SAVANNAH, Ga. AP – In a rare display of judicial power, a federal judge who presided over the corruption trial of a Georgia magistrate judge has overturned the jury’s verdict convicting her of perjury and making false statements.

U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson ordered an acquittal of Linda C. Peterson on charges that she lied to a federal grand jury and to federal authorities investigating alleged corruption in southern Georgia’s Alapaha Judicial Circuit.