The Supreme Court of Georgia ordered the permanent removal of a Twiggs County probate judge from the bench and barred him from ever holding or seeking judicial office.
In an 11-page ruling, the court unanimously found that Twiggs County Probate Judge Kenneth E. Fowler had violated the state's judicial canon of ethics and that his conduct "shows that he is simply unwilling to live up to his legal and ethical responsibilities as a judge."
The high court also dismissed Fowler's contentions that any judicial misconduct in which he may have engaged stemmed from unintentional errors and a lack of legal education. Fowler has a high school education, which is all that the state mandates for probate judges in its less populated counties. Instead, the Supreme Court found that Fowler had demonstrated judicial incompetence, disregarded the law, taken actions that eroded public trust and confidence in the judiciary, engaged in behavior inappropriate for a judge and showed a lack of judicial decorum and temperament.
After a year-long investigation of Fowler that began in 2008 following several complaints about his demeanor on the bench, the JQC filed charges against the Twiggs County judge in 2009.
In Georgia counties with populations of less than 100,000, probate judges are not required to have either a college degree, a law degree or a license to practice law. They have the authority to rule on misdemeanor offenses and traffic citations; fine defendants, sentence them and place them on probation or in jail; probate wills and rule on the division of personal estates; appoint guardians; and issue involuntary commitments to the state's mental institutions.
In April, the JQC recommended to the state Supreme Court that Fowler be removed from office and barred from seeking or holding any judicial post.
That recommendation was awaiting action by the high court when the JQC filed an emergency petition asking that Fowler, who had remained on the bench, be suspended immediately, claiming he had retaliated against two probation officers assigned to his Twiggs County courtroom who had testified against him at the JQC hearing.
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Barred From Bench, Judge Blames Lack of Education for Ethics Errors
6 comments:
What year is this?
I believe this judge has a point ---what the heck is Fowler doing as a judge when he's not even been trained in the law?
I believe judges must have law degrees. They don't particularly have to be former lawyers, but at least they should have a degree in the field of law.
I believe many miscarriages of justice have occurred because inexperienced or incompetent judges sit on the bench.
I believe judges need to be held to a higher standard.
Fowler should be barred from the bench, but the bench should also be looking at how he got there in the first place.
What? You don't have to be a lawyer?
Are the kickbacks strong in that court?
Just because a Judge is a lawyer does not mean they are competent.
In NJ they are lawyers and that does not mean they avoid following the law.
I agree with you, Anon 3, but if a judge is a lawyer, he/she is more likely to be competent than a non-lawyer like Fowler. At the very least, a lawyer would be familiar with law and court procedure.
I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt about being ignorant of the law.
What happens in probate court is pure theft! You don't have to be a lawyer to rubberstamp excessive fee applications.
What's the quid pro quo?
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