Multiple agencies are investigating a Fayette County sexual assault case in which a state Court of Appeals judge reversed a guilty verdict and ordered a new trial, District Attorney Scott Ballard said Tuesday.
The investigations involve Judge Christopher McFadden, a member of the appeals court who wanted to get experience as a trial judge. During the 2012 trial, the first one McFadden ever presided over, a jury found William Jeffrey Dumas guilty of raping and sodomizing a 24-year-old woman with Down syndrome.
But in February, McFadden threw out the convictions, granting Dumas’ request for a new trial. The ruling enraged the district attorney’s office, which has since launched an investigation into whether proper protocols were followed when McFadden was appointed to the case, Ballard said. The Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees judicial conduct, is also investigating the matter, he said.
“We’re pooling our resources,” Ballard said. “There have been many different reasons presented to us that raise the question of whether the appointment of Judge McFadden to this case was inappropriate.”
On Tuesday, Jeff Davis, executive director of the judicial watchdog, said, “Our rules of confidentiality do not permit the commission to confirm or deny any investigation of any judge.”
McFadden said he could not talk about the case. “Those matters relate to the legal correctness of my decision,” he said, “so the code of judicial conduct prohibits me from commenting.”
After the trial, McFadden sentenced Dumas to 25 years in prison. But in February, after Dumas’ lawyer filed a motion for a new trial, McFadden threw out the convictions. That set off a storm of controversy.
In his 15-page order, McFadden said there was enough evidence to sustain Dumas’ convictions. But he also said he had doubts. These included his impression that the woman with Down syndrome had not behaved like a sexual assault victim and that Dumas had not behaved like a sexual predator.
After the ruling, the district attorney’s office asked McFadden to recuse himself from any further involvement in the case, a request McFadden initially denied.
Disability rights groups then protested the ruling. The Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta, for example, urged its members to ask the Judicial Qualifications Commission to review McFadden’s conduct.
On Feb. 28, McFadden resigned his appointment as a trial judge in Fayette County, resulting in another judge being appointed to Dumas’ case. Fayette prosecutors are asking the new judge to reconsider McFadden’s decision to grant Dumas a new trial, Ballard said.
In the meantime, the district attorney’s office is looking into whether there were any improper relationships in the Dumas case, Ballard said, declining to provide any more specifics on this probe. He also said agencies were investigating the circumstances behind McFadden’s appointment.
Before Dumas’ trial, Ballard said, he had been told that McFadden wanted to preside as a trial judge to see what it was like. For this reason, Ballard was surprised that the Sept. 19, 2012, order appointing McFadden to the Dumas case said “the business of the court requires the temporary assistance of an additional judge.”
Ballard said he was even more confused by this justification because Christopher Edwards, the circuit’s chief judge, sat in the courtroom gallery during much of the Dumas trial.
Edwards, when contacted Tuesday, said he could not comment on the case.
“We have high expectations of judges and expect them to behave a certain way,” Ballard said. “We’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. We’re also trying to find out what the truth is.”
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