Misconduct charges filed against judge at center of DeKalb… | www.wsbtv.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — State authorities have filed six charges of judicial misconduct against a controversial DeKalb County Superior Court judge.

Cynthia Becker retired Feb. 23, but the charges filed Monday by the Judicial Qualifications Commission will force her to defend herself at a formal trial or risk being sanctioned despite her retirement.

Becker attracted the commission’s attention for her handling of two cases emerging from a scandal inside the DeKalb School System’s massive construction program.

Four of the six counts against her arise from the plea bargain for former DeKalb Superintendent Dr. Crawford Lewis and the trial and conviction of Pat Reid and Tony Pope.

Reid was a senior school official who oversaw the district’s SPLOST construction program. Pope is an architect doing business with the district and was Reid’s husband at the time.

The JQC accuses Becker of misconduct for failing to follow a plea agreement between Lewis and DeKalb County prosecutors and for refusing to allow Lewis to withdraw his guilty plea once he learned that Becker intended to sentence him to a year in jail.

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