Atlanta Police deputy chief named as the cop who had ‘loud sex with a federal judge’ in her chambers and was heard through the walls by law clerks

Kelley Collier, a deputy chief with the Atlanta Police Department, has been publicly identified as the high-ranking officer who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Federal Judge Eleanor Ross. As detailed by VT, Collier was the officer reportedly engaged in loud sexual activity with Ross inside her chambers, with kissing and moaning said to be audible through the walls to nearby law clerks.

Collier has been accused of carrying on the affair with the married Judge Ross, with the relationship first surfacing through reporting by Bloomberg Law. Ross has since received a private reprimand for the conduct, which took place in her chamber within earshot of her staff.

The Atlanta Police Department announced on Thursday, May 27, that it had launched an investigation into the matter. The department posted a statement on its website reading: “The Atlanta Police Department has launched an investigation to determine if the person mentioned in the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States, is indeed an employee of the Atlanta Police Department.”

Atlanta PD opens probe as Collier’s identity comes to light

Collier, 55, serves as the community services division commander within the Atlanta PD. His official department bio states: “Collier has a passion for analytics, computer technology, and efficient management strategies and he applies these skills daily to achieve positive outcomes for the department.” He has been with the Atlanta Police since 1998.

A judicial complaint explicitly stated that Collier and Ross, 58, allegedly had sex in “chambers and during business hours,” with the activity audible to those nearby. The finding was later confirmed by a judicial committee. Amid a broader wave of DC police misconduct investigations, the Atlanta case draws fresh scrutiny to accountability at the command level.

Ross sits on the Atlanta-based US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2014, and previously served as both a state court judge and a federal prosecutor. She is currently married to Georgia state court Judge Brian Ross.

Initially, neither Collier nor Ross were named in public reports. Bloomberg Law had reported that a special judicial conduct committee of the Eleventh Circuit found an unnamed judge guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse in their chambers over the course of a two-year relationship, spanning from October 2023 to October 2025. The committee concluded the behavior “demonstrated a gross lack of judgment” and created a “chambers workplace that was extremely uncomfortable and troubling for clerks.”

The initial report also noted the relationship was with an unnamed police department commander, flagging it as a “conflict-of-interest risk.” Court papers stated: “For two years, the Subject Judge was a federal district judge who routinely heard criminal cases engaged in a secret extramarital relationship with a prominent officer of a large law enforcement agency in the judge’s district.” The description of the officer as a “commander of a certain division” who had served Atlanta since 1998 aligned precisely with Collier’s profile. The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability upheld the February decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, confirming the findings against Ross on May 27.

Ross agreed to write letters of apology to the law clerks interviewed during the investigation. She also consented to not serving as chief judge in the future and to refraining from service on Judicial Conference committees. The committee noted she had also demonstrated a “strong propensity for rehabilitation,” a finding cited alongside a separate controversy in which Ross had previously faced scrutiny for attending a partisan political event and making false statements to judges questioning her conduct. The sentencing decision drew parallels to a case where a judge’s leniency toward a repeat offender sparked public backlash over judicial accountability.