ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – A Georgia judge will be suspended 90 days without pay because of her history of showing up to work late.
The Georgia Supreme Court suspended Terrinee Lynette Gundy, of the Atlanta Municipal Court, on Aug. 23, choosing the most severe punishment available from an agreement between her and the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
That agreement said Gundy would be suspended a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 90 days, plus a public reprimand. The Supreme Court accepted the limitations of the agreement but said:
“We do so with some hesitation; the allegations, all of which Judge Gundy either admits altogether or agrees that the JQC could prove, are serious, especially the refusal to follow the law – over objection by both the State and defendants – that led to six defendants each spending an unnecessary week in jail.”
The JQC began its investigation of Gundy in 2017 and filed formal charges two years later. It alleged from September 2015 through February 2018, Gundy was regularly tardy to work.
In a four-month span in 2015, she was more than two hours late 62 times. In the next five months, she was more than hour late for work on 80 days.
That pattern continued through Feb. 22, 2018. The JQC said her habitual tardiness violated several rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct, including the requirements a judge promote public confidence in the judiciary and dispose of all matters efficiently.
Worrying the Supreme Court was a stretch in March 2017, when Gundy allegedly wouldn’t allow six defendants to appear in court. She was attempting to rush through her calendar as a result of her tardiness, and even though both defense counsel and prosecutors reminded her that the defendants had the right to be seen, she refused, the charges say.
The public defender’s office filed an emergency petition to release the defendants as they stayed in custody for several days. Gundy issued signature bonds for each in the two days before a hearing on the petition was to be conducted, freeing them from jail for the time being.
The Supreme Court decided not to reject the agreement because the case had been pending for more than three years and a resolution would be in the best interest of everyone.
“(A)nd a 90-day suspension is among them most serious sanctions we have ever imposed short of removal from office,” the decision says.