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Judge Goss to run for re-election

• Judge Stephen Goss will seek a third term this fall.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Judge Stephen Goss has done much in his nine years on the Dougherty County Superior Court.

When speaking with the Mitchell County native, it becomes obvious that among his many accomplishments, he’s proud of the circuit’s mental health court, which he founded in 2002. Then it was the first felony mental health court program in Georgia and one of the first in the country.

“We have one of the leading mental health programs in the country,” said Goss. “We host starting courts that come to look and inquire.”

“We know we make a real difference,” he said. Before the mental health court, which is contained within his Superior Court, “We were seeing the same people over and over and over again. We’d patch them up and in 90 days would do it all over again,” he said.

Since the court was established, he said, “We’ve reduced recidivism That’s been fulfilling, seeing the impact.”

The court is one of five national learning sites designated by the United States Department of Justice Assistance and the Council of State Governments.

Goss, who was appointed Superior Court judge in 1999 and won his first election in 2000, will seek a third four- year term this fall.

“I enjoy what I do,” he said. “I feel like I have done a good job being the Superior Court judge. I’ve been able to make ... positive impacts.”

Goss’ court, a general jurisdiction trial court, is the only one-circuit court in the state. And circuit courts, he said proudly, are the oldest courts in Georgia.

“While we are here most all the time, we have statewide jurisdiction,” he said. “Every state has a general jurisdiction trial court.

“When can hear most anything,” he explained, “but there are some things only we can hear.”

Goss said the court has exclusive jurisdiction over felony criminal cases, equitable cases and domestic and family law. It also hears title land disputes.

Goss got his start in 1989 in juvenile court, something he kept up during many of his years in private practice.

In 1995 he was appointed to be the juvenile court judge, and later Superior Court judge.

By then, he’d caught the judging bug, so to speak.

“I felt like I had the right temperament to be a judge,” he said. “I’m balanced and able to listen to both sides of a dispute.”

And, as other area judges have said, law is “academically and intellectually stimulating,” he said.

One thing he does miss about private practice is the relationships formed. Judgeship, he said, “is very isolated, as it should be.”

Goss said his record shows that “I stay pretty busy. I’ve got a fairly well-documented (schedule).”

Initially, Goss, who grew up on a farm, wanted to be a veterinarian.

But by his second year at the University of Georgia, it had become clear to Goss that he “enjoyed more of the social sciences, and I just sort of made the decision (to go to law school),” he said.

But for a man who would go on to have a stellar law career, “I never met a lawyer in my life until the first day of law school.”

Since 2003, Goss has been a faculty member of the National Judicial College. He is on the executive committee of the Georgia Chief Justice’s Task Force on Mental Health in the Courts and serves as a commissioner on the Governor’s Commission on Mental Health Services.

Goss lives in Albany with his wife of 25 years, Dee Goss, and their children Collins, Clark and Clint.

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