Judicial candidate scrutinized for possible campaign ethics violation

A state commission that investigates complaints of judicial misconduct is looking into an allegation that a candidate for State Court judge in Gwinnett County stole her opponents' campaign signs.

Pam Britt, who won the second-highest percentage of Tuesday's vote (27 percent) and is headed for an Aug. 21 runoff with Emily J. Brantley (28 percent), said Thursday she had responded to an inquiry by the Judicial Qualifications Commission regarding sign theft. She did not know whether the inquiry is still pending or closed.

It's not clear who made the complaint. According to state law, records related to JQC complaints are not considered open records unless they result in a public action.

The director of the JQC, Jeff Davis, said he could not comment about Britt.

He said judicial candidates who are lawyers are bound by the code of judicial conduct and can be disciplined for unethical or illegal campaign activities by the JQC (if they are elected) or the State Bar of Georgia (if they are not elected).

Britt said she has run an honest campaign and strongly denied stealing any signs. She said she did remove two signs from a campaign supporter's property at their request about five weeks ago, because other candidates did not have permission to place signs there.

Britt said one of the signs was broken, laying in the street and had been run over by cars. She said she threw the sign, which was for Richard T. Winegarden, in the trash. Britt said she returned the other sign, which looked reusable, to its owner, Greg Lundy.

"The timing on this being the week of the election is suspicious," Britt said. "I think it's an attack on my character, and obviously I'm upset by it."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution attempted to contact the other four primary candidates for State Court Thursday — Brantley, Winegarden, Lundy and Norman Cuadra — but only Winegarden returned calls seeking comment.

When informed of the investigation, Winegarden declined to discuss the situation. "The JQC investigation is confidential, so I don't think I should be talking about it," he said.

Sign-stealing is a common complaint during election season, but it's difficult to prove without witnesses or photographs, Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said.

"It's just not something you expect in a judicial race — it's more often city councils, county commission, state House," Conway said.