Costly racial case roils DeKalb

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On one side of the ornate federal courtroom sit the four DeKalb County defendants and their high-priced lawyers, whose meters have been running for six years.

Across the aisle sit the plaintiffs with their lawyers and paralegals, who are collectively billing more than $2,500 an hour.

So far, DeKalb County taxpayers have spent $2.53 million to defend against a long-running discrimination lawsuit, in which three white employees of DeKalb’s parks department claim they were unfairly shunted aside in favor of black employees. A fourth plaintiff, a black man, claims he was punished for opposing the action against the white workers.

The trial concluded on Tuesday afternoon with testimony by former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones, who is a defendant, and the case is expected to go to the jury today.

On top of the millions DeKalb has already spent on the case — and the latest accounting was only through January — it likely will have to spend millions more if the county loses. That’s because the plaintiffs’ lawyers, who include former state Attorney General Mike Bowers and former DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, will ask the court to order the county to pay their fees if their side prevails — in addition to any damages awarded to the plaintiffs.

On Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from Jones and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, whom Jones is trying to unseat in the upcoming Democratic primary for Congress. Johnson, a former DeKalb County commissioner, was called by Jones’ lawyer to rebut testimony by plaintiff Becky Kelley, the former county parks director.

On the stand, Jones said he never orchestrated a scheme to get rid of white managers and replace them with blacks. “I have never said that to anybody,” he calmly told jurors. When asked whether he ever asked any employee to discriminate or create a hostile work environment, Jones said resolutely, “I have never done that with any employee at any time, ever.”

The prolonged litigation has been bitterly contested by both sides. The frustration of plaintiffs’ lawyers, who have accused the county of withholding evidence, boiled over Tuesday when they filed an extraordinary motion to strike the county’s defenses, which would leave the jurors with nothing to do but decide how much the county must pay in damages.

U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey, who has frequently chided the county during the trial for not being more forthcoming, said he would hear arguments on the motion this morning. “This has been the most troubling matter I have ever dealt with ... bar none,” Duffey said. “The fact it was a public entity only magnifies it for me.”

During the trial, plaintiffs’ attorneys have argued that top county officials orchestrated a scheme to force out white managers and replace them with blacks. According to testimony, the number of higher-paid black officials in DeKalb increased by 82 percent from the time Jones took office in January 2001 to August 2005, while the number of higher-paid white officials declined by about 6 percent during the same period.

On the defense side, the county’s lead attorney, Rob Remar, and Jones’ lawyer, Brent Wilson, have taken every opportunity to remind jurors that Jones promoted numerous white employees to high office in the county government.

When Jones took office, Becky Kelley had worked for DeKalb’s parks department for 25 years and was its director beginning in 1992. She testified that almost from the outset Jones was hostile toward her. During one meeting in his office, she told jurors, Jones jumped out of his chair and stepped toward her.

“I was very afraid and concerned,” Kelley, who is now the director of state parks and historic sites, told the jury.

Jones testified Tuesday that he was merely ending the meeting and walking to his door to ask about his next appointment.

She said she was later told by Jones’ executive assistant, Richard Stogner, that she did not understand “the geopolitical situation” in DeKalb and that she was unable to work with powerful black men. Even though Kelley got a stellar job review, she said she believed she was losing her authority to her new black deputy director.

In February 2002, Jones reassigned Kelley to work exclusively on the county’s green space program. In that job, Kelley testified, she did little more than color maps to identify the best land the county could buy. She took a job offer from the state later that year.

“The conditions at DeKalb were just unbearable,” she testified. “I couldn’t stay there.”

But Stogner testified that the county moved Kelley out of her director’s job because she was best-suited to handle the green space assignment, not because of her race.

“This was going to be one of the most important parts of Vernon Jones’ administration,” Stogner said.

Stogner told jurors that when Jones campaigned for CEO he heard complaints about the lack of good parks and recreation venues in predominantly black south DeKalb. When a special election was called to replace the assassinated Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, the administration used the opportunity to schedule a $125 million bond referendum to buy green space and improve county parks.

After the referendum was approved, Stogner looked at a map of county precincts and saw that none of them north of LaVista Road voted in favor. “It showed that the bond referendum was passed by south DeKalb,” he said, noting that north DeKalb already had many good parks and recreation facilities.

Stogner said this is what he was referring to when he told Kelley she needed to consider the changing geopolitical nature of the county.

Stogner turned speechless, however, when Bowers presented him documents showing how Marilyn Boyd Drew, who was Kelley’s deputy director, was named parks director. Bowers handed Stogner one document that showed the county was taking applications for the new director’s job between Feb. 25 and March 8 of 2002. He then handed Stogner another document that showed Drew, a defendant in the case, was awarded the job on March 4 — while the application process was still open.

Former parks deputy director Michael Bryant, another white plaintiff in the case, died of liver disease on Feb. 10 and is being represented by his daughter Kristi Bryant Yule.

Bryant, who worked for local governments for three decades, joined DeKalb’s parks department in 2000. But he soon felt as if he was being pushed out, his daughter said, relegated to the department’s satellite office in Tucker in a converted schoolroom. According to testimony, Bryant was unable to get a job review because Drew misplaced his performance plan under a credenza in her office. Drew testified Tuesday she never discriminated against anyone.

The changes tormented her father, Yule told jurors, wiping away tears. After Bryant stopped working in DeKalb in 2007, he started drinking and broke down physically and mentally, Yule said. Without health insurance, he became financially devastated.

Key participants

Vernon Jones, defendant

Jones, who served two terms, was the county’s first black CEO. He lost in a runoff for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and this year hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson in the Democratic primary for the 4th District congressional seat.

Hank Johnson, witness

They’re opponents on the campaign trail, but Johnson and Jones are on the same side in the discrimination case. Johnson is not a defendant, but as a former county commissioner has testified for the defense. Johnson forced Cynthia McKinney into a runoff for her congressional seat in 2006 and then defeated her.

Mike Bowers, 
lead plaintiffs’ lawyer

Bowers won four terms as state attorney general from 1981 to 1997. He resigned in 1997, switched to the Republican Party and made an unsuccessful run for governor, losing to Guy Milner in the primary in 1998. Bowers has been in lucrative private practice with the firm Balch & Bingham since that time.

J. Tom Morgan, plaintiffs’ lawyer

Morgan won three terms as district attorney in DeKalb, from 1992 to 2004, and developed a reputation as an expert in child-abuse prosecution and in child advocacy. Morgan and Bowers both became partners in the Balch firm, but Morgan left the firm in 2007 to open his own practice in Decatur.

Richard Stogner, defendant

Stogner has been a power player in Atlanta politics for decades. He retired last year as executive assistant in DeKalb. He also was a key figure in the Atlanta Olympics organization and served in the administrations of Mayors Ivan Allen, Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young.

Becky Kelley, plaintiff

Kelley started her career running a rec center for the DeKalb parks department, eventually rising to be the department’s director in 1992. She served for a time as parks bond and green space administrator before leaving in 2002 to become director of Georgia’s state parks and historic sites. She remains there today.