Plaintiffs' lawyers in discrimination suit want DeKalb to pay $2 million in fees

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lawyers representing former DeKalb County parks employees in a discrimination and hostile workplace lawsuit asked a federal judge on Thursday to award them at least $2.02 million in fees and expenses.

The lawyers also are asking U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey to increase the award of legal fees on claims the county hid evidence in the case and denied the plaintiffs their right to a fair trial.

"Defendant's misconduct is deep and it has existed throughout this litigation," the motion said. "Some of the misconduct was only discovered during the trial itself; some will never be known."

DeKalb has already paid a high cost in attorneys fees for defending the case. Through January, the county had paid more than $2.5 million to lawyers defending DeKalb and the individual county defendants in the six-year-old case.

DeKalb spokeswoman Sheila Edwards said the county had no immediate comment on the plaintiffs lawyers' request for fees. DeKalb will file a legal response at the appropriate time, she said.

Atlanta lawyer Rob Remar, who represented the county at trial, said, "We categorically disagree with both the legal and factual assertions in the plaintiffs' brief and ... we will file our brief opposing the motion with the court." 

The request for legal fees comes two weeks after a federal jury awarded two former DeKalb parks employees $185,000 in damages. Jurors found former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones; his former executive assistant, Richard Stogner; former parks director Marilyn Boyd Drew; and the county liable for damages.

The jury ruled in favor of Michael Bryant and John Drake, both former deputy directors of the parks department. The estate of Bryant, who died in February, is being administered by his daughter, Kristi Bryant Yule.

The jury did not award damages to two other plaintiffs -- former parks director Becky Kelley and Herbert Lowe, a former deputy. In closing arguments, lead plaintiffs lawyer Mike Bowers asked jurors to award his clients at least $2 million in damages.

Among the defendants, only DeKalb was found responsible for race discrimination. The county, Jones, Stogner and Drew were found liable for subjecting Bryant and Drake to a hostile work environment.

In their motion, the plaintiffs' lawyers accused the county of trying to bleed their law firm, Balch & Bingham, dry "through a strategy of discovery abuse, frivolous pleadings and general obstruction in an effort to force plaintiffs and their attorneys to abandon the matter. ... Among other things, and as uncovered at trial, files were manipulated and information was withheld from plaintiffs and the court."

During the trial, Duffey scolded the county for withholding evidence, at one point calling its conduct "shameful."

Staff writer Megan Matteucci contributed to this article.