VALDOSTA — The senior judge for the federal judiciary’s Middle District of Georgia passed away Friday.

The district includes Valdosta, Thomasville and Tifton.

Roger Hugh Lawson Jr., 82, was born on Sept. 23, 1941, in Hawkinsville, where he lived most of his life. He was the son of Roger Hugh Lawson and Barbara Daniel Lawson.

He attended Emory University before entering into private practice with his father’s law firm.

He was appointed a Superior Court judge in the Oconee Judicial Circuit in 1979, holding that position for 17 years, according to his obituary.

He was a member of many judicial organizations including the Judicial Council of Georgia and the Judicial Qualifications Commission of Georgia.

In April 1995, then-Pres. Bill Clinton appointed him to the district court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Among the notable cases from the Valdosta region Lawson was involved with:

Allegations made against former Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney Robert B. Ellis of civil rights violations, witness tampering and making false statements.

Ellis eventually pleaded guilty to the false statements charge in a plea deal in 2005.

Lawson handled court proceedings for former Alapaha circuit judge Brooks Blitch, who was accused of a litany of charges. Blitch pleaded guilty charge as part of a deal in 2009, past reporting shows.

Lawson was involved in later stages of the long-running “KJ saga,” in which the family of Lowndes High School student Kendrick Johnson disputed state findings that Johnson died of an accident at the school in 2013; his parents maintain that foul play was involved.

In 2020 Lawson dismissed the latest in a long line of civil lawsuits the Johnsons had brought in the case.

In his private life, Lawson was a lifelong Methodist and taught Sunday school for 35 years. He married the former Sydney Davis of Atlanta, with whom he had three children.

He was later married to the former Barbara Boots of Crawfordsville, Indiana, acting as father to her three children, his obituary said.

Services were held Tuesday at Hawkinsville First United Methodist Church with Clark Funeral Home handling arrangements.