A state appellate court judge for the first time in Georgia history will stand trial Monday on allegations he committed ethics violations that could lead to him to be removed from the bench.
State Court of Appeals Judge Christian Coomer is charged with 36 ethics violations, most of them allegedly committed when he was a practicing attorney in Cartersville and a state House representative.
After Coomer was formally charged, his lawyers said the judge “strongly denies” the allegations, which “misstate the facts and the law.”
The charges were brought by the investigative panel of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Coomer’s quasi-trial will be presided over by a three-judge JQC hearing panel: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney; lawyer Dax Lopez, a former DeKalb State Court judge; and Jack Winter, a retired businessman who once served as a member of the state judicial watchdog commission.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The trial, expected to last several days, will be held in the ceremonial courtroom at the Cobb County courthouse. After its conclusion, the three-judge panel will decide whether Coomer violated the code of judicial conduct and, if so, what punishment he should receive. The judges’ recommendation will then be submitted to the state Supreme Court, which has the final word.
Many of the Coomer’s alleged transgressions occurred while he was representing a wealthy client, Jim Filhart.
He is accused of improperly drafting wills for Filhart that greatly benefited Coomer and his family. Coomer also got Filhart to give his holding company two loans totaling $289,000 with terms extremely unfavorable to Filhart. One of the loans, for $159,000, was to be paid off in 30 years when Filhart would be 106 years old, if he lived that long.
These arrangements became public when Filhart filed suit against Coomer in March 2020, accusing the judge of fraud and legal malpractice. Coomer settled the lawsuit with Filhart months later, paying him back in full. Coomer is also no longer part of Filhart’s will.
Coomer was elected to the Legislature in 2010. He was House majority whip in 2018 when then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him to the Appeals Court.
After being formally charged in December 2020, Coomer voluntarily suspended himself, with pay, from the 15-judge appeals court until the JQC case against him is resolved. Appeals court judges are paid about $190,000 a year.
Coomer is also accused of violating lending and campaign finance laws. One those allegations: In 2018, Coomer used campaign funds to pay for a personal trip to Hawaii with his family.
Last December, Coomer agreed to pay a $25,000 fine to settle accusations that he violated the state’s campaign laws. The state ethics commission had accused the judge of, among other things, illegally using contributions to prop up his private law practice and pay for a trip to Israel and the trip to Hawaii.
The AJC learned of the probe after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta filed a court motion disclosing it had obtained search warrants to seize evidence from two online accounts used from 2016 to 2018 by an attorney at a small Georgia law firm. The motion did not identify Coomer as that attorney, but the AJC confirmed through people familiar with the case that Coomer is the attorney under investigation.
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