Georgia Feds Indict State Magistrate Judge For Lying To Grand Jury, FBI

In Clinch County, Georgia, Daily Report reports:

• A magistrate judge from rural Clinch County has been charged with perjury in an indictment that says she lied to a federal grand jury investigating judicial corruption.
  Magistrate Judge Linda C. Peterson lied to grand jurors June 13 when she denied, under oath, ever suggesting to criminal defendants that they could use her own father as a bail bondsman, according to the indictment. The indictment says Peterson, after setting a $50,000 bond last year for a man arrested on marijuana charges, told the defendant that her father, Herman Corbitt, could act as his bail bondsman for a fee. The indictment says Peterson told the defendant, James E. Tucker, and other people "that she needed the fee that her father would charge for home remodeling." [The U.S Attorney's office] declined to comment on whether Peterson's indictment was related to a federal investigation of Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III, whose Clinch County office was searched by FBI agents in June.

For more, see South Ga. judge indicted on federal perjury charge. naughty judges