A Brunswick judge who runs the state’s largest drug court operation was accused Wednesday of indefinitely detaining defendants who were not allowed to have any contact with their family or their lawyers.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission also said in a court filing it must determine whether Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams gave false statements, engaged in nepotism and favoritism and used rude, abusive and insulting language to those who have appeared before her in court. It also accuses Williams of violating a judicial canon that prohibited her from “using tyrannical partiality” when administering her duties.
The civil charges set up a potential high-profile trial pitting Williams against the judicial commission’s designated prosecutors -- former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears and former state Attorney General Mike Bowers. Both Sears and Bowers are now private attorneys.
Williams’ drug court operation has been under intense scrutiny after the public-radio show “This American Life” gave her a harsh review in March. A number of the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s charges include cases profiled during the broadcast.
Williams won her first election to the bench in 1990. She now oversees drug courts in Glynn, Camden and Wayne counties.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April, Williams defended her use of lengthy jail time for her drug court’s participants.
“I didn’t just decide I was going to be mean to these people,” she said. “It’s all treatment-motivated.”
Williams added, “These people aren’t sitting in jail forever and ever and ever and ever. I’m fair. I’m consistent. I do care.”
The Judicial Qualifications Commission complaint accuses Williams of ordering Lindsey Dills, who had a history of attempted suicide, be placed in indefinite, restrictive detention in the Glynn County jail on Oct. 8, 2008.
Dills had entered the drug court program in March 2005 after pleading guilty to forging two of her parents’ checks for $100.
When Williams ordered Dills to be jailed indefinitely, this meant that Dills was “to have NO contact with anyone while she is incarcerated” and that included no mail, no phone calls and no visitors except for a drug court counselor, the complaint said, citing jail records.
Williams knew Dills had suicidal tendencies, having previously signed an order in 2006 placing her on suicide watch while in custody, the complaint said.
On Dec. 9, 2008, Dills attempted suicide while in solitary and restrictive confinement, the complaint said.
When asked about whether she had held a defendant in restrictive custody or solitary confinement, Williams denied it, the complaint said.
But the complaint also cites an audio recording of Williams’ directive to court officials after she sentenced Dills to indefinite incarceration: “She is not to have any telephone privileges and no one is to contact or visit her except [drug court counselor] Gail Kelly! Nobody! Total restriction!”
Court records indicate that neither Kelly nor Dills’ attorney visited her during the two months she was in custody before she tried to commit suicide, the complaint said.
Last year, the complaint said, when a juvenile probationer observing drug court chuckled during the proceedings, Williams began screaming at the girl and ordered her to be removed from the courtroom in handcuffs. Later that day, the girl was released from custody, the charges said.
On another occasion, when a drug court defendant used the term “baby momma,” Williams ordered that man “be summarily jailed,” the complaint said.
The commission's complaint also questions whether Williams violated another judicial code of conduct that says judges should avoid nepotism and exercise impartiality. It notes that on a number of occasions Williams appointed her daughter to serve as a guardian ad litem in cases before her. She also signed an order prepared by her daughter-in-law in a case before her, the complaint said. She also presided over cases in cases defended by a lawyer who was a law partner with Williams' son, and the two men rented space from Williams in a building she owns, the commission said.
Since 2008, about 20 judges have resigned from the bench while being investigated or accused of misconduct. All but one resigned before standing trial, and the commission has convened just three trials for accused jurists over the past three decades.
During a trial, the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s seven members – two judges, three lawyers and two private citizens – sit as a jury and determine whether misconduct has occurred. It the panel makes such a finding, it then recommends what discipline should be imposed. The Georgia Supreme Court then makes a final ruling.
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