We have pictures and video of Judge Michael Boggs of Blackshear being sworn in today to the Georgia Court of Appeals by Governor Deal. Find that on the Daily Report’s Facebook page.

Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to swear in tomorrow his first appellate court appointee, Michael P. Boggs.

The ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow in the state House of Representatives chamber, according to Boggs’ office. Deal on Dec. 20 appointed Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the six-county Waycross Judicial Circuit since 2004, to replace retiring Judge J.D. Smith of the state Court of Appeals.

The Georgia Court of Appeals turned down Chattooga County lawyer Albert C. Palmour Jr.’s challenge to an $18,000 fine levied against him by the State Elections Board for his role in an election fraud scheme involving former Chattooga County State Court Judge Carlton H. Vines.

Vines, who was elected to the State Court in 2006, was subsequently charged with felony election fraud when he was found to be in possession of unauthorized absentee ballots, although the case ended with a hung jury and mistrial. Palmour, who testified at Vines’ trial, admitted to allowing the candidate to run 18 fraudulent absentee ballots though his postage-metering machine.

As detailed in a release from the office of Attorney General Sam Olens, the state board voted to fine Palmour $18,000 for the unlawful possession of ballots, and to issue a cease and desist order and public reprimand.

Palmour challenged the sanction in Fulton County Superior Court earlier this year, but it was upheld by Superior Court Judge Kelly Lee; he appealed to the Court of Appeals, which dismissed his appeal on Dec. 1.

The SEB was represented by Assistant Attorney General Ann Brumbaugh.

Palmour was unavailable for comment and another lawyer at his Summerville office, Steven A. Miller, said he did not know whether there would be any further appeal.

Ironically, Palmour’s sanction is more than that the SEB levied on Vines himself; the ex-judge reached a $15,000 settlement with the board after his criminal trial concluded.

Prior to being criminally charged in the election fraud case, Vines was suspended by the Judicial Qualifications Commission after being charged with drunk driving drunk in 2007, his second DUI. The first, in 2003, was prosecuted by Palmour, who was then the Chattooga County State Court solicitor general.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s first appellate appointment is at least a few weeks off.  According to Deal’s executive counsel, W. Ryan Teague, Deal’s interviews of finalists for a spot on the state Court of Appeals are set for Dec. 16.

The Judicial Nominating Commission’s short list of six, released Nov. 15, includes:

• Michael P. Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit;
• Elizabeth L. “Lisa” Branch, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta;
• Donald P. Geary, chief assistant district attorney in DeKalb County;
• John C. Pridgen, chief judge for the Cordele Judicial Circuit Superior Court;
• Mary E. Staley, Superior Court judge in Cobb County; and
• Benjamin W. Studdard III, chief judge of the Henry County State Court.

The search is to fill a vacancy that will be created by the departure of Presiding Judge J.D. Smith, who in September announced plans to retire from the court at the end of this year.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s Judicial Nominating Commission has released a list of six lawyers for the governor’s consideration in filling an upcoming vacancy on the state Court of Appeals:

• Michael P. Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit;
• Elizabeth L. “Lisa” Branch, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta;
• Donald P. Geary, chief assistant district attorney in DeKalb County;
• John C. Pridgen, chief judge for the Cordele Judicial Circuit Superior Court;
• Mary E. Staley, Superior Court judge in Cobb County; and
• Benjamin W. Studdard III, chief judge of the Henry County State Court.

One of those six is to succeed Judge J.D. Smith, who in September announced plans to retire from the court at the end of this year.

Judge John J. Ellington, who has been chief judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals since January, reports that he swore in his friend Charles B. Mikell as the court’s newest chief this morning in the court’s courtroom.

The plan for Mikell to serve a two-month term as chief beginning today was announced last month. Mikell is to serve through Jan. 16, with Ellington resuming his term after that. Mikell said last month that the move was prompted by his long battle with cancer, explaining that while he doesn’t have plans to retire, Ellington wanted him to have the opportunity to serve as chief when they were confident he could do the job.

The Savannah Bar Association plans to honor Mikell at its monthly members’ meeting this Thursday, according to the association’s president-elect Roy E. Paul. Ellington, Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot, Savannah lawyer William T. Daniel Jr. and the association’s president, Chatham State Court Judge Gregory V. Sapp, are expected to offer remarks.

