The bad news keeps coming for a Georgia judge who was recently arrested for allegedly punching a police officer outside an Atlanta nightclub.
Douglaston County Probate Judge Christina Peterson, 38, was removed from office Tuesday following an investigation into separate ethics charges.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that 12 of the 30 cases brought against Peterson, a two-term Democrat, warranted discipline and ruled that she be removed from office effective immediately.
She is also now ineligible to be elected or appointed to any future statewide judicial office for seven years. Fox News reports.
The decision comes on the heels of the ruling by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which found her guilty of “systemic incompetence” in April and recommended her dismissal.
Douglaston County Probate Judge Christina Peterson, 38, was removed from office Tuesday.
In one of the cases cited by the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday, Peterson decided to jail a naturalized U.S. citizen who simply wanted to change her marriage license to her real father’s name.
PJ Skelton, a Thai immigrant who was married in Douglas County in 2016, explained to the hearing panel last year that she has no memories of her father and instead listed her uncle on her marriage certificate, because he was who raised her.
But when he tried to correct the problem, Peterson told him to go to court.
The judge then ruled that Skelton was trying to defraud the court and sentenced her to a maximum of 20 days in jail, which she said could be reduced to two hours if she paid a $500 fine.
Skelton eventually paid the fine and spent 48 hours behind bars.
She told the panel that she did not expect the judge to act that way and noted that Peterson never advised her to bring a lawyer with her.
The panel ultimately concluded that Skelton was acting “in good faith seeking to correct” what appeared to be “an innocent mistake arising from ignorance rather than bad intentions,” according to court documents obtained by Fox.
It also found that Peterson gave “false” testimony to the panel when attempting to defend his ruling, which they said “underscores his conscious misconduct.”
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that 12 of 30 cases filed against Peterson, a two-term Democrat, warranted discipline.
The commission also accused Peterson of violating court security protocols, specifically during an after-hours wedding inside his courthouse without security checks.
The charges also involve making inappropriate social media posts to promote her career as a part-time actress and ignoring a sheriff’s order.
Additionally, unlike her predecessor, Peterson chose to keep all of the costs of the birth and death certificates in addition to her salary, a practice that, while legal, is considered unethical.
In 2022, Peterson, at the time a veterinarian of six years, pocketed $140,485 in fees, bringing her annual compensation to $265,487, records show.
The year before, he pocketed $139,447 in fees, bringing his total earnings to $265,862.
By comparison, in 2022, the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court earned $216,593.
Her dismissal comes just days after she was arrested for allegedly punching a police officer outside an Atlanta nightclub.
Peterson claims she was wrongfully arrested while trying to be a good Samaritan
Peterson was already facing scrutiny for these decisions when she was arrested Thursday for allegedly punching a police officer working security at the Red Martini restaurant.
Police said she had been drinking one night before the altercation, and police body camera footage shows the judge, in a low-cut dress, involved in a physical fight that allegedly occurred just seconds before the altercation. strike.
It shows how Peterson ran toward the police officer and a security guard to help a woman she said was “attacked.”
The clip continues to show an uncooperative Peterson chatting with police in a squad car, telling them to “Google her” while he is handcuffed and visibly distressed.
“Take me wherever you want to take me,” he says in the video, shared just hours after a news conference was held to discuss the arrest of the Douglas County probate judge.
‘You don’t need identification. You’ve picked up dead bodies when you don’t know who they were, but you picked them up.
‘Take me wherever you need to take me.’
Peterson told police to ‘Google her’ and appeared uncooperative on police body camera footage.
Peterson was seen struggling and writhing during her arrest early Thursday morning.
But Peterson has since said that The clip was taken out of context, saying the altercation occurred after she was wrongfully arrested while trying to be a good Samaritan.
He said he had just intervened to help a woman who was being “brutally attacked” at the Peachtree Road restaurant and lounge by an anonymous man not seen in the footage.
“She was the only one who helped me,” Alexandria Love, the woman at the center of the incident, said at Friday’s news conference, during which Peterson seemed unfazed by her arrest just over a day earlier.
Meanwhile, Love put on a cast, while Peterson’s attorney, Marvin Arrington Jr., vowed to defend his client to the bitter end.
“This is living proof that no good deed goes unpunished,” said the judge’s legal representation.
“The idea that a good Samaritan who was helping a woman who was being brutally attacked could be arrested and that the man who was brutally attacking the woman could not be arrested speaks to other issues.”
A few hours later, the footage became public, as both Love and another witness stated emphatically that they did not know Peterson beforehand.
In the car, he seemed increasingly unrepentant, crossing his legs defiantly.
Later footage also showed the judge walking away from an officer as he was escorted to a police building, while repeating the words: “Don’t touch me!”
Shortly before, Peterson was handcuffed face down on the ground, body camera footage shows, and police asked her name and she refused to give it.
A preliminary police report seen by FOX 5 said the judge “appeared to be under the influence” when she struck the officer, an act that is difficult to make out in the footage.
In it, the officer who was allegedly punched is seen standing next to Peterson and Love, while the former is seen shoving the officer in the chest and, at one point, hitting his hands.
The clip then becomes increasingly shaky as a physical conflict ensues, after which the filming officer is seen putting armbands on the jurist.
But Peterson, an official charged with impartial oversight of local laws, did not remain calm and was seen struggling and writhing throughout the entire ordeal.
It ends with her on the ground, before being taken to the patrol car and finally to the station.
In the car, he seems increasingly unrepentant and crosses his legs defiantly.
Peterson now faces charges of simple assault on a police officer and felony willful obstruction of law enforcement by use of threats of violence, according to jail records, as an investigation into the alleged altercation continues.
