A federal grand jury is apparently looking into the controversy around the decision by judges in the Appalachian Judicial Circuit to pay the personal legal expenses of a contract court reporter.
At least one subpoena has been served on the District Attorney's Office in that three-county circuit for the now-closed file on the local investigation that led to the indictment and jailing of the publisher of a weekly newspaper and his lawyer, several sources told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Chief Judge Brenda Weaver, who presides in Fannin, Gilmer and Pickesn Counties, used almost $16,000 in the office operating account for another judge to reimburse Rhonda Stubblefield for her legal expenses in two matters. Stubblefield hired lawyers to defend her in a lawsuit Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason brought to access her audio recording of a controversial hearing. She also was reimbursed for attorneys’ fees she incurred when she sued Thomason for allegedly defaming her in stories he wrote about his failed efforts to get the record.
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