Cobb superior court clerk suspended while facing felony charges

If convicted of a felony, Georgia law dictates that Taylor would be removed from office.

Taylor’s attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, declined to comment on the case following his client’s suspension.

She was indicted last month by the Georgia attorney general on charges alleging she violated her oath of office and instructed an employee to destroy public documents in 2022 instead of handing them over in response to an open records request from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Members of the commission — former Justice Keith Blackwell, Banks County Superior Court Clerk Tim Harper and Dodge County Superior Court Clerk Rhett Walker — determined last month’s indictment “does relate to and adversely affect the administration of the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Cobb County such that the rights and interests of the public are adversely affected.”

Superior Court Administrator Christopher Hansard referred questions about who will run the office during the suspension to the new chief deputy clerk, Cherise Wesley-Ornelas, who was appointed Friday morning by Taylor to serve in her absence.

Superior court clerks are elected constitutional officers and are independent of county government authority. After a controversial first term in office, Taylor sailed to reelection in 2024.

The AJC reported in November 2022 about Taylor taking passport processing fees as personal income, which is legal in Georgia and resulted in more than $425,000 of additional income in the two years after she was first elected.

The AJC submitted requests under the Georgia Open Records Act for emails, financial records and other documents to further that reporting. A whistleblower employee from her office then came forward through an attorney alleging Taylor had ordered her to delete records related to those fees.

The grand jury indictment issued July 31 alleges Taylor directed her employee “to delete a digital folder on the employee’s work computer titled ‘Passport’ which contained accounting records” and an email with the subject line “Expedited Passport Revenue Analysis.”

Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charges and waived her formal arraignment, which was originally scheduled for next Tuesday.

Her suspension is immediate and will remain in effect until her charges are resolved or until her elected term ends Jan. 1, 2029 — whichever comes first — according to the governor’s order.