State judicial watchdog panel recommending judge be removed after multiple violations

ATLANTA, Ga. — The Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) is recommending that a Georgia judge be removed.

In a 50-page opinion, a 3-judge panel of the JQC said Judge Christian Coomer violated his position of trust. It agreed with the JQC on 29 of 36 ethical violations.

“We’re very satisfied with report findings of the hearing panel,” Chuck Boring, former JQC Director told Channel 2′s Tom Jones. “We feel that their recommendation for removal, as we argued at trial, is the only appropriate sanction given what he was proven to have done.”

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Boring questioned Coomer during the trial where Coomer was accused of a long list of ethical violations.

The JQC says Coomer improperly used campaign funds, he got personal loans from a client he was representing, and he named himself and even his wife as beneficiaries for that client.

Boring says the misconduct went on even before Coomer was an appeals court judge.

“From the time he was a State Rep. and attorney, into the time he was a judicial candidate and then a judge on the court of appeals,” Boring said.

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The panel’s recommendation now goes to the state supreme court where that panel will decide Coomer’s fate.

Coomer is currently under suspension.

Jones reached out to Coomer’s attorney for a comment and is waiting to hear a response.

His attorney has issued a statement where he says he hopes the supreme court reaches a different conclusion.

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