Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has been named a special prosecutor to open a criminal investigation of Amanda Williams, who stepped down early this month as chief Superior Court judge in Brunswick.
State Attorney General Sam Olens made the appointment Monday, after Jackie L. Johnson, district attorney of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, recused herself from any criminal probe.
Williams stepped down after the Judicial Qualifications Commission issued ethics charges against her, including allegations she locked up criminal defendants indefinitely and made false statements. She agreed to never again seek or hold judicial office.
In a Nov. 21 letter to Olens, Johnson said she was recusing herself because some of the allegations raised by the judicial commission involve cases in which the District Attorney's office was a party. "It also appears from the complaint that members of the District Attorney's staff could be potential witnesses in any future proceedings arising from the complaint," she wrote.
Johnson also noted that one of the allegations is that Williams made false statements to the commission. Making false statements is a felony under Georgia law.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Howard said it was his understanding that the alleged improprieties against Williams occurred in both Brunswick and Fulton County. He also said he would launch "an immediate investigation" into the matters.
"Based upon the Fulton County allegations, I was asked by Attorney General Sam Olens to handle the potential prosecution of the alleged Brunswick activities as well," he said. "At this point, I do not know the particulars of either set of circumstances; therefore, I am unable to offer comment on the matter."
Williams has declined to comment on the commission's allegations against her.
When she announced in December that she was stepping down from the bench on Jan. 2, she avoided a potentially explosive trial before the judicial commission, which had appointed former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears and former state Attorney General Mike Bowers to prosecute the case against her.
Williams, chief judge of the five-county Brunswick circuit, first won election to the Superior Court bench in 1990. She has presided over Glynn County's drug court for more than a dozen years and the operation was expanded to include participants from Camden and Wayne counties, making it the largest drug court in the state.
Williams came under intense scrutiny early this year when the public radio show, "This American Life, " broadcast "Very Tough Love, " a segment that gave a harsh review of her drug court.
According to the commission's charges, Williams jailed a drug court participant, who had previously been flagged for having suicidal tendencies, for an open-ended term of detention and ordered her to be placed on "total restriction, " meaning no access to her family or her lawyer. Two months later, the woman attempted suicide in the Glynn County jail, the charges said.
The complaint also said Williams "summarily jailed" a drug court participant because he used the term "baby momma" when he asked to be excused from a Saturday session to attend a family function. Last year, when a group of juvenile probationers appeared in her drug court, Williams began screaming at one girl because she was chuckling in court. When the girl began to sob, Williams ordered her removed and placed in handcuffs, the complaint said.
The commission also accused Williams of giving favorable treatment to the nephew of a Brunswick lawyer. She was also accused of allowed the Brunswick lawyer who was defending her before the judicial commission to continue to represent individuals with cases before her.
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