A Judge and His Son: Malcoms Bond as a Courthouse Team
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Pages | 0030 |
A Judge and His Son: Malcoms Bond as a Courthouse Team
Ryan Malcom, 33, joins his father Chief Judge Jeffery S. Malcom at one of the five courthouses in the Northern Judicial Circuit every day–a routine that has lasted for more than a decade.
BY LINTON JOHNSON
Northern Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Jeffery S. Malcom and his oldest son, Ryan.
On a crisp morning in late January, it's a typically busy Monday in Elbert County Superior Court. One criminal defendant after another stands before Chief Judge Jeffery S. Malcom of the Northern Judicial Circuit, pleads guilty and receives a sentence–or pleads not guilty and receives a trial date.
With the omicron variant of COVID-19 having passed its peak but still causing a high risk level throughout the country, everyone in the courtroom–the defendants and their lawyers, prosecutors and other court officials, a handful of spectators and the judge–wears a mask. No jury is seated, so the makeshift, Plexiglas-enclosed individual juror pods stand empty–except for one.
There, Ryan Malcom, the oldest of the judge's three children, is scribbling down every word of the proceedings on a fullsized legal pad, seemingly as backup for the court reporter. His presence in court has nothing to do with an annual "take your child to work" observance. Ryan, born 33 years ago with Down syndrome, accompanies his dad all day, every day, from their home in Royston to one of the five county courthouses in the Northern Circuit.
It has been the father-son team's routine for more than a decade now. Under an extended program for special-needs students, Ryan was able to attend Franklin County High School until he was 22. A year or so after he graduated, Judge Malcom recalled, "he decided he would like to see how court worked, and he's been coming ever since."
Asked how he likes coming with his dad to court, Ryan replied, "Good. I take notes all through the years, and it's what I do every day." Oh, does he take notes. Ryan started this year with 33 new legal pads he received for Christmas. The judge estimates Ryan goes "two or three days per pad, and we've probably had a tractor-trailer load of pens."
The pandemic's impact on the court system has forced some changes to the Malcoms' daily routine. "He's had three open-heart surgeries, so he has some underlying health issues," the judge...
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