Second judge in city lawsuits recuses himself

The new judge in Sheriff John Darr’s lawsuit against the city also has recused himself when he became aware that his campaign committee chairman was added to Darr’s legal team.

Superior Court Judge Howard Simms, of the Macon Judicial Circuit, sent a letter to the district court administrator to announce his recusal and to request that another judge be appointed to preside over the three lawsuits filed by Darr, Superior Court Clerk Linda Pierce and a joint suit by Municipal Court Clerk Vivian Creighton-Bishop and Marshal Greg Countryman.

“As you are aware, I was recently appointed to preside over the above-styled cases currently pending in the Superior Court of Muscogee County,” Simms wrote. “However, on February 24, 2016, Duke R. Groover of the law firm James, Bates, Brannan and Groover, filed an entry of appearance on behalf of Plaintiff John T. Darr. Mr. Groover is, and has been for some time, the listed chairman of my campaign committee. As such, and in an effort to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I feel that it is incumbent on me to recuse myself from these matters entirely and request that a new judge be appointed to handle these cases.”

The district administrator wasted little time in appointing Simms’ replacement, also from the Macon Judicial Circuit. Judge Philip T. Raymond, 58, who has been on the bench since 2010, will take over the cases, according to documents filed in the case.

Groover’s law firm joined Kellye Moore of Walker, Hulbert, Gray and Moore of Perry, Ga., and Kerry Howell of W. Kerry Howell LLC, of Macon.

The city is represented by Carter Schondelmayer of The Schondelmayer Firm and Paul Ivey and Mark Maholick of Hall, Booth, Smith of Columbus.

Simms, 52, replaced Stone Mountain Superior Court Judge Hinton Fuller, who recused himself in January to take care of his ailing wife, he announced at the time. The city’s lawyers had filed a motion to recuse Fuller due to what they considered improper ex parte communication between the judge and plaintiff’s attorneys. Fuller declined the motion, but then recused himself for personal reasons.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, one of the defendants named in the lawsuits, suggested that the first recusal, Fuller’s, may have had more to do with the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ behavior than anything else.

“The notice of this recusal is shocking. Twice, now, the actions of Darr’s legal counsel has precipitated the recusal of a judge. That’s extraordinary,” Tomlinson said. “One wonders why in the world Sheriff Darr attempted to inject Mr. Groover into this litigation with this long standing conflict, apparently known to them.”

Darr attorney Howell said not only was he unaware of Groover’s work for Simms’ campaign, but that it would not be an automatic reason for a judge to recuse himself.

“It would not be a reason to disqualify a judge, period,” Howell said. “That is a decision that the judge makes, and you have to respect those decisions when the judge makes them. It has nothing to do with what we did, the attorneys for Sheriff Darr.”

Tomlinson also revisited what she sees as a relationship the Georgia Sheriff’s Association has had with the Darr case.

“It was already unorthodox that Mr. Groover had represented the Georgia Sheriff’s Association in the motion to recuse the last judge, and, then, sought to come into this case and represent Sheriff Darr with whom he had previously suggested he was not aligned,” Tomlinson said. “And now, this. As I said … shocking and extraordinary.”

Howell called Tomlinson’s assertion that Darr’s case is a “test case” for the GSA, “disinformation, ungrounded and silly.”

“The Georgia Sheriff’s Association has nothing to do with this case,” Howell said. “The idea that they selected this lawsuit to try to fix the law or further the law is just pure madness. To me it’s just the worst kind of politics because it’s not based on any underlying truth.”

The four elected officials filed their three lawsuits in late 2014, claiming that the Consolidated Government does not budget enough money for them to carry out the obligations of their offices. They also allege irregularities in the way Tomlinson and Columbus Council prepare the annual budget for the city.

In addition to its legal fees, the court ruled that the city must pay Darr’s and Pierce’s legal fees because they are constitutional officers. The city is not obligated to pay fees for the other two because they are not constitutional officers.

Since the lawsuits were filed in late 2014, the city has paid attorneys for Darr and Pierce $540,552.

The city has paid its attorneys fighting the three cases $1.32 million, bringing the total for legal fees in the cases to $1.86 million.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Second judge in city lawsuits recuses himself."