Boss Hogg, is that you?

[Grosseschnauzer]

Seen this evening at Law.com"

The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday 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.

"His ignorance of the law is inexcusable, and his abuse of his judicial office unacceptable," the court opinion stated. "Indeed, we cannot expect that members of the public will respect the law and remain confident in our judiciary while judges who do not respect and follow the law themselves remain on the bench."

A woman who answered the telephone at Fowler's Danville home Monday said, "He's not got anything to say right now," and hung up.

Fowler's attorney, Jon F. Helton of Dublin, could not be reached for comment.

Former state Attorney General Michael J. Bowers, who prosecuted the case for the Judicial Qualifications Commission, called Fowler's removal "a completely appropriate result."

JQC Chairman Benjamin F. Easterlin IV said, "In light of the evidence presented at the hearing, I'm not surprised. I thought it was overwhelming."

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.

The JQC held a two-day hearing on those charges in January.

At that hearing, Fowler's attorney argued that Fowler only has a high school education, is not a lawyer and has little judicial training.

Testifying on his own behalf, Fowler told the commission that his practices are no different from those employed by other probate judges in the state. "I'm no lawyer," Fowler testified. "When I took office ... I was lost as I could be."

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.

According to the JQC, in early April Fowler had met in his chambers with officials of the private probation company that provided services to Twiggs County and asked that the officers who had testified against him be removed from his court. At the time, Fowler also informed company officials that he was considering whether to replace their firm with a competing company.

Fowler followed up the meeting with a letter asking again that the probation officers who had testified against him be reassigned because their testimony had convinced him that "they had some personal vendetta against me."

A special master appointed to hear the JQC petition determined that Fowler's implicit threats against the probation officers violated state judicial canons and warranted his immediate suspension with pay from the bench. The Supreme Court adopted that recommendation in May.

In Monday's opinion, the Supreme Court concurred with JQC findings that Fowler had violated state judicial canons and offered a detailed a list of those violations. Fowler, the high court opinion noted, "admitted at the [JQC] hearing that he had improperly shifted the burden of proof to defendants by stating that they had to prove their innocence."

In doing so, the probate judge had violated judicial canons and state law by "improperly stating on a routine basis to criminal defendants in the Twiggs County Probate Court that the defendants themselves had the burden of proving their innocence," the opinion stated.

The high court also found that Fowler had run afoul of state judicial canons by allowing criminal defendants to 'buy out' the community service portions of their criminal sentences and then placing the proceeds from such buy outs into a bank account from which Fowler authorized the release of funds via court orders signed by him.

Fowler failed to disclose to Twiggs County the existence of the bank account, and failed to either turn over the monies that were collected from the unauthorized 'fees' to the county government, the high court found. "The record reveals that Judge Fowler collected tens of thousands of dollars for deposit into the unauthorized bank account, and signed court orders authorizing the release of thousands of dollars for items such as bus tickets, school trophies, and police equipment."

Fowler also violated judicial canons by "abusing and insulting" parties appearing in probate court, by "routinely" initiating and considering ex-parte communications, by improperly disposing of criminal cases where the defendants were charged with crimes that were beyond the jurisdiction of the probate court and where the matters were outside the scope of Fowler's authority as a probate judge, by involving himself in a matter not properly before his court and using the prestige of his judicial office to improperly influence a litigant, by issuing orders prohibiting the Sheriff of Twiggs County from awarding 'good time' to jail inmates, and by improperly allowing unqualified interpreters in his court, the high court opinion stated.

"Judge Fowler routinely used rude, abusive, and insulting language towards parties appearing in probate court, often loudly arguing with defendants and witnesses, and even screaming at a defendant to 'shut up,'" the court opinion stated. "The JQC also found that on March 19, 2008, Judge Fowler insinuated during court that a female defendant had provided sexual favors to a Georgia law enforcement officer who had stopped her for a traffic violation. The female defendant testified that Judge Fowler rudely questioned her, stating that 'You [the female defendant] must have really turned it on. You must be something good. You must have really showed [the officer] a good time."

The Supreme Court described Fowler's misconduct as "substantial."

"The record reveals that Judge Fowler's consistent pattern of misconduct stems, not from unintentional mistakes or a lack of legal education, as Judge Fowler contends, but from 'willful misconduct in office ... habitual intemperance ... [and] conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice," the opinion states.

Just so you know. the fictional Hazard County of the Dukes is set in Georgia.....or is that fictional after reading this?