The state's judicial watchdog has dismissed allegations that a North Georgia judge was unethical when she asked a prosecutor last year to bring felony charges against the publisher of a weekly newspaper and the publication's lawyer.
Judge Brenda Weaver of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit said, through her attorney, the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s decision clearing her shed light on what the agency described as a “thinly veiled attempt” to harm her.
“She and I have been confident … that when someone looked at the evidence they would realize she had done nothing wrong and all the charges hurled at her by political enemies over the past couple of years were baseless,” said Robert Ingram, Weaver’s lawyer.
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The commission wrote in its decision that the four complaints filed last year “show a personal dislike of the judge” but no evidence of wrongdoing.
The reasons for the watchdog agency’s decision surprised those who filed the complaints last summer, particularly since none of them were contacted by the commission at the time, they said.
“The JQC’s response appears to be more interested in defending Judge Weaver’s honor than considering facts,” the Georgia Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said in a statement Friday.
“It appears to me they are trying to portray Judge Weaver’s theory of a campaign launched against her,” said Mark Thomason, who was the publisher of the weekly Fannin Focus, which shut down almost a year ago. “No one from the JQC — no investigator, not even a secretary — called me one time during their investigation. They’ve either got Jedi mind tricks and can read my mind or they’ve written a response based on assumptions.”
Last summer, a small-town war between Thomason and Weaver spilled into the national media when he and his attorney Russell Stookey were put in jail for a night on charges stemming from their efforts to get public records on the local Superior Court.
A grand jury in Pickens County, which is part of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit, indicted Stookey and Thomason on charges of attempted identify fraud and identity fraud in regards to a subpoena they secured for cancelled checks on the judges’ office spending accounts. Thomason was also indicted on one count of making a false statement because of the wording of a written request for public records.
The district attorney told the JQC that Weaver had not influenced her decision to seek an indictment, according to the dismissal. Yet, last year in the days after the indictments were returned, Weaver told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution her integrity was besmirched by Thomason’s request for copies of checks drawn on the court’s bank accounts that were “illegally cashed.”
“I don’t react well when my honesty is questioned.” Weaver, a former JQC chairwoman, told the AJC then.
Two weeks after the indictments were returned, District Attorney Alison Sosebee dismissed the charges, at Weaver's urging.
But the controversy wasn’t over.
The FBI investigated, but eventually federal prosecutors decided not to pursue a case.
There continued to be news reports on court spending and stories that laid out evidence Sosebee used to get the indictments.
In August of 2016, Weaver resigned as JQC chair and from the commission, which has since been expanded and reconstituted.
And last August, attorneys for Thomason and Stookey notified Weaver and Pickens County, where they were indicted 14 months earlier, that they intended to sue.
The JQC’s four-page dismissal of the complaints against Weaver describes the case that started the trouble. Thomason had tried to get a court reporter’s audio recordings of a session in March 2015 during which Judge Roger Bradley, now retired, supposedly used a racial slur. Thomason was convinced the written transcript did not accurately reflect what was said.
He sued the court reporter to get the recording and she, in turn, sued him for attacking her credibility. Thomason and the court reporter, Rhonda Stubblefield, eventually withdrew their respective suits.
Stubblefield sued Thomason to recoup her legal expenses even though Weaver had approved reimbursing her for those costs with court funds.
Thomason filed a request under the Georgia Open Records Act for copies of any checks “illegally cashed.” And Stookey secured a subpoena for cancelled checks so he could show in court that Stubblefield had already been reimbursed.
Those events led to the men’s arrests on June 24, 2016, and, ultimately, several JQC complaints against Weaver.
“The complainants, including the (Society for Professional Journalists), have attempted to portray Judge Weaver as mounting some kind of attack on the freedom of the press,” the dismissal said. “From the JQC’s perspective, nothing could be further from the truth. Calling oneself a ‘journalist’ and ‘reporter’ should not be a cover for pursuing personal vendettas.”
It also cited public comments Stookey allegedly made about the matter, including the FBI investigation ended without any charges filed.
“The JQC has grave concern about the statements and conduct by Stookey in this matter. The FBI did investigate the allegations raised by Stookey and Thomason but found no wrongdoing,” the dismissal said.
Stookey said he never filed a complaint with the JQC, but he’s not surprised by the results.
“It’s all politics,” Stookey said. “I don’t know what grave concerns they might have. … They have jurisdiction over judges. They have no jurisdiction over me.”
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