Legal sources who don’t want to be named tell InsiderAdvantage that the criminal investigation of resigned DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Becker– she is alleged to have made false statements to Judicial Qualification Commission (JQC) members and staff during a private meeting– is wrongheaded and a terrible precedent.
One lawyer who is going on the record, though, is prominent King & Spalding partner Ben Easterlin IV. He told the Daily Report legal newspaper that the ethics charges and a separate grand jury investigation regarding statements made to some JQC members by Becker undermine a long-held practice of inviting judges to speak privately and candidly about complaints or allegations of possible misconduct. “The JQC is not a star chamber,” he told reporter Robin McDonald. “And it’s not intended … for everybody who comes before it to be subject to an inquisition. It’s designed to help educate a judge. It’s designed to help guide judges when they have questions, to guide judges when they need input about things they don’t realize that are not quite right, and to discipline judges when something really bad goes on. It requires judgment and not prosecutorial zeal because [the JQC] is not a prosecutorial entity.”
At the heart of this controversy is the panel’s decision to bring ethics charges against Becker for her sentencing of former DeKalb County school superintendent Crawford Lewis to a year in jail after he reached a plea deal that was intended to free him on probation. Instead, Becker held that Lewis failed to meet a key condition of his deal: to be truthful at the corruption trial of the DeKalb school board’s former chief operating officer and her ex-husband.
Prominent attorneys contacted by InsiderAdvantage say that, until recently, the JQC would have tried to reconcile any misunderstandings or contradictory statements by a judge to get a fair resolution. Normally, and Easterlin made this point in the Daily Report interview, criminal proceedings against any judge don’t commence until after a JQC investigation and disciplinary decision was settled.
Current JQC chairman Lester Tate is staying mum, and Becker’s ethics charges are scheduled to be aired before the panel this fall.
Also, in a new development, Becker’s attorneys want Tate and JQC members Patsy Porter and Jimmy Franklin to be recused from the ethics tribunal. All three were present at the private meeting where Becker says she was unprepared to answer a barrage of questions and where she is now accused of making false or conflicting statements. The ex-judge’s lawyers maintain the three were argumentative with her, are biased and must recuse themselves.
