Mayor Kasim Reed named a new public defender for Atlanta Municipal Court just a day after two civil rights groups questioned the reasons for replacing the interim director of that office.
Kenneth Days, who was a top deputy to interim director Rosalie Joy, was announced for the post Tuesday with just weeks remaining in Reed’s term.
Joy had been interim director for seven years. She was also one of three finalists for the permanent chief that the Atlanta Judicial Commission sent to the mayor, according to Seth Kirschenbaum , a member of the panel.
On Monday, the mayor's office received a letter from the Southern Center for Human Rights and Civil Rights Corps, complaining about Atlanta municipal court practices that included jailing low-level offenders often because they could not afford to post bonds. They also included in the letter their concern about a "behind-closed-doors push to replace" Joy in "retaliation" for challenging judges about those practices.
Last month, 18 organizations, including the Southern Center, also wrote the mayor about the push to oust Joy.
“It has come to our attention that Mayor Reed’s decision to replace Ms. Joy has likely been influenced by several judges who are not in favor of a public defender who zealously advocates for her clients and their liberty,” said the Oct. 11 letter.
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In that letter, the groups contended the move to replace Joy began in March after an attorney on her staff filed a superior court petition when a municipal court judge wouldn’t hear her request for bond from 10 indigent men.
By the time the 18 groups released to the media its “Dear Atlanta” letter, Joy’s attorney had already asked the city to discuss the effort to remove her.
“No action to name a permanent director occurred until Mrs. Joy stood up to abuse and wasteful actions by the Municipal Court bench,” attorney Travis Foust wrote in an Aug. 14 letter to the mayor. “This leads to the conclusion that the decision to remove Mrs. Joy gives rise to a viable Georgia Whistleblower Act claim.”
He also wrote that Joy knew that the judges had already decided she should be replaced and “making her permanent appointment to the director position impossible.”
Foust said Tuesday he “never received any substantive response to that original letter.”
He declined to comment on the decision to pick someone else for the position, but noted that Joy was still an employee of the office.
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A spokesman for the municipal court judges referred all questions about the appointment to the mayor’s office.
“Mayor Reed intends to work until the last minute of the last day he is in office. He was elected to eight years in office, not seven and a half,” a spokesperson for Reed said in an email Tuesday. “Personnel decisions are his to make until the next mayor assumes office.”
Reed said in the announcement on Tuesday that Days had “demonstrated a longstanding commitment to public service and to providing the highest level of legal support to vulnerable families and individuals.”
Days, who has been with the Public Defender’s Office since 2008, said in that same news release, that he believes the “Office of the Public Defender can and must play a vital role in protecting low-income individuals, and helping them establish healthy, meaningful and stable lives.”
Still, Sarah Geraghty, managing attorney with the Southern Center, was surprised by the announcement.
Her group is closely examining the appointment, Geraghty said Tuesday, “especially in light of the systemic constitutional violations occurring in that court. It is imperative that Atlantans who rely on the public defender have a zealous advocate.”
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