Cobb County - Judicial Misconduct

Judicial misconduct occurs when a judge acts in ways that are considered unethical or otherwise in violation of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct.

The Cobb Web

For those familiar with the multiple close friendships and family connections amongst the people in power of the Cobb County court system, there may be a clearer picture of why and how Cobb’s Superior Court judges make their decisions. The relevant applicable laws and the facts of the cases may tell some of the story, but perhaps there is more to consider.

Cobb County located in the State of Georgia had a population of 760,141 as of 2019 making it Georgia’s third most populous county. Despite Cobb County’s large population, there are more close connections and relationships amongst those in power than would seem to be the result of natural occurrences.

A Short List

• Roy E. Barnes
• Thomas "Tom" J. Browning
• Tyler J. Browning
• Thomas E. Cauthorn III
• Hylton Dupree
• Hon. Robert E. Flournoy III
• Katie K. Leonard
• Hon. Robert D. Leonard II
• Hon. A. Gregory Poole
• Hon. Allison B. Salter
• Charles B. Tanksley
• Kathryn Tanksley

For more information see WikiLaw page The Cobb Web.

Robert D. Leonard II (a.k.a. Rob Leonard) - Chief Superior Court Judge of Cobb County

Judge Robert D. Leonard II was appointed to the Cobb County State Court bench in 2010 by former Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue, appointed to the Cobb County Superior Court bench in 2012 by former Governor Nathan Deal, and presently serves as the Chief Judge for the Cobb Judicial Circuit. He has been re-elected three times without opposition.

A Participant in Cobb's Notorious "Pay-to-Play" Way

There is evidence showing that Cobb County Superior Court is a "Pay-to-Play" judicial system. What exactly does Pay-to-Play mean in the judicial system context? It means that when a judge has discretion to appoint someone to a paid role (e.g., mediator, Guardian Ad Litem, etc.) in a case, the judge will select an individual that contributes, usually substantially, to the judge's election campaign.

• List of Cobb County Guardian Ad Litems
• List of Cobb County Mediators

Ellis v. Seaver - Cobb County Superior Court, Case No. 16-1-08365

In an article by Arvind Dilawar published in 2020 by the SCALAWAG online magazine, Judge Leonard is exposed for appointing a Guardian Ad Litem in 2017 to a child custody case that happened to also be the highest financial donor to his re-election campaign. When one of the parties requested that the Guardian be removed from the case, Judge Leonard required that the requesting party pay to the Guardian the full amount billed by the Guardian which totaled $12,350.00, despite the fact the Guardian failed to complete work worth that amount of pay.

Myton v. Starks - Cobb County Superior Court, Case No. 21-1-03662

Judge Leonard's execution of the Pay-to-Play method has revealed itself as recent as August 2021. In Cobb County Superior Court, Case No. 21-1-03662, Judge Leonard appointed Tyler J. Browning of Browning & Smith LLC, as a Guardian Ad Litem over a custody matter. Based on public records as of January 2021, Browning & Smith is the highest donating law firm to Judge Leonard's re-election campaign since 2014, which is presently known as Friends of Judge Leonard, having donated a total of not less than $3,600.00 to date. Unless the owners of Browning & Smith have a habit of making poor arbitrary business decisions, its donations to Cobb Superior Court judges are undoubtedly investments by the firm from which history has shown a return.

• Update: Shortly after the original publishing of this article the parties in Myton v. Starks were referred to mediation.

Incompetence or Cronyism (Does it even matter?)

Curry v. Rivera et al. and Rivera v. Scharle - Cobb County Superior Court, Case Nos. 21-1-02536 & 21-1-01795

In June of 2021, Judge Robert E. Flournoy III was asked by way of motion to recuse himself from presiding over a custody case in which Tom Browning, founding partner of Browning & Smith who was Judge Flournoy's attorney in his 2010 custody case, longtime friend and campaign treasurer of Flournoy's, was representing an opposing party. The case was temporarily assigned to the Chief Superior Court Judge, Robert D. Leonard II (a.k.a., Rob Leonard) to hear the recusal motion. That motion against Judge Flournoy was filed and pled by Cobb County attorney Matt McMaster on behalf of the father fighting for custody in that matter. At the hearing before Judge Leonard, attorneys Tom Browning and the Guardian Ad Litem in case Leslee Hungerford of O'Dell & O'Neal ("GAL") defended Judge Flournoy in front of Judge Leonard notwithstanding McMaster's objection to those individuals functionally serving as Flournoy's defense attorneys. Despite the known relationship between Tom Browning and Judge Flournoy, Judge Leonard denied McMaster's request for recusal and the case was assigned back to Judge Flournoy. A motion for reconsideration was subsequently filed against Judge Leonard's order and that matter remained pending until Flournoy finally voluntarily recused himself citing the McMaster For Cobb campaign website for Matt McMaster as candidate for Cobb County Superior Court Judge on April 25, 2022.

