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Staff Reports

Chief Judge Robert W. Chasteen of the Superior Court for the Cordele Judicial Circuit
has announced he will not seek re-election in the upcoming general election. He was elected in
2004 as the Superior Court Judge for the Circuit and was the first Ben Hill judge to serve in this
office in 67 years.
Chasteen graduated from the University of Georgia Law School with honors in 1969 and
returned to live and work in Ben Hill County. He became a partner in the firm of Mills &
Chasteen, P.C. in 1969 and served as Municipal Court Judge for the City of Fitzgerald beginning
in 2000 until making a decision in 2004 to seek election to the Superior Court.
During his tenure as judge, he was invited to serve by designation on the Supreme Court
of Georgia. At the 2023 State Bar meeting in Savannah, he was honored to receive the 2022-
2023 Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award selected by his peers. When his current
term comes to an end on December 31, 2024, he plans to serve as a Senior Judge so that he can
provide judicial assistance when needed.
Judge Chasteen considers it an honor and privilege to have served as Superior Court
Judge in the Cordele Judicial Circuit for Ben Hill, Wilcox, Crisp and Dooly counties for 20 years
and wishes to thank all of those who have helped him along the way.