Gwinnett official’s attorney: Ethics board action a ‘political lynching’

The ethics board determing the fate of Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter is akin to a "political lynching," Hunter's attorney wrote in a colorful letter to a local judge Wednesday afternoon.

The letter from Dwight Thomas, who was hired to represent Hunter less than 24 hours before Wednesday's long-scheduled ethics board hearing,  was sent to Superior Court Judge Melodie Snell Conner. It asks Conner for a hearing on the lawsuit Thomas filed challenging the constitutionality of the ethics board.

Neither that suit nor an injunction Thomas filed to try and stop Wednesday’s hearing were considered before the panel began its meeting. The ethics board voted to carry on with its proceedings.

“The Mob, masquerading as an Ethics Board, was able to get a rope around my client’s neck and put him in the saddle,” Thomas wrote in his letter. “However, the hangman has not given the signal to spank the horse so my client can be politically lynched. My client turned to the Court System seeking emergency relief but justice was somewhere hiding in the bushes not willing to step forward and stop the hanging.”

The ethics complaint against Hunter was filed Feb. 6, about three weeks after the commissioner's Facebook post calling U.S. Rep. John Lewis a "racist pig" was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The ethics board assembled to investigate the complaint held its final hearing Wednesday. It reached a decision on whether the complaint should be upheld but has not yet announced what that decision is. It will do so at a meeting scheduled for next week.

If the complaint is sustained, the stiffest penalty the ethics board could recommend is public reprimand.

Thomas recently won a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of DeKalb County's ethics board. His suit in Gwinnett County makes a similar argument, claiming that its illegal for ethics board appointments to be made by private organizations.

A representative from Conner’s office told The AJC that the suit will not be considered until Monday, when the judge returns from out of town. Thomas’ letter asks for a hearing to be held Wednesday.

“I humbly await your response and look forward to my client’s day in a real court of law and not a star chambered kangaroo posse hanging,” Thomas wrote.