Who Is The District Court Judge Who Was Privately Reprimanded For Having Loud Sex In Her Chambers With A Law Enforcement Officer From Her District?

On February 11, the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit published an order with remarkable conclusions: a federal district court judge somewhere in the Eleventh Circuit “engag[ed] in an extramarital affair with a law enforcement officer and, in the course of the affair, having sexual intercourse in the Subject Judge’s office during work hours and within hearing distance of the judge’s clerks.” Ultimately, however, the Council issues a private reprimand, rather than a public reprimand. The identity of the judge is not disclosed. But many of the clues in the memorandum point to a particular judge.

First, we can easily narrow down which of the three states in the Eleventh Circuit is at issue. The order refers to a “victory party for a District Attorney” in 2024 the night before “the judge’s summer interns’ first day.” Florida does not have District Attorneys; they are called State Attorneys. So we are down to Alabama and Georgia. In 2024, the Alabama primary was on March 4 and the primary runoff was on April 16. Those dates don’t match with when a summer intern would start. In Georgia, the primary was on May 21, 2024. That date matches up well with the start of a summer internship. 

Second, the memorandum indicates that the subject judge is not currently the Chief Judge of the District. The memorandum further states that the chambers of the chief judge are “configured almost identically to the Subject Judge’s chambers,” which suggests the chief judge and the subject judge are in the same building. Georgia is divided into a Northern District, a Middle District, and a Southern District. The Chief Judge of the Southern District is stationed in Savannah. He appears to be the only active status judge stationed in that building. The Chief Judge of the Middle District is stationed in Albany. No other active status judges are stationed in Albany. As best as I can tell, all of the active Northern District Judges have chambers in the Richard B. Russell building in Atlanta. (I visited that high-rise tower in 2008 when I interviewed with Jack Camp, another disgraced NDGA judge.) And it would stand to reason that chambers on different floors would have similar layouts. It seems very likely that the subject judge is stationed in Atlanta.

Third, the reprimand states that this judge would “forego service as chief judge should the Subject Judge be otherwise eligible to serve in that cap.” The current chief judge’s tenure will expire, at the latest, in May 2032. There are several active duty judges in the Northern District of Georgia who could, in theory, be eligible to become chief judge in 2032. But that list is fairly small.

Fourth, there was a very high profile District Attorney race in Atlanta that was settled on May 21, 2024: Fani Willis won the Democratic primary for the Fulton County District Attorney. Yes, Fani Willis is the prosecutor who indicted Donald Trump and his associates for alleged election interference. There were many press reports about Willis’s victory in the 2024 Democratic primary. The memorandum makes several references to martinis. For example, “the Subject Judge explained that the judge had consumed too many martinis the night before at the primary election victory party for a District Attorney.” Moreover, “Based on news coverage, including video and photos, the District Attorney’s campaign held an election watch party at which drinks or food in martini glasses appeared to have been served.” Well, there were certainly martinis at Willis’s party. Here is a photo of Nathan Wade at Willis’s victory party from Fox 5 Atlanta. In the background you can see a martini glass. For those who do not recall, Wade resigned as special prosecutor in the Trump case after admitting to having an affair with Willis. 

If you watch the video of her celebration, you can see martini glasses on the waiter’s tray.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has another photo of a woman next to Wade holding a martini. The AP has many more.

Fifth, the memorandum states that the “Subject Judge acknowledged having been friends with a District Attorney since 1999.” The judge also had “former district attorney’s office colleagues” at the victory party.  The memorandum further relays, “The Subject Judge stated that, on one occasion, at the District Attorney’s invitation, the judge went to a ‘mixer’ of former employees of a District Attorney’s Office—where the Subject Judge previously worked.”

The reprimand also disqualified the judge from being chief judge, which would rule out any senior status judges or judges who have already aged out of being chief judge. How many judges of the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta could have plausibly been friends with Fani Willis since 1999, worked in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, and could still be in line to be chief judge? There is only one judge who checks all of those boxes: District Court Judge Eleanor Ross.

Let’s start with her background. From 1998 to 2002, she served as a senior assistant district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia. That would have given her a chance to work with Fani Willis, who was an assistant district attorney during that time. After a stint in the U.S. Attorney’s office, Ross returned to Fulton County as an Executive Assistant District Attorney. She was appointed to the state bench in 2011, and President Obama nominated her for the federal bench in 2014. It stands to reason that she would still be in touch with her former prosecutor colleagues from about 15 years ago. I checked the biographies of the other active duty judges in NDGA, and none served in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.

District Court Judge Eleanor Ross was born in December 1967. She is next in line to be Chief Judge based on seniority. (There is one judge ahead of her who has been on the bench longer, but he has already aged out.) In May 2032, Ross will be short of 65 years old, and would be eligible to become Chief Judge.

The memorandum further states that on the day after the DA’s victory party, “Subject Judge presided over a criminal revocation proceeding.” Indeed, Judge Ross presided over a revocation of supervised release on May 22, 2024 at 11:30 AM in 1:23-cr-350.

I cannot know for certain if Judge Ross is the subject judge, but a lot of evidence points in that direction. I emailed Judge Ross’s courtroom deputy seeking a comment from the judge, but did not receive a response. I will post any response Judge Ross sends.