In December of 2021, attorney McMaster withdrew from the above cases and entered the 2022 Cobb County Superior Court Judge election race to challenge Judge Leonard. Upon learning of McMaster's candidacy, Judge Flournoy and his wife Julie Flournoy donated $4,400 to Judge Leonard's re-election campaign in January 2022. In February 2022, Judge Leonard named Justin O'Dell as his co-chair for his election campaign and Julie Flournoy hired Leslee Hungerford (the Guardian Ad Litem in the above cases) of O'Dell & O'Neal as her probate attorney.

A hearing on all pending motions in Rivera v. Scharle, Case No. 21-1-01795, was scheduled for April 18, 2022. But at that hearing during pre-trial discussion in open court, the GAL argued that the hearing was only for an alleged "contempt" motion against the Father, Jonathan Rivera. Judge Flournoy subsequently disclosed that his wife, Julie Flournoy, hired the GAL as her probate attorney and Flournoy then asked the Father if he would like Judge Flournoy recused from the case. The Father declined to have Flournoy recused for that hearing. The GAL was excused from the courtroom before the hearing began because she was not material to that particular issue. During the hearing, Judge Flournoy declined to rule on the alleged contempt motion in light of the Father's bankruptcy payment plan and advised the Mother's attorney, David Canale, to lift the bankruptcy stay. Mr. Canale repeated multiple times that he was not a bankruptcy attorney and Judge Flournoy continued to provide him guidance on the matter. The parties were excused and the case was continued. The very next day, on April 19, 2022, the Father emailed Judge Flournoy's staff attorney requesting that Judge Flournoy recuse himself from all further proceedings in light of his conflict of interest with the GAL.

On April 25, 2022, Judge Flournoy finally recused himself from both Cobb County Superior Court, Case Nos. 21-1-02536 and 21-1-01795, citing the McMaster For Cobb campaign website for Matt McMaster as candidate for Cobb County Superior Court Judge as the cause, and in his orders Judge Flournoy failed to mention his conflict with both (i) the opposing attorney Tom Browning, who was Judge Flournoy's campaign Treasurer, Flournoy's longtime friend, and Flournoy's attorney and (ii) the GAL who was now Julie Flournoy's probate attorney.

Learn more about the collateral results caused in this case here: The Lion's Den

Ellis v. Grubbs - Cobb County Superior Court, Case No. 21-1-06837

On September 9, 2021, a Petition for Writ of Mandamus was filed against the Honorable Adele Grubbs along with a request for recusal against the entire Cobb County judicial circuit. That request was granted by the Chief Superior Court Judge, Robert D. Leonard II (a.k.a., Rob Leonard) on September 24, 2021 and was ordered to be transferred to the 7th Judicial Court Administrator for further appointment to a Superior Court Judge outside the Cobb Circuit. Ironically, the 7th Judicial Court Administrator as of September 2021 was the Honorable Robert E. Flournoy III also of Cobb County Superior Court. In short, Judge Leonard handed the case to another Cobb County Superior Court judge to pick a judge outside of Cobb County to handle the matter. The petitioner in that case filed an immediate motion to recuse Judge Flournoy from the matter, which was subsequently granted by another administrative Judge, William T. Boyett, on September 27, 2021. The case was a day later assigned to the Honorable Joe C. Bishop.

While the Attorney General, as an agent of the Georgia Department of Law ("GDL"), would typically represent a Superior Court judge in defending against a writ of mandamus in the State of Georgia, the GDL declined representation of Judge Grubbs in this particular matter "due to a potential conflict" as outlined in Governor Brian Kemp's Executive Order dated September 24, 2021., and three attorneys from the law firm Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele, LLP have been appointed to represent Judge Grubbs against the Petitioners. This case is still pending.

A (Not So) Voluntary Recusal in Waffle House Sex Tape Case

In an article written by Bill Rankin for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge Robert Leonard recused himself from Cobb County Superior Court, Case No. 14-1-04143 after making biased rulings in favor of co-defendant Hylton Dupree.

One alleged conflict was that an ethics complaint had been filed against Leonard before the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission. JQC Commissioner Richard Hyde works as an investigator for Rogers’ legal team in the sex tape case, the motion said, creating a question about whether Leonard would favor Rogers’ side in the litigation to curry favor with Hyde.

The motion said Leonard had presided over a case with attorney Katie Kiihnl, whom Leonard would later marry. Also, Leonard appointed Diane Woods, one of his divorce lawyers, as a guardian in a case before him, a motion said.

