Sixteen rules violations filed with the Georgia Supreme Court on July 22, JQC director seeks disciplinary action for Chief Judge of Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court

Note: information about the require.ents of the drug court program for participants has been updated in this article. -Kte

Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Meng Lim could face disciplinary action over two separate incidents dating as far back as 2016, including an inappropriate relationship with a former employee in the Polk County Superior Court Clerk’s office, according to a 35-page filing submitted last week to the Georgia Supreme Court for action.

According to the filing, Judge Lim is alleged to have broken 16 different rules amid two separate incidents, and is alleged to have conducted “willful misconduct in office” and “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the judicial office into disrepute.”

Among the rules violations are for making misleading statements to the investigative panel looking into his conduct in a March 19, 2021 appearance.

The request from the JQC to the court seeks the State Supreme Court to bring about proceedings that would determine whether Judge Lim’s conduct was indeed a violation, and what the appropriate sanctions would be.

No information has yet been passed on by the press officials from the Georgia Supreme Court about when the proceedings would occur to determine if Judge Lim is to be sanctioned by the court in any way.

Allegations made by the JQC in the filing involve two incidents he presided over, and are divided in the information provided to the Georgia Supreme Court into two parts.

They are being addressed in the order of which they were presented in the formal filing to the state Supreme Court.

You can read the full 35-page filing for yourself here.

Part 1: Drug Court violations

First, it is important to understand that the local Drug Court does not work the same way as those who face charges in Superior Court. Participants in the program are being held to more stringent rules and are required to take part in counseling, community service, pay regulars fees, participate in community recovery activities, and so long as they follow prescribed rules and provide clean drug tests based on the schedule provided, charges they may have faced in Superior Court can be withdrawn.

Simply put, participants are given a chance at getting back to their normals lives in recovery when they complete the program, but may still face judicial penalties.pl However, it is program that requires several steps to get into, and counselors and the director of the program must agree that an individual seeking to get in can participate before an individual’s charges are moved from one court to another. (As understood based on information immediately available at the time of this article’s posting.)

Since 2015, Judge Lim has been in charge of the Drug Court, and in recent years leadership within the office has changed hands several times as new directors have come and gone. At the time that these allegations of misconduct began per the JQC filing, Judge Lim had been in charge of the program for a year.

That’s when a “personal and family friend to Judge Lim” named James Hardin sought help for his brother-in-law, Darrell Hill in November 2016. The filing stated that Hill had an ongoing drug problem and Hardin wanted to get Hill into the Tallapoosa Circuit Drug Court instead of having to face felony drug and other misdemeanor charges in front of then Chief Judge Michael Murphy’s court. The JQC’s filing reported that Judge Lim “had been personally acquainted with and friends of Mr. Hardin, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Hill’s sister for several years.”

Neither at the time that Hill was accepted into the Drug Court program admitted their friendship. That’s despite officials within the drug court determining that Hill would have been a candidate for the drug court without having known that he and Judge Lim were friends.

The JQC filing then states that Hill was accepted into the program and began his time in the Drug Court program on November 16, 2016.

In the months following, Hill is reported in the filing to have “started to refer to Judge Lim by his first name, “Meng,” during participant group sessions” and explained his long relationship with the judge. He also told group members he had worked on Judge Lim’s home and a restaurant he owns in Haralson County as well.

“As a result, Mr. Lanier (Hill’s counselor in the program at the time) had a conversation with Judge Lim to advise him of the concerns he had regarding Mr. Hill’s statements in group sessions and his recent discovery of the personal relationship Judge Lim had with Mr. Hill. Mr. Lanier advised Judge Lim that “dual roles” with participants (were) strictly prohibited in the Drug Court program. Judge Lim did not address Mr. Lanier’s concerns,” the JQC filing reported.

He also was approached by the director at the time, Regina Roberts, who also heard about Hill’s work and personal relationship with Judge Lim, and her concerns were also not addressed either.

That was only the beginning. Hill was reported on March 12, 2017, to be working for Judge Lim again – this time in helping with repairs to his restaurant. He sought approval to skip a counseling session required by the Drug Court to continue working that day with Judge Lim on his restaurant.

Lanier denied Hill’s request, thinking it would be disruptive of Hill’s progress being made in his recovery.

As reported by the JQC’s formal complaint, Lanier then received a phone call directly from Judge Lim, who was also working on his restaurant on that day, and asked the counselor to allow Hill to miss his session.

