Gwinnett’s ethics board set a new date for the key hearing in its investigation into a complaint against county Commissioner Marlene Fosque.
The evidentiary hearing — in which Fosque's attorney and D.A. King, who filed the complaint, will present evidence and testimony — is now scheduled for Jan. 23. The ethics board had previously penciled in another date later this month.
Ethics board chairman David Will said during a Monday morning meeting that the move was purely logistical.
King, the controversial founder of an anti-illegal immigration group called the Dustin Inman Society, filed his complaint against Fosque in August.
A month earlier, King had participated in a forum that Fosque organized to discuss the Gwinnett sheriff's participation in a divisive federal immigration enforcement program known as 287(g). Fosque later denounced King as "someone known for spewing hatred and bigotry and racism."
King's subsequent ethics complaint accuses Fosque of defamation. It also accuses Fosque of violating six tenets of Gwinnett's ethics ordinance.
In a formal response filed last month, Fosque attorney Steve Reilly argued that Fosque was exercising free speech and that King is a public figure, meaning that he must prove Fosque's comments were made with "reckless disregard for the truth."
King, who is representing himself, admitted Monday that defamation is hard to prove but said he and his organization had been “slimed.”
“Whether or not we’re successful with quote-unquote a formal definition of defamation,” King said, “I’m confident that the additional counts will be found valid.”
Following January’s evidentiary hearing, the ethics board will hold another meeting to deliberate and reach a decision about the complaint and whether to recommend punishment for Fosque.
The ethics board would then pass its recommendation on to Fosque’s colleagues on the Board of Commissioners, with whom the final decision rests.
The stiffest punishment Fosque could receive is a public reprimand.
