ATLANTA - Imagine you've been arrested by a police officer.
The charge isn't anything violent - public drunkenness, maybe. But the officer interviews you, then your friends, then the bartender you visited earlier that night, back when your stomach didn't hurt and those buildings across the street weren't spinning.
Months pass. You show up in court. You look at the jury box, and you recognize one of the men in the box, and you feel about as sick as you did the night you got booked. You're actually looking at the same guy who arrested you. This isn't going to go well, you think.
In Georgia, some state lawmakers say, that's actually the arrangement some judges face. When a person accuses a Georgia judge of misconduct, they send their complaint to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, a seven-person board. The JQC then investigates.
If they decide there is enough evidence to warrant a hearing, they ask the judge to come to a meeting. They listen to the judge's side of the story. Then, the board decides whether to punish the judge.
"They're going to become the very impartial jury?" former JQC director Ronnie Joe Lane said Thursday during a House Study Committee to reform the commission. "How hard is it on them to do that? I believe it's almost impossible."
Thursday's hearing was the first of several this fall, during which judges, residents, former and current members of the JQC will testify on their experiences, offering members of the House suggestions on how to tweak the commission. This comes at a tumultuous time for the JQC. Lane and his successor both resigned as director within about 16 months of each other.
And this year alone, two chairs of the seven-person board have stepped down. First it was Atlanta lawyer Lester Tate in April. Then it was Appalachian Judicial Circuit Judge Brenda Weaver in August. Weaver was accused of ordering a district attorney to indict a newspaper publisher who tried to access Weaver's publicly funded operating account.
The JQC also does not currently employ a full-time investigator, though the position was instrumental in developing cases that led to 66 judges' resignations since 2010.
In November, Georgia voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that could reform how the JQC's board is set up. They would take away the State Bar's ability to appoint members, instead giving that power to members of the Georgia House and Georgia Senate.
Meanwhile, State Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, authored a bill last year that would also reform the commission. Willard is chairing the committee hearings on this issue.
"The JQC is serving as the prosecutor, the jury and the judge," Willard said Thursday. "Certainly, this raises issues of fairness, impartiality and due process. I can think of no other system of discipline set up this way, not only in the state, but nationally."
Former JQC Director Jeff Davis, Investigator Richard Hyde and State Supreme Court Justice David Nahmias are crafting suggestions they plan to present to the committee in the coming weeks. Among those suggestions will be a creation of at least two boards.
One would review investigations to determine if there should be a hearing. Another board would then hear the case and decide whether it warrants charges.
In addition to Lane, on Thursday the committee heard testimony from Davis, who now serves as the executive director of the state bar of Georgia. Davis said the agency was "on life support" when he took over in 2010 because it was so underfunded. But during his four years in charge, he said, the agency's work led to the resignations of about 50 judges.
State Rep. Christian Coomer, R-Cartersville, criticized the JQC's lack of oversight, referencing an investigation into Bartow County Probate Judge Mitchell Scoggins in the summer of 2014.
Coomer said the investigation came at the request of Tate, who was still a member of the JQC board at the time.
Tate told Davis and Hyde that the general public didn't have access to Scoggins' small courtroom, and that the clerk of court wouldn't let Tate file a motion in a particular case. (Tate was acting in his role as a private attorney at the time.)
The case against Scoggins was dropped after the judge suggested this was the result of a petty feud. He claimed that Tate tried to use his position with the JQC to pressure the clerk of court. Davis said Tate should have been investigated.
"You have an allegation of a JQC member who's engaged in some misconduct, at least an allegation," Coomer said during Davis' testimony. "You are the executive director. You work for the JQC. You are hired and fired by the JQC. Did you report that alleged misconduct to any other members of the JQC?"
"I don't recall that I did," Davis replied.
"Did you report that alleged misconduct to any other person or any other body?" Coomer asked.
"No," Davis said.
"As a member of the Commission, I was made aware of and observed what I believed to be problems in Judge Scoggins' court, namely that individuals were being asked at the outset of a case to waive any right to a jury trial and without full understanding of the importance of that right," Tate wrote in a Thursday evening email in response to a request for comment. "I reported that to the staff and other Commission members and recused myself for any consideration of the matter."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.