Judge in suspended Columbus DA Mark Jones case rejects request to step down
Visiting Judge Katherine Lumsden will not step down from suspended Columbus District Attorney Mark Jones’ criminal trial, set to begin next week.
In an order filed Tuesday, Lumsden rejected Columbus attorney Chris Breault’s request for her to step down for bias. Breault filed a motion just hours after Lumsden disqualified him from representing Jones after Breault was named a possible witness in the case.
The prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler, had asked Lumsden to strike Breault’s motion because Breault had no authority to file it, having been thrown off the case.
Lumsden agreed that Breault no longer was Jones’ attorney and could not file motions on Jones’ behalf, but she wrote that with the trial set to begin Monday, she would address the motion as if Jones had adopted it as his own.
Titled “Motion to disqualify unfair, biased and partial judge,” Breault’s filing said Lumsden is married to a sergeant with the Georgia State Patrol, and because of that, she is “severely biased in favor of law enforcement and against District Attorney Mark Jones.”
He also said Lumsden’s bias was clear from her comments in a pretrial motions hearing.
At that hearing on Oct. 21, when Breault asked the judge whether it was illegal for Jones to offer prosecutors a $1,000 bonus for each conviction in a murder case. Jones is charged with bribery for that.
Breault asked Lumsden to cite a specific code section prohibiting such an incentive, and the judge told him, “You can not pay your employees by conviction. The law is very clear.”
That and other comments showed Lumsden’s impartiality is “absolutely and entirely lacking,” Breault wrote in his motion, citing the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct.
In rejecting that motion Tuesday, Lumsden wrote: “The comments were not extrajudicial but made during the motion hearings. They demonstrate no bias or favor, but is the court disagreeing with the state of the law as asserted by counsel.”
She acknowledged that she is married to a state trooper, but did not delve into that.
Her order concluded: “The facts alleged do not stem from an extrajudicial source or are simply speculations of bias. After a careful consideration ... of the Code of Judicial Conduct, there are simply no facts which require recusal. The motion is hereby denied.”
So far no other defense attorney has entered the case on behalf of Jones, who until his arraignment Oct. 12 was representing himself.
Lumsden in court has said she does not intend to postpone Jones’ trial, as the issues raised by Breault’s representing him were obvious before Breault entered the case. Fowler named Breault in evidence motions filed Oct. 6.
Jones faces nine felony charges alleging he tried to influence witnesses, to persuade a detective to commit perjury, and to bribe staff prosecutors. Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him from office on Oct. 4.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 1:19 PM.