Pam Brown appeals disqualification in sheriff’s race

One of two sheriff’s candidates the Muscogee Board of Elections and Registrations disqualified March 30 has appealed to Superior Court.

The elections board voted 3 to 1 last week to disqualify Pam Brown because she didn’t meet a March 16 deadline to get fingerprinted for a criminal background check. The board by the same vote disqualified candidate Robert Keith Smith, for the same reason.

In the appeal filed Thursday afternoon, Brown’s attorney, J. Mark Shelnutt, recounted some of the same points he made at the elections board meeting: He wrote that Brown already had been fingerprinted and vetted when she ran for sheriff in 2012 and would have met the deadline for the coming May 24 Democratic Primary had anyone been available to collect her fingerprints on March 16.

The law says the fingerprinting is to be completed under the direction of the county probate judge. Typically candidates are fingerprinted at the sheriff’s office.

When she ran for sheriff in 2012, Probate Judge Marc D’Antonio allowed Brown — who worked 23 years for the sheriff’s office and nearly unseated incumbent John Darr four years ago — to get fingerprinted at the police department, to avoid any confrontations with former colleagues.

When Brown learned this year that she was about to miss the deadline, she went back to the police department, but was told no one was available to get her prints, and she would have to return the next day. She did, and D’Antonio later found nothing in her criminal history that would have disqualified her from the race.

In her appeal, Shelnutt asks that a judge order a stay in the board’s decision and set an expedited hearing to consider her appeal, as the Democratic Primary is only about six weeks away and early voting begins May 2. He also asks the judge to reverse the election board’s decision and ensure Brown remains a viable candidate.

Elections director Nancy Boren has said Brown’s name can’t be removed from ballots, because they’ve already been printed. If a judge does not alter the board’s decision, election workers will post notices at voting polls informing voters of the disqualification, Boren said.

Georgia law says the Superior Court judge reviewing an election board’s decision may affirm it, send it back for further proceedings, or reverse or modify it “if substantial rights of the appellant have been prejudiced because the findings, inferences, conclusions, or decisions” violate the constitution or other laws, or they exceed the board’s authority, are based on unlawful procedures or other legal error, clearly erroneous in light of the evidence, or “arbitrary or capricious or characterized by an abuse of discretion.”

Columbus judges may recuse themselves because the sheriff is in charge of courtroom security, presenting a possible conflict of interest. If they bow out, an outside judge will be appointed for the appeal.

Both Brown and Smith qualified as Democrats. If the board’s decision is upheld, it effectively eliminates a contested Democratic Primary for sheriff, leaving former sheriff’s Capt. Donna Tompkins as the sole primary candidate. Darr has said he will run as an independent. His only other challenger is Republican Mark LaJoye, so the race would be decided during the November general election.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Pam Brown appeals disqualification in sheriff’s race."