Journalist and Lawyer Sue Chief Judge Over 2016 Indictment
The lawsuit claims Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit sought their arrest and indictment after they tried to get records for her office's operating account.
February 27, 2018 at 01:20 PM
4 minute read
- Brenda S. Weaver (Photo: Rebecca Breyer/ALM)
A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the chief judge of Georgia's Appalachian Judicial Circuit claims she pressured the district attorney to initiate “a baseless criminal prosecution” against a North Georgia journalist and his lawyer.
The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Gainesville by Mark Thomason, publisher of the now-defunct Fannin Focus, and Thomason's Hiawassee lawyer, Russell Stookey. It contends that Judge Brenda Weaver and District Attorney Alison Sosebee “participated in a plan to initiate a criminal prosecution against Thomason and Stookey without regard to whether there was probable cause” to do so.
The plan, according to the suit, “included conducting parallel investigations motivated by animus and for the purposes of retaliation” against Thomason and Stookey. Weaver and Sosebee, the suit claimed, “shared an understanding” that the investigation would result in criminal charges. The suit also alleges that Weaver made false statements to Sosebee.
Thomason and Stookey were indicted by an Appalachian Circuit grand jury on June 24, 2016, on felony charges stemming from Stookey's issuance of two civil subpoenas and Thomason's public records request for bank records associated with Weaver's government operating fund. They were charged with identity fraud and making a false statement to a public official. Weaver was listed on the indictment as the victim and testified before the grand jury.
A month later, at Weaver's request, Sosebee dismissed the charges. At the time, Weaver acknowledged that she conducted her own investigation that likely confused the district attorney's staff in their attempts “to objectively investigate the case.”
Atlanta attorneys Gerry Weber and Jeff Filipovits have partnered with South Carolina attorney Joshua Kendrick of Greenville, South Carolina, firm Kendrick & Leonard to represent Thomason and Stookey.
Neither Weaver nor Marietta attorney Robert Ingram, who defended her when she was under investigation for judicial ethics violations associated with the indictment of Thomason and Stookey, responded to requests for comment Tuesday. Sosebee declined to comment.
The lawsuit claims Weaver orchestrated a “retaliatory and malicious prosecution” after becoming “enraged and personally offended” by Thomason's public records request. Weaver, the suit said, “sought revenge on Thomason and Stookey as a result of their attempts to investigate whether she had misappropriated funds.”
The lawsuit also claims that, when Weaver launched her own investigation of Thomason, she quickly learned from bank employees that some county checks that should have been deposited had been cashed instead.
Weaver, according to the lawsuit, also falsely told Sosebee she was never notified that Stookey subpoenaed her office's bank account records. But the suit claims Stookey subpoenaed the banks and then informed Weaver's office.
The lawsuit also claims Weaver gave the district attorney a list of individuals to question under oath because they were “out to get her.” Weaver also directed her law clerk to research any criminal charges that could be brought against Thomason and Stookey, according to the suit, then forwarded information to Sosebee.
Weaver used government time and resources to conduct the personal investigation, communicated her demands to Sosebee and used her position as a judge and an elected official to improperly influence the DA, the lawsuit alleges.
Weaver was chair of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission at the time. Following the indictment, Thomason, Stookey and multiple news organizations filed formal complaints accusing Weaver of violating the state Code of Judicial Conduct, and Weaver resigned from the JQC.
But last year, the JQC dismissed the complaints, branding them and their authors as “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to enlist the JQC in their fixation upon harming Judge Weaver.”
On Tuesday, Thomason told the Daily Report the JQC never talked to him or Stookey prior to issuing its ruling.
“They can only sugarcoat things and present them to public in a slanted view for so long before the truth has to be exposed,” he said. “Ultimately, the truth always comes out.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllMovie Theater Agrees to Pay Former Employee $137K in EEOC Discrimination Settlement
3 minute readSettlement Reached in Transgender Discrimination Complaint Against Medical Provider
4 minute readStanding to Sue? 3rd-Party Discrimination Dispute Lands Before Justices
7 minute readFormer UPS Workers Lodge Discrimination Suit for 'Systemic Racial Bias' in Workplace Culture
Trending Stories
- 1Call for Nominations: The Recorder and Law.com's California Legal Awards 2025
- 2The Week in Data Dec. 13: A Look at Legal Industry Trends by the Numbers
- 3Antitrust Class Actions Against CVS, Other Pharmacy Benefit Managers Are Piling Up
- 4Judge Grinds NY's Cannabis Licensing Regime to a Halt Again
- 5On the Move and After Hours: Barclay Damon; VLJ; Barnes & Thornburg
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250