Article attacks fine judge

I have known Senior Judge Bernard Mulherin as a close personal friend for more than 40 years. I have never met a person with a higher level of integrity. It would be nice to know what motivated your employee, Sandy Hodson, to write the articles about Judge Mulherin, which appeared in your Dec. 5 edition ("Is our judgment too costly?"). Does she grind her own ax or is she simply the surrogate of another?

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The senior judge system in Georgia saves the taxpayers tons of money. Ms. Hodson apparently does not know, or does not want the public to know, that the staff sizes of the district attorney's office and the public defender's office are governed by the number of active Superior Court judges in the judicial circuit. Senior judges are not counted in that number; and therefore, the part-time employment of a senior judge does not require additional staff at either of these offices. Yet, she says: "Is our judgment too costly?" She has it all backward!

Having Judge Mulherin serve in a part-time, appointed capacity saves the taxpayers significant sums of money, and gives the public the benefit of his experience of 24 years on the bench ... .

Zachry Everitt, Augusta

--From the Tuesday, December 21, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle