Prosecutors seek sanctions against Ellis’ defense team
DeKalb County prosecutors are asking a judge to impose unspecified sanctions against the lawyers defending suspended CEO Burrell Ellis for allegedly misleading the court.
Prosecutors accused Ellis’ legal team of lodging, without evidence to back them up, “slanderous and malicious claims.”
The strongly worded court motions also opposed a request by Ellis’ lawyers to have the GBI examine District Attorney Robert James’ computer to determine whether prosecutors conducted an illegal investigation and then tried to cover it up.
The request is”nothing more than a publicity stunt,” one motion said. “It is just another reprehensible and feeble attempt to shift the public’s focus off of the serious allegations against defendant Ellis to whatever frivolous and false allegations he and his defense team can make up against the very office seeking truth and justice on behalf of the citizens of DeKalb County.”
Ellis faces 14 felonies for allegedly shaking down county vendors for campaign contributions and punishing those who did not give. He has denied wrongdoing.
Ellis’ lead lawyer, Craig Gillen, declined comment Monday.
In prior court filings, Ellis’ lawyers asked Superior Court Judge Courtney Johnson to dismiss the case against the suspended CEO or disqualify the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office from the case.
During a hearing in January, Ellis’ lawyers called Don Geary, the former chief assistant DeKalb district attorney, to the witness stand. Geary testified he had raised concerns with James about the legality of a secretly captured video recording of Ellis.
The August 2012 video was captured by a camera pen worn by purchasing director Kelvin Walton, who was working undercover for the prosecution. Geary testified James showed him a snippet of the video on James’ office computer. Geary said he became alarmed when James told him the video was captured without Ellis’ consent and without a court order or search warrant. Because Ellis was in a private place and did not consent to the video, Geary said, prosecutors may have committed one or two felonies.
James told him there were “more than a few” of these videos, Geary testified. James, who also took the stand, testified that he never showed Geary a video and said Geary never expressed a concern that a video was captured illegally. A number of prosecution witnesses also testified that there was only a single secret video taken of Ellis.
Ellis’ lawyers asked Johnson to let the GBI, as a “neutral party,” conduct a forensic examination of James’ computer to get to the bottom of the matter.
In another motion, also filed Friday, DeKalb prosecutors said the video was taken inside the CEO’s office in a public building owned and funded by taxpayers. For these reasons, Ellis had no expectation of privacy and could be secretly videotaped, the motion said.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
