Judge, court reporter, deputy killed in rampage

Brief profiles at the three people shot and killed Friday at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta:

Rowland Barnes

Known for his sense of humor, Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes often indulged lawyers at the Atlanta Bar Association’s annual charity fund-raiser, appearing in skits sometimes only in his underwear.

“How many judges would do that? He could laugh at himself better than anybody,” defense attorney Don Samuel said.

Barnes, 64, of College Park, Ga., was an adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, where he graduated in 1972. He also maintained ties with Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., where he earned an economics degree in 1962 and was a backup quarterback on the school’s football team. He recently helped raise money for a memorial to a teammate who suffered a fatal injury during a game in 1961.

Named to the Superior Court bench in 1998, Barnes previously worked as a part-time Fulton County magistrate and a city court judge in Hapeville and Fairburn.

His wife, Claudia, is a judicial assistant for another judge and was working in the courthouse when her husband was killed.

Barnes is survived by two daughters and four stepchildren.

Julie Brandau

Jurors who loved to eat baked treats loved court reporter Julie Brandau.

She often brought homemade cookies, brownies and other sweets to the courthouse for colleagues and jurors serving in trials that Barnes presided over.

Brandau, 46, of Snellville, Ga., had been Barnes’ court reporter for about 25 years. Her baking was featured in a 2002 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about her recipes.

“Every day of every trial, she creates something special for our jurors,” the judge said in the article. “They have dined on everything from peach bread to the best oatmeal cookies, and on every concoction in between. Sometimes she invents a recipe and sometimes she doesn’t, but she has never ceased to please the crowd.”

Brandau was born in Moncks Corner, S.C. She is survived by an 18-year-old daughter who is a freshman at Auburn University in Alabama.

In the article, Brandau was quoted as saying: “I have the privilege of working for Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes as his court reporter. He is always in my corner.

“There is never a dull moment with my job. I have heard it all,” she added.

Hoyt Teasley

Always a protector, Teasley was remembered for taking off on his bike as a young boy to find a missing neighborhood girl. The 44-year-old father also was protective of his two children.

“I think of him with those two children,” former Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett said at the hospital where Teasley was pronounced dead.

Teasley again was trying to serve as a protector when he was shot while trying to apprehend the gunman outside the courthouse.