Former Haralson County Chief Magistrate Judge arrested

A former Chief Magistrate Judge who presided over cases in Haralson County before resigning in 2020 while under investigation was arrested on Monday, and later released from custody on multiple counts.

Former Chief Magistrate Judge Brandon Heath was released on a $20,000 bond following his booking by the Haralson County Sheriff’s Office on Monday. The 45-year-old former judge’s case went up before the Haralson County Grand Jury in April before the 20 counts were indicted.

The Paulding County District Attorney’s Office is handling the prosecution after the Tallapoosa Circuit District Attorney’s Office recused themselves ahead of any proceedings of involvement.

He faces 20 counts of felony false official certificates or writings by officers/employees of state and political subdivisions following a years-long probe into his actions while on the bench involving several different accusations.

Among those covered in a Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) settlement with Heath were that he improperly used his powers of the bench to involve himself in a case completely unrelated to his position, that he issued arrest warrants without first hearing sworn testimony from officers to validate the warrants, and he used “intemperate and discourteous behavior” while on the bench.

The first of those accusations alleged that Heath involved himself in the “investigation of an acquaintance” and used his position to get information about that investigation.

Back in August 2020, Heath resigned from the bench and it was accepted by Governor Brian Kemp.

Heath agreed in the JQC settlement that he would never seek another judicial position to avoid any further actions from the agency.

However the JQC complaint was the least of the issues for Heath, who according to a source with knowledge of the investigation that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation got involved not long before the complaint was filed to the state JQC about his conduct in office.

That investigation continued through 2021, and before it could head to prosecution was then turned over to the Paulding County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

Grand Jury warrants were issued for the 20 felony charges against Heath earlier this month on May 2.

Editor’s note: this story was updated to clarify when the investigation by the GBI began. -KtE