Judge says lawyer appeared unsteady and disheveled in court, orders drug test and jailing
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A Georgia judge held a lawyer in contempt and ordered a drug test based on his courtroom appearance earlier this month.
Judge Adele Grubbs says in the contempt order that she ordered the test after Atlanta lawyer Rand Csehy appeared in court to argue a motion for a client looking “disheveled” and “perspiring profusely,” according to the Daily Report (sub. req.). She also said Csehy had bloodshot eyes and was “unable to stand without leaning on a bench or the podium.”
Grubbs ordered Csehy to spend five days in jail after the initial test was positive for cocaine and amphetamines, according to the article. He is awaiting the results of a second test with a longer wait for results. WSB Radio also has a story.
Csehy maintains the drug test returned a false positive, according to Csehy’s lawyer, Daniel Kane. Csehy also alleges that Grubbs was agitated when she ordered the test because was arguing for a motion to suppress and insisting on a jury trial for his client, Kane says. Csehy “feels that he was being pressured to plead this guy out and he wasn’t doing it,” Kane told the Daily Report.
Kane told the Daily Report he is researching case law to determine whether the judge had a right to order the test. “It’s never happened before,” Kane said. “It’ll be a case of first impression.”
Csehy, a former Fulton County prosecutor, was sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute and possession of firearms during commission of a crime. He told ethics regulators he was in active recovery from addiction and he should be suspended rather than disbarred.
Csehy’s voluntary petition for discipline said his troubles began after a fatal courthouse shooting that could have claimed the life of his then-girlfriend, the prosecutor in a rape case against the shooter. The girlfriend was not in court because she was picking up Csehy from the airport. Csehy could also have been in the courtroom if he had not rescheduled a motion pending before the judge.
Csehy maintains he felt guilty because he carried a gun at the courthouse and believed he could have prevented the shootings. He later assisted in the prosecution of the shooter.
Related article:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-Prosecutor Who Helped Send Courthouse Shooter to Prison Is Arrested in Drug Sting”