On Thursday, Leonard signed an order in which he declined to recuse himself from the Rogers case. On Friday, he changed his mind, based on yet another recusal motion that said a lawyer involved in the litigation once represented Kiihnl. This created enough of an appearance of conflict to require him to step down, Leonard said.

The judge said removing himself from the case enabled him to respond to the “many wild and salacious allegations that the court believes were designed to strategically place the court in the middle of a classic Morton’s Fork.” (A Morton’s Fork, named after 15th century Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton, forces one to choose between two paths that both lead to an undesirable destination.)

Previously, Leonard said, he had chosen to “stand tall, tolerate the false allegations against the court, its wife and other members of the legal community, and continue to preside over the case.” Recusal motions have “become a popular method for disgruntled litigants, like Cohen, to attack their assigned judge in an effort to judge-shop,” he said.

In his 10-page order, Leonard addressed each of Cohen’s numerous allegations, calling them either a “falsehood” or a “misleading statement.”

First, Leonard wrote, he is not under investigation by the state’s judicial disciplinary agency.

Judicial Qualifications Commission director Ben Easterlin confirmed that “there is no pending complaint against Judge Leonard and no investigation pending against Judge Leonard.”

As for his wife appearing in cases before him, Leonard accused Cohen of “cherry-picking” from the court record to make it appear unethical. “Despite Cohen’s attempts to mislead the court and the public, neither this court’s wife, nor any member of her firm, ever made any appearance in front of this court after its relationship began with her,” Leonard wrote.

As for Woods, his former divorce lawyer, Leonard said when he appointed her as a guardian in a case he disclosed his relationship with her in open court, and both parties agreed to Woods’ involvement. “There was no wrongdoing here despite what Cohen claims,” Leonard wrote.

Rogers’ lawyer, Robert Ingram, said Leonard should not have been subjected to such attacks.

“Judge Leonard has bent over backwards to be fair to everybody in this case,” Ingram said. “This is the kind of behavior lawyers shouldn’t be engaged in.”

As for Leonard’s final order, Ingram said, “You could tell he had some pent-up frustration.”

Election Campaign Challenger - Cobb County Nonpartisan Election - 2022

The Lion's Den

See The Lion's Den Article
See Political Adversaries Cut From the Same Cloth Article

Frank R. Cox - former Chief Magistrate Judge of Cobb County

Former Cobb County Chief Magistrate Court Judge Frank R. Cox

Former Cobb Chief Magistrate Judge Frank R. Cox took office in 2001. He supervised a staff of 50 people, including 14 judges. He received his B.S. Degree from Georgia State University and his Juris Doctor from Woodrow Wilson College of Law. Prior to his judgeship, Cox served as an assistant district attorney in Cobb for 15 years.

JQC Complaint Leading to Resignation

In an article written by Dan Klepal for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "two attorneys filed separate complaints against Frank Cox with the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates accusations of judicial misconduct and makes disciplinary recommendations to the Georgia Supreme Court."

"Both complaints center around judicial temperament, and how people were treated in Cox’s courtroom." Judge Cox subsequently resigned in January 2015.

Wrongful Termination of Wanda Spann

"Wanda Spann served as Cobb County Pretrial Court Services Director from 1983 – 2003. She was appointed to this position by the Cobb County Superior Court Judges Council at age 23, becoming Cobb County’s first African American department head and judicial appointee." According to the justiceforwandaspann.com website:

Mrs. Spann had a stellar career in Cobb’s court system for 23 years but was unlawfully terminated in May of 2003 by Chief Magistrate Judge Frank Cox, a person who had absolutely no authority over her or Pretrial Court Services. Spann served at the pleasure of the Cobb County Superior Court Judges Council according to the Uniform Superior Court Rules of Georgia.

Cox orchestrated a witch hunt against Spann to remove her from her position. His plan consisted of deceitful and unethical practices such as accessing Spann’s computer from a remote site to obtain a letter she was writing to the Superior Court Judges seeking protection from his constant harassment. Cox was angry because Spann complained he was trying to force one of her employees to sign a letter he dictated in the employee's name, which contained lies to circumvent conditions of a murder defendant's bond. She also complained of his improprieties concerning the bonds of child molesters and other serious offenders.

On March 19, 2003 Cox was given a memo by Superior Court Judge Mary Staley which stated that the Georgia Supreme Court had approved for the Chief Magistrate to have supervisory authority over Spann and her department. This was not true. Cox used the letter to place Spann under house arrest/suspension.

On May 21, 2003 Mary Staley gave Cox another letter containing similar information which he used to terminate Spann the following day.

Robert E. Flournoy, III - Senior Judge of Cobb County

Child endangering Cobb County judge prepares for senior judgeship
Controversial Cobb County judge prepares for senior judgeship

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