Ethics trial complicates Deal’s re-election bid

Timeline

• November 2010: Republican Nathan Deal is elected governor.

• January-May 2011: The top two staff members of the state ethics commission, director Stacey Kalberman and her deputy, Sherilyn Streicker, open an investigation into the Deal campaign. They meet with federal prosecutors and the FBI concerning their inquiry. The two draw up subpoenas for Deal and others and prepare to serve them.

• June 2011: Kalberman and Streicker are gone from their jobs. Streicker's job is eliminated. Kalberman's salary is cut from $120,000 to $85,000, and she resigns. The chairman of the ethics commission, Patrick Millsaps, says he needed to cut costs.

• August 2011: Holly LaBerge, previously of the Public Defender Standards Council, is hired as the commission's new director.

• June 2012: Kalberman and Streicker file separate whistleblower lawsuits against the state.

• July 23, 2012: The state ethics commission clears Deal of major ethics violations while finding he made "technical defects" in a series of personal financial and campaign finance reports. Deal agrees to pay fees totaling $3,350.

• September 2013: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that two staff members of the state ethics commission accused LaBerge of improperly intervening in the probe of Deal. Staff attorney Elisabeth Murray-Obertein and IT specialist John Hair made the accusations in sworn testimony taken as part of the whistleblower suits. Hair said LaBerge ordered him to destroy documents in the Deal file. Murray-Obertein said LaBerge bragged that Deal "owed" her for making his legal troubles go away. LaBerge has denied those accusations in her own testimony. Deal also has denied any wrongdoing.

• Oct. 10, 2013: The AJC reports that the FBI has interviewed Murray-Obertein.

• Oct. 22, 2013: The state ethics commission votes to have the state auditor investigate the beleaguered agency.

• Dec. 11, 2013: Federal investigators issue subpoenas to at least five current and former ethics commission staff members. They are seeking documents related to the Deal probe to present to a grand jury.

• Dec. 19, 2013: In an effort to restore public confidence, the ethics commission votes unanimously to hire veteran lawyer Robert Constantine to oversee operations at the agency from January to May. One of the commissioners describes the agency as mired in "a legal morass."

• Jan. 6, 2014: Relying on personnel files obtained through an open records request, the AJC reports that Constantine was fired in August 2013 as a judge on the state Board of Workers' Compensation for "failure to meet performance expectations."

• February: Deal and two top aides are subpoenaed by Streicker and could testify in her lawsuit. A Fulton County Superior Court judge hears arguments on whether to allow Kalberman's case to move forward but does not immediately issue a ruling. The commission also cuts ties to Constantine, voting to conclude his services while agreeing to pay the full $16,000 of his original agreement.

• March: A third whistleblower lawsuit is filed by Hair, the ethics commission's former computer specialist. He claims he was fired after refusing orders from LaBerge to alter or remove documents.

• Friday: A Fulton County jury awards $700,000 to Kalberman in her whistleblower suit claiming she was forced out as executive director of the commission for investigating Deal's campaign.

For months, Gov. Nathan Deal and his top aides have claimed his office had little to do with the turmoil wracking Georgia’s ethics commission. But Friday’s legal victory by a former ethics commission head makes that election-year task more difficult.

The jury sided with Stacey Kalberman’s contention that she was forced from her job for investigating Deal’s 2010 campaign. Two other former ethics workers have lodged similar lawsuits, and Deal and his allies face the prospect of a drumbeat of ethics trials in the runup to November.

The governor is trying to distance himself from the fallout even as his two GOP primary challengers and a well-funded Democratic opponent seize on the news as evidence of ethical lapses. Deal spokesman Brian Robinson characterized it as an internal dispute between ethics employees.

And Deal, in an interview shortly before the verdict was announced, said he wasn’t following the case closely and dodged a question on whether he would be disappointed if Kalberman won.

“I think that the judicial system handles issues like this very well, that’s what we have the courts for,” the governor said, adding that he doesn’t think it would have a political impact. “They try to drag me into it; I have no involvement whatsoever.”

The governor, though, was a constant specter throughout the five-day trial. Kalberman’s lawyers claimed Deal had “personal and firsthand” knowledge of her ouster, and in opening statements attorney Kim Worth noted that “serious allegations” against Deal were at play.

“We may not know who the puppet master was,” she said. “What we know is that it happened. What we know is the reason it happened.”

Kalberman sued her former employer, claiming she and a top deputy were forced from their jobs for too vigorously investigating a complaint stemming from Deal’s 2010 campaign. And another former official testified that Kalberman’s successor, Holly LaBerge, boasted of her relationship with the governor.

A jury awarded Kalberman $700,000 after less than three hours of deliberations. Several jurors interviewed after they were released said they were surprised the state even brought the case to trial.

“It was cut and dry. Everybody was unanimous,” said juror David Crochran, a 23-year-old training coordinator.

Allison Pecquet, the jury’s 25-year-old forewoman, was among the jurors who mobbed Kalberman after the trial to congratulate her in the victory. She said it took little discussion for jurors to back Kalberman’s argument, but drawing a line between her firing and the Deal administration was more difficult.

“There’s definitely smoke,” Pecquet said. “But there’s no gun.”

For Deal’s opponents, the jury’s verdict was more than enough ammunition.

Former Dalton Mayor David Pennington, who is trying to outflank Deal on his right in the GOP primary May 20, said the governor’s “ethics flaws and strong-arm, good ol’ boy politics” will undermine him come November.

And Democrat Jason Carter, whose well-financed campaign is gearing up for that contest, said it was proof of a “politically motivated retaliation.”

“It is clear that this governor doesn’t think that the rules apply to him,” he said in a statement.

State School Superintendent John Barge, another challenger in the GOP primary, went the furthest.

“The governor is in the middle of all this mess,” Barge said. “This is yet another example of the reason why Georgia ranks dead last in the nation in public integrity. It is time for the governor to step aside, settle for one term and let us get Georgia back on track.”

Analysts said the timing of the jury verdict could complicate Deal’s re-election run and draw him unwanted national attention that could boost his rivals. Indeed, Carter’s campaign quickly sent out a fundraising appeal tied to the jury’s decision. Television ads likely won’t be far behind.

“The jury didn’t believe the official story. And what’s telling about this is there are clear implications that Kalberman was punished for investigating the governor’s finances,” said Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political scientist. “And that begs the question — what are they so worried about?”