After a yearslong ethics investigation and a quasi-trial, suspended Georgia Court of Appeals judge Christian Coomer says a public reprimand is the strictest punishment he should receive.
The state’s judicial watchdog agency maintains he should be removed from the bench, citing a “shocking pattern of (Coomer’s) financial exploitation of a vulnerable client through unconscionable loans.”
The Georgia Supreme Court will decide the judge’s fate.
In a brief filed last week, attorneys for Coomer said he never acted in bad faith when he borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a client and used campaign funds to supplement his family vacations to Israel and Hawaii.
“The record shows a lifelong history of good conduct, good character, and public service,” Coomer’s lawyers told the the Judicial Qualifications Commission panel overseeing the case. “The record also reveals Judge Coomer’s remorse and acceptance of responsibility for his mistakes.”
Coomer asks to be reinstated after serving a voluntary two-year paid suspension over what he called “disproven allegations of fraud and deceit.” He said his reputation has been damaged as a result of the ethics inquiry and media reports, and he feels he’s been punished enough.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
“Judge Coomer respectfully submits that the maximum additional penalty the Panel should consider recommending is imposition of a reprimand,” the filing said.
The JQC said Coomer’s conduct brings “the entire Georgia judiciary into disrepute in the eyes of the public.”
“Similarly, willful violations of campaign finance law intended to personally enrich (Coomer) through extravagant travel and short-term personal loans demonstrate a breadth and scope of an abuse of fiduciary trust that has few parallels in the history of judicial misconduct in Georgia,” the JQC director wrote.
Coomer has continued to collect his salary since agreeing to be suspended with pay in January 2021, meaning he’s received about $400,000 from Georgia taxpayers while on leave.
In its recommendation to the Georgia Supreme Court earlier this year, the panel presiding over Coomer’s ethics trial said his improper conduct and “steadily recurring abuse of positions of trust” warranted removal.
“The judicial system, the smallest and most fragile branch of government, can function only if the people trust the women and men who populate the judiciary,” the recommendation said. “Because the public cannot and should not have faith in (Coomer’s) ability to fairly dispense justice and uphold the law in light of his repeated violations ... (he) should be removed from office.”
The unanimous panel was chaired by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. Other members were retired businessman Jack Winter and Dax Lopez, a Dunwoody attorney and former judge. It was the first time the judicial watchdog agency recommended the removal of a state appellate court judge.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
The Georgia Supreme Court sent the panel’s recommendation back last month, saying Coomer can’t be disciplined for alleged ethical breaches committed before his appointment to the bench.
Instead, the state’s high court asked the hearing panel that recommended Coomer’s removal to review the case further and decide whether he acted in “bad faith” when he allegedly took advantage of his former client and violated state campaign finance laws.
The hearing panel has another month to submit its second recommendation to the Georgia Supreme Court.
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