Initially Lanier “declined, insisting that it was not clinically in Mr. Hill’s best interest for him to miss his counseling session.”

“After further conversation and at the urging of Judge Lim, Mr. Lanier reluctantly acquiesced and excused Mr. Hill from his counseling session,” the filing reported.

A little less than a month later in April 2017, Drug Court personnel were preparing to take Hill into custody after he missed a drug test, and tested positive for three others between January 1 and February 20, 2017. He then tested positive again on April 8, 2017, for cocaine. The filing reported that when the court was convened in open session again, the plan was to take Hill into custody.

That would have been the normal procedure, had Judge Lim not intervened according to the JQC filing.

“Instead of Mr. Hill’s situation regarding his outstanding warrant for a positive drug screen being addressed at the Drug Court’s next open court session, as was standard when participants had outstanding warrants for positive drug screens, Judge Lim allowed Mr. Hill to meet with him and Drug Court Staff in his chambers,” the filing reported. “During this meeting, Judge Lim allowed Mr. Hill to speak both directly to him and over Drug Court Staff who were attempting to address the Judge and Mr. Hill. Despite a prior no-show for a drug screen, two positive drug screens, and one dilute screen, Mr. Hill repeatedly denied drug use.”

The filing reported that Roberts stood up, announced she was quitting, and left the room.

“Judge Lim eventually took Mr. Hill into custody, but called Ms. Roberts later, asked her not to quit, and also asked her how he could arrange to have a drug test administered at the jail for Mr. Hill,” the filing stated.

More than a year later, Judge Lim also stepped in as well.

“In July of 2018, Judge Lim held a with Mr. Hill and Mr. Hill’s sister outside of a participant group or court setting because Mr. Hill wanted to request to be released from Drug Court,” the report stated.

When questioned in March of this year in front of the Investigating Panel into these incidents, Judge Lim was asked twice if he disclosed his relationship and told the JQC that he had.

He also denied that anyone ever came to him in the Drug Court program over concerns they had about his relationship with Hill, and also initially stated that he didn’t employ Hill, but then later told the JQC in further questioning about the restaurant repairs that Hill had fixed his roof and “that was it.” He also later admitted he paid Hill for the work.

A Romantic Relationship at Work

Judge Lim is also accused in the filing from the JQC of having an inappropriate relationship with another courthouse employee, and at one time the two lived together in his Haralson County home.

Prior to what happened in the Drug Court, Judge Lim was also involved in a relationship with a former Polk County Superior Court Clerk’s office employee, Erika Hernandez. Hernandez, who worked for the Clerk’s office from 2007 until 2018, was one of the only Spanish-speaking employees at the courthouse and from time to time was sought out for her bilingual skills – a particular skill she hoped to utilize for better employment opportunities.

Hernandez was called into Judge Lim’s courtroom several times to act as an interpreter, and per the JQC filing “she enjoyed assisting when asked, which was during regular work hours.”

In May 2016, Judge Lim got ahold of Hernandez’s phone number through another party and began to text with her, though she didn’t know him other than the few times that she had been in his courtroom to provide her services as an interpreter.

“Then-married Judge Lim began the text message conversation with Ms. Hernandez on or about May 11, 2016, by telling her he wanted to learn Spanish and asking her if they could ‘ave lunch together now and then.’,” the JQC filing stated.

Offering to buy her lunch, and going so far as to suggest that he “as thinking you order what you want and we split the portion?,” Hernandez agreed and over the coming weeks they became worktime lunch companions. She shared with Judge Lim her ambitions to further her career and her desire to move back to Texas to be closer to family, particularly hoping to develop her skills as a courtroom interpreter.

Their relationship seemed to take a new direction when on May 27, 2016, Judge Lim was reported by the JQC filing that he “sent Ms. Hernandez a text message
stating ‘f it helps to get you to not move to Texas, I promise to use you as an interpreter as long as I’m in (the) office.’ Judge Lim continued, stating that ‘he only problem is as long as you are working for the clerk of court, I’m not sure about how to pay.’”

She was excited by the opportunity per the filing. Nearly five years later when he appeared before the JQC, he was asked if he ever told Hernandez he planned to use her for interpretive services, and he “responded in the negative.”

Later in the month of May 2016, Judge Lim and Hernandez were reported to have taken a trip together to Atlanta, and he invited her to swim at his pool on Memorial Day. Days later on June 3, 2016, the JQC reported the two were drinking together and exchanging texts later in the afternoon following lunchtime margaritas.

