The Georgia Supreme Court said Tuesday that a one-time inmate could sue a former Fulton County Superior Court clerk and a staffer because an error by that office caused him to stay in prison 22 months too long.
Calvin McGee was sent to prison for seven years after twice contacting his victims after being convicted on two counts of molesting a child in 1993, violating a previous sentence of eight years' probation. But later, after noting that McGee had already served 25 months, the judge amended the original sentencing order, moving McGee's release date from June 2003 to May 2001.
But former Clerk Juanita Hicks and Geneva Blanton, who was on Hicks’ staff, did not forward that order to the Department of Corrections, filing it instead.
Consequently, McGee sued. But Hicks and Blanton claimed they were protected by sovereign immunity, a doctrine that says government workers cannot be held legally responsible for mistakes made while doing their duties.
Hicks and Blanton also tried to blame the mistake on the sentencing judge. They argued that the judge did not include a “disposition form” when the order was amended and there was no specific order directing the clerk to forward the sentencing document to the Department of Corrections.
The justices said, however, that Hicks or Blanton should have read the order and that should have led them to file it with the Department of Corrections. The justices also said Blanton was not properly trained.
The high court said McGee’s lawsuit can now move forward.
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