Appellate judges reverse decision to bar Macon DA’s office from prosecuting rape case
The Georgia appellate courts ruled Wednesday that a Bibb County judge improperly barred the district attorney’s office in Macon from prosecuting a rape case.
Appellate judges said the entire Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office shouldn’t have been barred from Harold Housley’s rape and child molestation case.
Judge Jeffery Monroe disqualified the DA’s office after investigator Trinicholas Carswell spoke to the defendant while Assistant District Attorney Breanna Foster and investigator Nicholas McCane were in the room, without Housley’s attorney or the assigned prosecutor present.
“We note that we do not condone the actions of ADA Foster, Investigator McCane, or Investigator Carswell,” the appellate judges said. “However … this is not the ‘rare case in which disqualification [of the entire district attorney’s office] is mandated.’”
WHAT HAPPENED
Carswell met with Housley on May 16, 2025, to discuss the results of the victim’s DNA test. It revealed that Housley “fathered the child with the victim,” according to appellate judges. Foster and McCane were present, though they did not participate in the conversation.
“Housley was not advised of his Miranda rights at any time during this interaction and neither Housley’s attorney nor the prosecutor assigned to Housley’s case (was) present at the interaction,” appellate judges said. “None of the district attorney’s employees checked to determine whether Housley was represented by counsel prior to this discussion.”
Monroe barred the DA’s office from prosecuting Housley’s case in September 2025, determining that the meeting was improper. District Attorney Anita Howard was also told that the “proper training of the prosecution’s staff and the creation of a workplace where the actions described above are not excused falls squarely on (her) shoulders,” according to Monroe’s ruling.
But the appellate judges disagreed with Monroe’s ruling.
The appellate judges ruled that no case law would support the disqualification of an entire DA’s office based on the actions of their staff.
Georgia courts have previously ruled that disqualifying a government office is not recommended when a staff member is accused of a conflict of interest. Georgia courts proposed screening staff’s participation in the case and prohibiting discussions with colleagues as a solution.
“Georgia case law reflects an unwillingness to disqualify an entire district attorney’s office when there is no danger that the actual trial of the case will be tainted,” the appellate judges said.
The appellate judges also said that there was no evidence that Howard failed to provide proper training to her staff, which wouldn’t warrant the disqualification from the case.
“Further, there is nothing in the trial court’s order or the underlying record showing that District Attorney Howard was aware of the decision by ADA Foster, Investigator McCane, and Investigator Carswell to confront Housley with the DNA test results, their failure to stop Housley from being questioned without his lawyer present, or that she ratified such conduct after the fact,” appellate judges said.
“We conclude that the trial court erred in disqualifying the District Attorney’s office on this ground,” appellate judges said.
WHAT’S NEXT
The reversal restored the Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office’s authority to proceed with the case against Housley.
“This decision affirms an important principle: accountability in our justice system has to be accurate and proportional,” said Howard in a statement. “Prosecutors have a duty to hold the entire system accountable, including ourselves, but that accountability has to be grounded in evidence and the law, not presumption.”
Housley’s case is still active as of Thursday. He was previously granted bond in January, but his bond was later denied until “the address where the Defendant would reside is provided to the Court, the State and the company providing the electronic monitoring service,” according to court records.
