Embattled Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter hired an attorney Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the scheduled final hearing in the ethics case against him.
Hunter, who had previously declined to participate in the ethics process but had been subpoenaed to testify during Wednesday morning's hearing, hired Dwight Thomas to represent him. Thomas represented ex-DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton in a recent lawsuit that successfully argued that that county's board of ethics was unconstitutional because it used appointments from outside, non-elected groups.
Gwinnett also uses such appointments to fill some of its ethics board posts.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Thomas had filed no legal challenge to Gwinnett ethics board. David Will, the chairman of the ethics board, said Thomas had asked for Wednesday morning’s hearing to be continued.
That proposal will be considered when the board gathers at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday for the hearing, Will said.
The ethics complaint against Hunter was filed Feb. 6, about three weeks after the Republican commissioner wrote a Facebook post calling U.S. Rep. John Lewis a "racist pig" and referring to Democrats as "Demonrats" and a "bunch of idiots."
The complaint, filed on behalf of Atlanta resident Nancie Turner, argues that the Lewis post and several others violate at least three parts of Gwinnett County’s 2011 ethics ordinance, which was written primarily to target shady land deals and other conflicts of interest.
The code sections referenced in the complaint against Hunter include one that urges county officials to “never engage in conduct which is unbecoming to a member or which constitutes a breach of public trust.”
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