Mark Fuller

Overview

U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller (M.D. Alabama), a George W. Bush appointee, was arrested in August 2014 for beating his wife at an Atlanta hotel. He resigned effective August 1, 2015, after a federal judicial committee found ‘substantial evidence’ he had physically abused his wife at least eight times.

Description

On a Saturday night in August 2014, police responding to a call at the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta found Kelli Fuller with cuts on her face and the hotel room in disarray, with broken glass on the floor. She told officers her husband had become violent after she accused him of having an affair. Fuller accepted a plea deal on September 5, 2014, under which his misdemeanor battery charge would be dismissed and expunged contingent upon completion of a 24-week court program including domestic-violence counseling and substance-abuse testing. Both Alabama Republican senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions joined Democrat Terri Sewell in calling for his resignation. Fuller resigned effective August 1, 2015. In September 2015, a committee of federal judges recommended Congress consider impeachment despite the resignation, concluding there was ‘substantial evidence’ Fuller had abused his wife at least eight times and had engaged in ‘reprehensible conduct.’