Summing up ruling to oust judge: Liar, liar! Robe’s on fire!
A judicial watchdog group is calling for Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams to be removed from office, following a long and bitter legal battle.
The state Judicial Qualifications Commission hearing panel last week concluded she was unfit for office, finding that she made serious transgressions, although most of them by themselves might not have been a career killer.
First, she had a deputy handcuff and detain a young woman, a witness in a family dispute, because her behavior bugged the judge. The panel called it “false imprisonment,” which is real bad, but a judge in Athens pulled a similar stunt and simply got off with a reprimand.
Second, the JQC found she had an “ex parte” discussion with a lawyer and sorority sister, and promised to “have your back.” Bad, once again, but other judges have had meetings without the opposing lawyer present and haven’t lost their jobs.
Third, the panel determined she used her position as judge to try to help out her uncle in a case in another court. Again, not good, but judges have survived worse charges.
And she was waaaay behind making rulings in numerous cases and then still failed to resolve several of them after getting notice from the JQC. The panel noted that her failures to make a ruling ruined one man’s finances, making him “borderline homeless.” Another nonruling in a child-support dispute caused “severe financial strain” on a mother for nearly three years.
Again, judges are often overwhelmed and late in their rulings and the JQC even noted that she was better than some judges in that regard.
What the judicial watchdogs had a problem with was Judge Williams’ inability to tell the truth.
The JQC recommendations, which still must go to the state Supreme Court for final determination, brings to mind the old credo forever tied to Watergate: “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.”
In fact, the JQC had to reach for a thesaurus to come up with synonyms for “lying” in this case.
Here’s some: Strains credibility. Dishonesty. Not forthright. Disingenuous. Untruthful. Directly conflicts with what she previously said. Denies ... then admits. Shifting story. Evolving and evasive testimony. False testimony. Evasive and deceitful.
And, “We had to work very hard to ask exactly the right question in precisely the right way to get at the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That is unfortunate.”
Finally, near the end of a 66-page shellacking, the panel — made of Judge Alison T. Burleson from Middle Georgia, longtime JQC member Richard Hyde and former DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez — summed up their frustration: “Her stunning lack of candor to us was disappointing (if not unsettling), to say the least, as we hold judges to a higher standard.
“Given the level of untruthful testimony Judge Williams offered throughout, we are left with little option but to seek the ultimate sanction of removal. A judge (who) cannot be trusted to tell the truth cannot be trusted to remain in office.”
Williams remains on the bench until the Supreme Court rules whether she should stay or go.
I went by her courtroom Tuesday morning but she was not holding court. Her attorneys, Gabe Banks and Jamala McFadden, said in a statement that their client disagrees with the JQC’s conclusions and vows to challenge the punishment before the high court.
“Removal is the most severe penalty that can be levied against a judge and is inconsistent with the JQC’s determinations in other cases,” they said, adding that “removal would be against the will of the voters and a loss to the citizens of Fulton County.”
Williams beat sitting Fulton Judge Rebecca Rieder in 2020 and then won again in 2024 with no opposition.
Beating against an incumbent judge is hard to do, and Williams’ lawyers argued that two members of the JQC’s investigative team that originally brought the charges against her supported Rieder in 2020 and had contributed to the opponents’ campaign.
The JQC hearing panel dismissed that motion. Also, Williams’ lawyers argued a 2022 decision by the JQC concerning the (mis)behavior of Judge Eric Norris of Athens.
In that case, the judge was angry at a young bail bondsman, summoned to his office, made it pretty clear he couldn’t leave (an armed deputy stood by the door) and then read him the riot act, implying the man’s career might be toast.
One could even call that false imprisonment, which under Georgia code is a felony.
The JQC hearing panel also found the Athens’ judge’s testimony “inconsistent and contradicted by other evidence.”
He ended up with a reprimand.
The JQC panel in the Williams’ case noted there were similarities, although Norris did not have his whipping boy handcuffed or tossed in a holding cell.
A reading of the most recent case is that Williams, taken as a whole, especially the misremembering and serial prevaricating, is unfit to sit on the bench.
I spoke with Lester Tate, an attorney who once chaired the JQC and now represents judges in a pickle.
“What the panel looks at, is this someone trying their best? Or will we be back in this situation,” Tate said, later adding, “The standards (of judicial rules) are a bit of a Rorschach test. You look at the inkblot and some see an angel and some see a vulture.”
The judicial panel apparently saw someone who doesn’t have the mettle to be a judge.
About the Author
Bill Torpy, who writes about metro Atlanta for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, joined the newspaper in 1990.
