Judge Tells Ethics Panel That Alleged Gun Episode, Pot Use and More Shouldn’t Keep Him Off the Bench

A Georgia magistrate judge is fighting to keep his job despite ethics charges that describe a panoply of alleged misconduct ranging from marijuana use to playing with a gun in a judge’s chambers. Magistrate Anthony Peters of Catoosa County and his lawyer, Chris Townley, are arguing at Peters’ ethics trial before the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission that his claimed conduct has been exaggerated and what did actually happen isn’t all that serious, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For instance, Peters used marijuana to wean himself off of opiates to which he became addicted after a 2005 all-terrain vehicle accident required him to take prescription painkillers, the article says.…