Georgia judge embroiled in court dispute over questionable will

(The Center Square) – A sitting DeKalb County judge filed a will naming herself executor of her late brother’s estate – and a forensic document examiner hired by a family member says the signatures on that will are not the dead man’s.

The dispute has triggered a probate court challenge, a complaint to the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, and recusal orders that removed every DeKalb County probate and superior court judge from the case because the person who filed the will holds a judicial seat in the county.

Rhathelia Stroud serves as both a DeKalb County Magistrate Court judge and chief judge of the Decatur Municipal Court. She did not return phone messages from The Center Square left at her Magistrate Court office and on her personal phone, nor did she answer messages to her county and per...