A DeKalb County judge was wrong to disqualify Alston & Bird from defending former DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis against racketeering charges, a panel of the state Court of Appeals has ruled.

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Cynthia J. Becker booted Alston off the case last fall based on prosecutors’ plans to call a witness employed by an Alston client on unrelated matters, Parsons Commercial Technology Group. But Friday’s opinion written by Judge Keith R. Blackwell and joined by Judges Anne Elizabeth Barnes and A. Harris Adams said Becker had abused her discretion.

“The record reveals merely that Alston & Bird has a relationship with Parsons,” wrote Blackwell. “The remainder of the case for disqualification consists of one conjecture piled upon another.”

“While the State may be able to present facts that would authorize the trial court to disqualify [Alston partner Michael L. Brown] and Alston & Bird,” Blackwell continued, “it has not done so yet, and the record now before us does not warrant disqualification.”

Lewis, former school district chief operating officer Patricia Reid and two others are charged with corruption in a case that involves the school district’s construction program. Lewis was indicted for illegally steering contracts to certain vendors, accepting bribes in the form of tens of thousands of dollars in tickets to major sporting events and stealing taxpayer funds by using his office credit card for personal purchases. The defendants have denied the charges.

The appeals court’s decision is here.

Justice George Carley announced this morning that he will step down from the Supreme Court of Georgia next July, allowing Gov. Nathan Deal to choose his successor and precluding an election for his seat for which some lawyers around the state had been planning to run. 

Just last week, Atlanta attorney Scott Bonder announced that his campaign for the high court had already raised more than $85,000. In August, Bonder and divorce lawyer Tamela L. Adkins told the Daily Report that each planned to run for court seat expected to be vacated by Carley, who had said earlier he would serve out his term that ends in December 2012.

In the same August story, Presiding Judge Anne Elizabeth Barnes of the state Court of Appeals said she was considering joining the race.

Carley said Tuesday in a press release issued by the court, “I am announcing this now to notify potential candidates before the election cycle gets into full swing.”

In unrelated news that could nonetheless interest would-be candidates for the high court, the U.S. District Court is seeking to hire a new magistrate judge to replace Judge C. Christopher Hagy, who is stepping down next June. The deadline for applications is Oct. 21, according to this link.

The Daily Report will have a full report on Carley’s announcement in its next edition, which will be online late this afternoon.

The full text of Carley’s press release is below.

GEORGE CARLEY TO STEP DOWN JULY 2012

Atlanta, October 4, 2011 – Presiding Justice George H. Carley announced today that he will leave the Supreme Court of Georgia on July 17, 2012, after all cases from the January term of court have been decided.

That means that Governor Nathan Deal will have the opportunity next year to appoint a replacement to the state’s highest court. Whoever the governor appoints will then have to run for election in 2014.

 “I am announcing this now to notify potential candidates before the election cycle gets into full swing,” the Presiding Justice said. Carley, 73, announced earlier that he did not plan to run for re-election.

When he steps down, Carley will leave the high court as its Chief Justice. The court voted unanimously last month to have him serve as the leader of Georgia’s judicial system for two months before he leaves the court. He will become the first in Georgia history to have served as Chief Justice and Presiding Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, as well as Chief Judge and Presiding Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals.

The Presiding Justice said that although he is stepping down from the state Supreme Court, he intends to continue being involved in the legal field. “I have loved every minute I have served,” said Carley, who has been a judge for 32 years.

Today the Georgia attorney general’s office officially filed its challenge of a June 27 preliminary injunction against parts of the state’s recent immigration law in the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 86-page brief argues that opponents of House Bill 87, which allows law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of suspects and creates criminal penalties for harboring and transporting known illegal immigrants, did not properly show they would be irreparably injured by the parts of the law that were to go into effect on July 1. Read more »

In an interesting postscript to an 11^th Circuit sentencing decision recently reported by the Daily Report, Attorney General Eric Holder has reversed course on a controversial issue at the heart of the case.

The Justice Department previously told its prosecutors they should take the position that revised mandatory minimums designed to narrow the disparity between crack sentences and those for powder cocaine did not apply to defendants who committed their crimes before the effective date of the new law—Aug. 3, 2010—even if they hadn’t yet been sentenced by that time. That’s exactly the stance South Florida federal prosecutors took in the case of Carmelina Veras Rojas, who pleaded guilty to crack possession and distribution charges and was scheduled to be sentenced on the very day the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was signed into law. Read more »