Student project prompts judges to pay overdue fines and action from Georgia ethics director

ATLANTA — What started as a student project to investigate metro-Atlanta judges has now led to action from Georgia's ethics director and repayment of thousands of dollars owed in back fines.

"The filer has a date, and they have to file by that date. If they miss it, they owe the fee," said Stefan Ritter, executive director of Georgia's Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, commonly referred to as Georgia's Ethics Commission.

The fines begin at $125, and unpaid fines are supposed to escalate to $375 after a week -- and another $1,000 a month later.

But the students found the state agency had not been assessing all of the fines, had not been notifying all of the elected officials and had not been properly escalating the fines when they failed to pay.

"If our computer system could do that, and doesn't do that, then I think it's a serious problem," said Ritter.

One, he said, the agency is already working to fix.

State ethics laws require all elected officials to file personal financial disclosures -- basically their interest in businesses and properties, and campaign finance paperwork identifying who gave them money for their campaigns and how they spent it.

The Georgia News Lab is comprised of students from five Georgia universities who are training to be investigative reporters.

They filed open records requests and examined the records of 50 Superior Court judges in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties, uncovering a pattern of missed filings and unpaid fines.

"That just told us that definitely there is something bigger than it being a mistake here or there," said Becca Godwin, a Georgia News Lab masters student from Georgia State University.

In the last five years, 37 of the 50 judges had missed at least one filing. Some had never filed.

And the students found some of the very judges who order people in their courts to pay hefty fines, have a poor record of paying their own.

"I feel like judges are like everyone else and they should follow the rules," said Lauren Booker, a Georgia News Lab student from Georgia State University.

The disclosure paperwork exists so attorneys, defendants, and others who appear in court, will know if the judge has a conflict of interest.

"It surprises me, and I can tell you that we will look into this," said Ritter, acknowledging that the agency he heads has never been great at keeping track of filings from elected officials, or properly fining the ones who didn't file.

But Ritter said he did not realize just how much money the state was missing out on, until he met with students from the Georgia News Lab.

"Plainly millions of dollars, many millions," Ritter said after meeting with the students to review their findings.

Meanwhile, the judges' money started rolling in once the students started calling them to inquire about missed filings. Judges in those four counties paid at least $2,600 in overdue fines. Records show the group still owes roughly $2,100.

The students called all 50 of the judges on their list, and heard all kinds of excuses.

A few judges tried to blame staffers for the missing filings. Others said they were not aware they were supposed to file.

When Channel 2 asked for on-camera interviews, only one judge out of the 50 would answer our questions.

"I got an email from one of the other judges who apparently the students had talked to," said Judge Clarence Seeliger, describing how he learned of the students' project.

Seeliger has served on the bench in DeKalb County for 35 years.

The students found he had one missing filing, which he filed as soon as he noticed.

"Well, I was in the wrong," Seeliger said of the missing filing. "Obviously, I should have been more astute about watching these things."

He immediately paid the fine when he saw it, but wishes the state did a better job notifying officials of the deadlines, especially when they've missed them and owe money.

He couldn't believe how many of his colleagues were repeat offenders.

"I'm just dumbfounded. I think when the attention's brought to them, they ought to be paying as soon as possible. That's part of our responsibilities as judges," said Seeliger.

He added that that there's really no system for alerting new judges to the requirements, so some might not have known.

But just like in court, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

He also applauded the students' efforts: "Great reporting. There's usually a lot of dirt work that has to be done, and they did it."

"It was honestly just interesting to see our work pay off," said Jerrel Floyd, a Georgia News Lab student, from Morehouse College.

But Floyd added that uncovering the breakdown was also bittersweet, "You don't want to hear that the agency that's supposed to be in charge of keeping these officials accountable, that they don't know that they have issues in their own system."

You can read more about the students' investigative project in this Sunday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including which judges were the worst offenders, how much they owed and what they had to say about it.

Cox Media Group