The company answerable for investigating judicial misconduct has one Georgia Superior Court docket Choose on its radar. In keeping with the Atlanta Journal-Structure, the Judicial {Qualifications} Fee (JQC) has filed a number of fees towards Choose Shermela Williams, accusing her of a rising checklist of ethics violations, together with delaying rulings and utilizing her place to get entangled within the authorized proceedings of a relative.
Williams was elected in 2020 and has served as a choose in Fulton County’s Superior Court docket since January 2021. The Atlanta Journal-Structure experiences the Director of the Judicial {Qualifications} Fee is looking for out if any of Williams’ actions since she’s been on the bench have violated the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct. The primary listening to is scheduled to start out on March 5.
Among the conduct in query contains allegations of Williams giving preferential remedy to a sorority sister in a toddler custody case and reaching out to an lawyer for her uncle, who was dealing with a contempt case in entrance of a distinct choose, hoping to “work one thing out.” However one of many strangest allegations was that Williams held a younger lady in a courthouse holding cell “with none authorized findings or justification” throughout her mother and father’ divorce case after she admitted to damaging issues in his house because of their strained relationship.
“Right this moment you got here right here and admitted to … 36 years’ price of jail on these items. Do you perceive that?” the JQC alleges Williams informed the girl. “And all for a divorce that had nothing to do with you, proper?”
Though Williams isn’t talking out publicly in regards to the fees, her lawyer, Gabe Banks, stated eradicating his consumer from the bench can be “inconsistent with the style by which the JQC has resolved different instances” and a betrayal of the Fulton County voters who elected her.
“All Choose Williams needs and deserves is to be handled pretty. The identical guidelines ought to apply to each choose. Most significantly, self-discipline must be meted out evenhandedly and shouldn’t be politically motivated,” he informed the Atlanta Journal-Structure.