ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - The Georgia Supreme Court has removed a Court of Appeals judge and former Republican lawmaker from the bench over allegations he took advantage of an elderly client while in private practice.
The decision handed down Aug. 16 sided with arguments made by the Hearing Panel of the Judicial Qualifications Commission and against the defense of Christian Coomer, who took the bench in October 2018 after seven years in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Coomer has been suspended since January 2021. The Hearing Panel's report issued on Jan. 30, 2023, recommended his removal from office.
"Here, the Hearing Panel found multiple instances in which Judge Coomer was disingenuous, if not outright dishonest, in his testimony or the positions that he took before the Hearing Panel," the decision says.
Coomer represented an elderly man named James Filhart, beginning in 2015, on various issues including estate-planning. Coomer made himself executor and trustee of Filhart's will and had the authority to cancel debts owed by Filhart when Filhart passes.
In 2018, Coomer applied to become an appellate judge and, while it was pending, drafted an unsecured loan from Filhart for $130,000. It had an interest rate of 4% and the balance wouldn't come due until January 2026, when Filhart was more than 80 yards.
Filhart had enough in 2019, after Coomer had been sworn in to the Court of Appeals. He demanded Coomer repay the loan and complained that Coomer had talked him into selling stocks to fund the loan, causing $11,000 more in taxes.
Filhart sued in April 2020, and Coomer repaid the loan after. The lawsuit triggered an investigation by the group overseeing judicial ethics in Georgia.
The decision also says Coomer transferred campaign funds to his law firm in 2018.
"Judge Coomer claimed that the three transfers were to reimburse his law firm and assistant for work she did on campaign- or legislative-related activities, but neither Judge Coomer nor his assistant documented o kept track of the time spent on that work," the decision says.
Finally, Coomer claimed a trip to Hawaii in the fall of 2018 had a legislative purpose, as he was still a member of the House of Representatives, but "ultimately the trip was entirely leisure," the decision says.
Coomer paid for the trip with funds from his campaign account and reimbursed that account personally only after the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission started an investigation.