Chatham County Probate Judge under State investigation

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) – Being involved in a court case is stressful enough, but what happens when the judge won’t make a ruling or move the case forward?

That’s exactly what Chatham County lawyers and defendants have filed complaints for and now a Chatham County Probate Judge is facing potential sanctions.

Willful misconduct in office.

Failure to perform the duties of office.

Conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Those are what the Judicial Qualifications Commission of Georgia is charging Chatham County Probate Judge Tom Bordeaux in a judicial misconduct investigation.

10 total counts which said that Bordeaux did not handle cases in a timely matter, if at all.

The 10-count document from JQC Director Courtney Veal and Deputy Director Ashton Murphy allege Bordeaux violated at least two Code of Judicial Conduct rules.

The Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to “perform judicial and administrative duties competently, diligently, and without bias or prejudice.” Judges are also required to “dispose of all judicial matters fairly, promptly, and efficiently.”

What Bordeaux is being charged with stems from 9 cases, some that started soon after he hit the bench in 2016. Case delays ranged from 11 months to more than seven years.

This includes cases that started in January, May and August of 2017.

The documents show Bordeaux holding hearings in those cases, promising to take care of any issues within days or weeks, but those dates that he promised decisions passed by. Months, even years tick away with no orders issued and no decisions made leaving some with no end to these cases in sight.

“It’s to force the court to do something that they are supposed to do under their oath when they took that oath,” said Attorney Mark Tate in 2021.

That’s why Tate told News 3 in 2021 that he filed a Writ of Mandamus in connection with one of his cases. A case Bordeaux was in charge of and a case that still has no resolution even now.

Tate said he wanted to force Bordeaux to make a decision for one of his own clients trying to get some closure.

“Do you feel in a way this judge has broken your trust as well?”

“Oh yeah. he’s supposed to protect us, protect our children and he’s not doing that,” said Joann Smith, a complainant in 2021.

When we did that story, 5 Writs of Mandamus had already been filed against Judge Bordeaux in Chatham County court.

In his response then, Bordeaux claimed that an “overwhelming workload” and the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down his work. 3 years later, the State of Georgia has stepped in by filing these formal ethics charges.

Bordeaux just won re-election to the bench back in May where he got 69% of the vote.

WSAV attempted to get in touch with Judge Bordeaux to find out more about the investigation, but he did not answer our requests.

We informed Chatham County officials of the issue, and they had no immediate response to our questions. They said that because Bordeaux is an elected official, they would not be in charge of direct sanctions or decisions about his position.

WSAV also reached out to the JQC Director to learn more about what potential penalties or sanctions might be available to the State.

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