“In the following weeks in June, Judge Lim went to Ms. Hernandez’s home for lunch on multiple occasions during the workday, and their relationship became
physical,” the JQC filing stated. “Judge Lim told Ms. Hernandez not to tell anyone about their relationship and that she had to keep their relationship quiet because he could get in trouble and potentially lose his job if anyone found out. Judge Lim also asked Ms. Hernandez not to use the wireless internet at the courthouse because it wasn’t secure.”

In early July 2016, Judge Lim’s wife left their home and returned to China, and he filed for divorce on July 11. Before month’s end, Judge Lim had also asked Hernandez to move into his home with his two children, and she agreed.

“After Ms. Hernandez moved into Judge Lim’s home, he asked her to quit her job at the Clerk’s Office so she could tend to his home and familial needs full time. Judge Lim gave Ms. Hernandez a deadline by which he expected her to quit her job, but she did not,” the filing stated. “At his home, Judge Lim required Ms. Hernandez to get up early in the morning to exercise and expected that she clean the pool, do laundry, iron clothes, clean the home and tend to multiple pets, including farm animals.”

It continued that “On a few occasions, Judge Lim left Ms. Hernandez at the home with his children, so he could do personal things, such as go to a wedding.”

He denied to the JQC during questioning on March 19 that Hernandez moved in with him. “Judge Lim attempted to further explain that he ‘as thinking back on this, and I remember she came to my house one weekend, and my kids were there, you know.’”

While they were in a relationship, Hernandez was reported by the JQC filing to continue to assist with Spanish interpreting in Judge Lim’s courtroom. He denied that during questioning in March as well.

He also denied reaching out to the State Bar of Georgia about their relationship, which he told Hernandez he had sought advice from a contact in July 2016 and told her via text message that “just got a reply back that we can’t date while you work at the clerk’s office.”

Judge Lim ultimately went back to China to visit his wife, and though the two continued to communicate their relationship ended in the Fall of 2016.

The fallout after was the gossip about the relationship in the courthouse, which word of ultimately reached her supervisor in the Superior Court Clerk’s office. The JQC filing reported that Hernandez was honest about her relationship with Judge Lim, and as a result, she was no longer asked to aid with Spanish language interpreting in court.

This portion of the filing ended with the following from the JQC investigation’s findings:

“On one occasion, Ms. Hernandez was contacted directly by courthouse personnel outside of the Clerk’s Office and told that her immediate assistance with Spanish interpretation was needed in a hearing. Because Judge Lim was presiding over the hearing, Ms. Hernandez had to decline to assist with the hearing.”

The rules that were broken

Per the JQC filing, they found that Judge Lim had violated several rules, including those pertaining to how a judge should conduct themselves in public, upholding the integrity of the bench, not letting prior relationships influence decisions or allow others to privately gain from them, a judge’s impartiality on cases, and should “refrain from financial and business dealings with lawyers, litigants, and others that tend to reflect adversely on their impartiality, interfere with the proper performance of their judicial duties, or exploit their judicial positions.”

They brought up 16 counts of violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct, 10 of those specifically related to his conduct involving his relationship with Hill and handling of his individual case in Drug Court, and six additional counts involving his relationship with Hernandez.

Several of the counts pertain to his misleading statements to the JQC’s Investigative Panel when being questioned on March 19, 2021.

“Violations of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct support discipline when they amount to “willful misconduct in office” or “conduct prejudicial to the
administration of justice which brings the judicial office into disrepute.” Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VII, Par. VII (a); JQC Rule 6 (A) (5). Judge Lim’s
conduct as alleged above amounts to willful misconduct in office and is prejudicial to the administration of justice, bringing his judicial office into disrepute.
Therefore, the Director hereby seeks disciplinary action for the above-stated violations of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct,” the filing concluded.

Per the filing, Judge Lim has 30 days to respond to charges to the Georgia Supreme Court after it was delivered to him on July 15.

Lim, who began practicing law in 1998, was voted into office as Superior Court Judge in July 2014 and began to serve in January 2015. Judge Lim is the first elected Asian American Superior Court judge in the state of Georgia. He was re-elected to a second term in 2018.

Judge Lim last year faced the Haralson County Grand Jury on domestic violence-related charges that were returned as no bills for indictment after his arrest following charges from a GBI investigation into the incident. The GBI had turned over information to the JQC, and following the indictment being returned as no bill, the JQC Director received additional information and sought approval to conduct a further investigation following those charges.

Check back for additional updates about this story as they become available.