A top prosecutor in the Clayton County District Attorney’s Office said he was fired this week after the district attorney accused him of planning to run against her in a future election.
Jason Green was third-in-command in the DA’s office until Monday, when District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson called him into her office and confronted him for the second time this month about rumors she’d heard about him running for her job in the 2016 election. She specifically questioned Green about meeting with Sheriff Victor Hill about his plans to run for office. Graham Lawson had launched a special grand jury investigation against Hill, who was indicted on corruption charges. A jury acquitted Hill last year.
“I told her no such meeting had taken place,” said Green, who earned more than $90,000 a year as executive chief assistant district attorney. “I have talked to Victor Hill before, as you would imagine, not under the subject she was talking about. She told me she did not believe me, and that I was terminated immediately.”
Graham Lawson declined to talk about the issue, saying it’s a personnel matter.
The 39-year-old Green was one of Graham Lawson’s top prosecutors for violent crimes.
He has repeatedly denied plans to run for office while working for the DA, noting that he’d have to live in the county in order to run. Green does not live in Clayton, and the election is two years away.
“I hadn’t formed a campaign, solicited contributions or formed a team to run for office — nothing people would associate with (formally) running for office,” Green said.
Green gave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a copy of his “separation notice,” which said “Mr. Green was untruthful when questioned about an event by the District Attorney.”
Green, who had been with the office five years, said Graham Lawson also made veiled threats against his wife, who works in the courthouse. Graham Lawson told Green that she’d heard that his wife was telling people he was planning to run against her.
Green is puzzled by his dismissal considering other members of the staff have run for office with Graham Lawson’s blessing. Green cited DA office employee John Antoine, who ran against Hill in 2012.
“She knew that and openly supported him,” Green said.
In a separate but related matter, Earl Randall, the chief of staff when Jewel Scott was DA, successfully prevailed last year in a civil suit against his former boss’ husband. Randall said Lee Scott caused him to be fired from his job in 2007 after he announced plans to run against Lee Scott for the Clayton County commission chairman post. The jury awarded Randall more than $85,000.
Green said he does not plan to sue, but he may consider running for office now.
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