranging from a reprimand to suspension to removal from office, depending on the findings.
The commission recommends a level of discipline at the end of a public hearing. Then the Georgia Supreme Court either follows the recommendation or looks for more information and a different result.
He stressed that a complaint is not a sign of guilt. Under most circumstances, complaints are confidential to avoid any unnecessary attacks on the integrity of the judicial system. Complaints are protected, but correspondence from the GBI director is an open record under Georgia law.
