A foul-mouthed Georgia probate judge allegedly shoved an Atlanta police officer twice outside a nightclub and refused to identify himself after his arrest, according to police and body camera footage.
Douglas County Judge Christina Peterson, 38, was handcuffed and taken to the back of a patrol car early Thursday morning after she was accused of assaulting a police officer.
Police said she interfered with officers trying to defuse a situation in which a security guard working at Red Martini Restaurant and Lounge was trying to escort another woman outside. According to 11 Alive News.
“Let her go, let her go,” Peterson yelled at security and officers, according to video released by Atlanta police and obtained by local media.
Police said the video showed Peterson, a Democrat, shoving the officer, who was working a licensed part-time job, twice in the chest and slapping his hands during the disturbance around 3 a.m., leading to his arrest.
Officers then wrestled Peterson to the ground and handcuffed her as a crowd gathered around her, video shows.
video, Courtesy of Fox 5 Atlanta The footage then shows Peterson refusing to identify himself when officers ask him his name.
“I don’t need any ID,” she said angrily, “You’ve picked up a body before and you don’t know whose it is. But you picked it up. Take me wherever you want.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” the officer replied, but the two continued arguing.
At one point, the judge suggested the officer Google her, to which the officer responded, “Tell me your name and I’ll Google it.”
Other parts of the video show Peterson at the police station, complaining and yelling at an officer who grabbed his arm as he walked, and then later in another police vehicle as he is informed of the charges against him.
According to a police report obtained by Fox 5 Atlanta, Peterson was allegedly under the influence of drugs during the conversation and has been charged with simple assault on a police officer and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
But Peterson’s lawyers argued in an emotional news conference after her arrest that she was simply being a good Samaritan.
Her lawyer, Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., said his client was trying to represent a woman, identified as Alexandria Love, who had been taken outside a nightclub after being “brutally” attacked by an unidentified man.
Arrington said he believes she will be “completely exonerated” in the case and called for all footage of the incident to be released.
Love said during a press conference reported by Fox 5 Atlanta that the commotion began when an unidentified man accused her of cutting in line for a food truck.
“He violently attacked me, punched me in the face, and the only person who came to my aid was Judge Peterson,” she said.
She also claimed Peterson did not know she would lay hands on the officers.
Peterson, who took office in 2020, was found guilty of “institutional incompetence” by the Judiciary Committee in April.
