Changing of the Guard in Rome

Late next month, Judge Walter E. Johnson, who has served as the magistrate judge in the Rome Division for more than two decades, will retire.

The judges of the Northern District of Georgia have chosen his replacement. The new magistrate judge in Rome will be John H. Rains IV, a partner at Bondurant Mixson & Elmore. You can read his sparkling resume here. And here is the court’s press release:

But before we turn the page on Judge Johnson’s tenure once and for all, here is one final tale:

One Friday morning in June 2005, the U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed several dozen Rome indictments charging a total of 60 or more defendants with federal drugs crimes. Why? Because these storeowners (and their family member-employees) sold pseudoephedrine (cough syrup, a precursor to home-made methamphetamine) to confidential informants at dozens of rural convenience stores and gas stations in Northwest Georgia. Nearly every defendant was an immigrant from the Indian state of Gujarat. Some were as old as 70 and 80 years old. The government willfully chose to arrest every defendant on that Friday afternoon, so they’d all have to wait in jail for three days before the initial appearance at the Rome courthouse. Over that weekend, Judge Johnson saw the indictments and realized that he did not know how to pronounce the dozens of Gujarati names. So, he called a Gujarati-speaking friend, studied the names, and rehearsed them at home. On Monday morning, Jake Waldrop, Brian Mendelsohn, and I arrived at the packed courthouse for the initial appearances, and all day long, in hearing after hearing, Judge Johnson spoke every name flawlessly. In a courthouse overflowing with fear (the defendants) and racism (the government), Judge Johnson offered a hint of dignity and respect.