A Georgia judge who was recently arrested for allegedly hitting a cop outside of an Atlanta nightclub has been hit with more bad news.
Douglaston County Probate JudgeChristina Peterson, 38, was removed from office on Tuesday, following an investigation into separate ethics charges.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that 12 out of 30 cases brought against Peterson, a two-term Democrat, warranted discipline and ruled that she be removed from the bench effective immediately.
She is now also not eligible to be elected or appointed to any future judicial positions in the entire state for seven years, Fox News reports.
The decision comes on the heels of Judicial Qualifications Commission ruling, which found her guilty of 'systemic incompetence' in April and recommended her removal.
Douglaston County Probate Judge Christina Peterson, 38, was removed from office on Tuesday
In one of the cases cited by the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday, Peterson decided to jail a naturalized US citizen who simply wanted to amend her marriage license with the name of her real father.
PJ Skelton, a Thai immigrant who was married in Douglas County in 2016, explained to the hearing panel last year that she has no memories of her father - and instead listed her uncle on her marriage certificate, because he was the one who raised her.
But when she tried to correct the issue, Peterson told her to come to court.
The judge then ruled that Skelton was trying to defraud the court and sentenced her to a maximum of 20 days in jail - which she said could be reduced to two hours if she paid a $500 fine.
Skelton ultimately paid the fine, and spent 48 hours behind bars.
She told the panel she had not expected the judge to act that way, and noted that Peterson never advised her to bring a lawyer with her.
The panel ultimately found that Skelton was acting 'in good faith trying to correct' what appeared to be 'an innocent mistake borne out of ignorance, rather than ill-intent,' according to court documents obtained by Fox.
It also found that Peterson made 'untruthful' testimony to the panel when trying to defend her ruling, which they claimed 'underscores her conscious wrongdoing.'
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that 12 out of 30 cases brought against Peterson, a two-term Democrat, warranted discipline
The commission also accused Peterson of flouting courthouse security protocols, specifically during a wedding held after-hours inside her courthouse without security screening.
The charges further involve making inappropriate social media posts promoting her part-time acting career and ignoring a sheriff's order.
Moreover, unlike her predecessor, Peterson chose to keep all birth and death certificate fees in addition to her salary, a practice that while legal, is viewed as unethical.
In 2022, Peterson - at this point a six-year vet - kept $140,485 in fees, pushing her yearly compensation to $265,487, records show.
The year before, she pocketed $139,447 in fees, making her total income $265,862.
By comparison, in 2022 the chief justice for the Georgia Supreme Court made $216,593.
Her removal from office comes just days after she was arrested for allegedly hitting a cop outside of an Atlanta nightclub
Peterson claims she wasunfairly arrested while trying to be a Good Samaritan
Peterson was already facing scrutiny for these decisions when she was arrested Thursday for allegedly punching a police officer who was working security at the Red Martini Restaurant.
Cops said she had been engaging in a night of drinking before the altercation, and police worn body camera footage shows the judge, wearing a low-cut dress- wrapped up in a physical fight which allegedly came just seconds before the strike.
It shows how Peterson ran up on the cop and a security guard to help a woman who she claims was 'attacked'.
The clip goes on to show an uncooperative Peterson conversing with cops in a squad car, telling them to 'Googleher' while cuffed and visibly distressed.
'Take me where you wanna take me,' she says in the video, shared just hours after a press conference was held to discuss the Douglas County Probate Judge's arrest.
'You don't need identification. You have picked up dead bodies when you don't know who bodies it was, but you picked them up.
'Take me where you need to take me.'
Peterson told cops to 'Google her' and appeared uncooperative in police body camera footage
Peterson was seen struggling and writhing through her arrest early Thursday
But Peterson has since said theclip was taken out of context, saying the altercation came after she was unfairly arrested while trying to be a Good Samaritan.
She said she had just stepped in to help a woman who was being 'viciously attacked' at the restaurant and lounge off Peachtree Road, by an unnamed man not seen in the footage.
'She was the only one that helped me,' Alexandria Love, the woman at the center of the incident, said at the news conference Friday, during which Peterson appeared unfazed by her arrest a little over a day before.
Love, meanwhile, donned a cast, as Peterson's attorneyMarvin Arrington Jr. vowed to defend his client to the bitter end.
'This is living proof of "No good deed goes unpunished,"' the judge's legal representation said.
'The idea that a Good Samaritan who was helping a woman that was being viciously attacked could be arrested and the man who was viciously attacking the woman did not get arrested speaks to other issues.'
A few hours later, the footage was made public - as both Love and another witness emphatically said they did not know Peterson beforehand.
In the car, she appeared increasingly unrepentant, crossing her legs defiantly
Later footage also showed the judge struggling away from an officer while being escorted into a law enforcement building, while repeating the words, 'Don't touch me!'
Shortly before,Peterson was handcuffed facedown on the ground, the bodycam footage shows - with police asking for her name, and her refusing to give it.
A preliminary police report viewed by FOX 5 said the judge 'appeared to be under the influence' when she hit the officer - an act that is difficult to make out in the footage.
In it, the male officer said to be punched is seen standing over Peterson and Love, as the former is seen pushing the officer in the chest, at one point swiping at his hands.
The clip then gets increasingly shaky as a physical conflict ensues, after which the filming officer is seen putting the jurist in bracelets.
But Peterson - an official tasked with impartially overseeing local laws - did not go quietly, seen struggling and writhing through the entire ordeal.
It ends with her on the floor, before being brought to the squad car and ultimately the station.
In the car, she appears increasingly unrepentant, crossing her legs defiantly.
Peterson is now facing charges of simple battery against a police officer and felony willful obstruction of law enforcement by use of threats of violence, according to jail records, as an investigation into the alleged altercation continues.
