Taking the law into her own hands

Last month, Chief Judge Brenda Weaver in the Appalachian Judicial Circuit got into a tiff with Mark Thomason, publisher of the Fannin Focus. Thomason and his attorney, Russell Stookey, were each charged with three felony counts related to an open records request.

The judge said she objected to someone questioning her honesty. Thomason and Stookey didn’t go down without a fight, nor did they fight alone. The Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists joined with the Georgia Press Association, Georgia First Amendment Foundation and Atlanta Press Club to file a complaint with the state Judicial Qualifications Commission against the judge, demanding that the charges be dropped. The complaint also asked that Weaver recuse herself because she serves as chairman of the JQC. The state Attorney General’s Office also has been asked to get involved.

It seems she was listening. Thursday, the charges were dropped, but that is not the end of the story. According to a media release from the Society of Professional Journalists, the judge while disparaging the media and blaming the victims of her actions, still doesn’t get it. “Unfortunately, Judge Weaver,” the release said, “simply doesn’t appreciate the wrongness of her actions. That’s why SPJ Georgia is continuing to pursue its complaint against Judge Weaver filed with the Judicial Qualifications Commission. ... We hope the JQC and the Attorney General’s Office will take appropriate actions against Judge Weaver. The dismissal of this complaint changes nothing about what happened. SPJ Georgia will continue to pressure the appropriate public agencies to ensure this never happens again.”

Georgia’s Open Record Act is something many officials either don’t understand or don’t want to understand, but Judge Weaver’s vendetta goes far beyond not complying with the Open Records Act, it was a simple case of abuse of power and she needs to learn a lesson.

This story was originally published July 7, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Taking the law into her own hands."