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Final Copy 289 Ga. 633 S11Z1336. INQUIRY CONCERNING JUDGE ANTHONY PETERS. Per curiam. After receiving complaints about the alleged misconduct of Catoosa County Magistrate Court Judge Anthony Peters from, among others, Chief Magistrate Judge Sonny Caldwell, the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) initiated an investigation. Following the investigation, and after Judge Peters appeared before the JQC on October 28, 2010 to discuss the allegations against him, the JQC filed formal charges in this Court to have Judge Peters permanently removed from his position as a judge and barred from ever holding or seeking elected or appointed judicial office in the State of Georgia.1 Having reviewed the record of the JQC's inquiry, and for the reasons that follow, we agree with the recommendation of the JQC, and order that Judge Peters be immediately and permanently removed from the bench and be barred from ever holding or seeking elected or appointed judicial office in Georgia. The record reveals that a hearing was held before the JQC on the charges

We note that Judge Peters has not filed any response in this Court to the charges filed by the JQC.
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against Judge Peters on April 14-15, 2011, and that the JQC found, among other things, that Judge Peters had (1) violated Canon 22 of the Code of Judicial Conduct by obtaining and consuming marijuana at least once a week from March to May of 2010;3 (2) inappropriately used his judicial office to advance the personal interests of a family member (in violation of Canon 24 of the Code of Judicial Conduct) by showing up at the house of his sister-in-law's estranged husband, identifying himself as a Magistrate Judge, and then kicking in two interior doors at the man's home to gain access to two bedrooms;5 (3) violated Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct when, in the spring of 2009 in the

"Canon 2. Judges shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all their activities." Canon 2 (A) specifically provides that "Judges shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."
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Judge Peters admitted to this conduct in his verified answer and at the hearing.
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Canon 2 (B) provides in relevant part that "Judges shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others."
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The record further reveals that, at some point after kicking in the two doors, Judge Peters informed police that he had found some unidentified pills at the residence. When police arrived at the scene and refused to arrest the residents, Judge Peters became irate and started cursing at the police.
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Catoosa County Courthouse, he pointed a firearm at himself and indicated to another Magistrate Judge that he was not afraid to die by saying, "I am not scared. Are you all scared?";6 (4) violated Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct by appearing on a local cable television show called "Night Talk" on June 21, 2010, and (a) making derogatory remarks about the Chief Magistrate Judge and calling him "spineless," (b) publicly disclosing that he had filed a complaint with the JQC against the Chief Magistrate Judge, and (c) displaying a photograph of an individual and identifying that individual by name as a confidential informant of the Catoosa County Sheriff's office;7 (5) violated Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct by making a phone call to a local cable television talk show on June 22, 2010, and, after initially trying to disguise his voice with multiple foreign accents while speaking with the Catoosa County

The JQC credited the testimony of Magistrate Judge Wells, who witnessed the incident and provided specific details, over the testimony of Judge Peters, who claimed that this incident never happened. The JQC found Judge Peters' testimony not to be credible, in part, because of several areas in his testimony where he claimed to have little recollection of things that he had done (due to an alleged lack of sleep) despite some of the things that he had done being shown to him on videotape.
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A videotape of the "Night Talk" broadcast was shown at the JQC hearing.
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Sheriff (who was being interviewed on the show), told the Sheriff that he had "crapped himself" and that the Sheriff was a "spineless jelly spine";8 (6) violated Canon 3 (B) (1)9 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, and OCGA

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