Judge asked to invalidate past DeKalb Board of Ethics actions

Now that the Georgia Supreme Court has upheld a ruling against the DeKalb County Board of Ethics, the original judge has more decisions to make.

Superior Court Judge Asha Jackson is being asked to strike down the entire law that created the board, which would also eliminate the county's ethics officer position and Code of Ethics.

The attorney for former DeKalb commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton, Dwight Thomas, also said Jackson should “vacate and void everything that has occurred” since the board’s makeup was challenged.

Sep. 18, 2015 - Decatur - Lawyer David Lee Windecher watches two young offenders, Luis Rangel (left) and Donsheldon Lowe,  receive congratulations in Judge Asha Jackson's courtroom as part of  a program in her court for non-violent, first time offenders under the age of 25 called "Project Pinnacle."   Windecher, the son of Argentine immigrants, grew up in a tough, poor neighborhood in Miami where he became a gang member and a drug dealer as a young teenager. He was arrested 13 times and jailed for eight months before he turned 19. Around that time, several things happened that changed the trajectory of his life: He found religion, he met a girl from the other side of the tracks who urged him to make something better of himself, he noticed that his younger siblings were starting to follow his bad example, and his best friend and gang running mate got sentenced to hard time in prison. David enrolled in a local college, still selling a little weed to support himself, and began to wean himself from his gang days. He set his sights on becoming a lawyer and moved to Atlanta to attend John Marshall Law School. It was a long, hard struggle, but he finally graduated and passed the bar exams in Georgia and then Florida, despite his lengthy criminal record. Now a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta, he has written book about overcoming his checkered past -- "The American Dream"   BOB ANDRES  / BANDRES@AJC.COM

Credit: Bob Andres

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Credit: Bob Andres

DeKalb voters in November 2015 approved an overhaul of the Ethics Board after a string of corruption scandals. Sutton filed suit just weeks later, and in April 2017 Jackson ruled that members appointed by groups like the DeKalb Bar Association instead of elected officials were serving illegally.

The board continued to meet while an appeal was filed. The Supreme Court upheld Jackson's ruling in August.

Jackson held a hearing Monday morning on Thomas’s request. She did not render a decision but mused whether the “public good” would be served if the board’s past actions were overturned.

Both sides did agree that in light of the Supreme Court opinion that the board should stay dormant until the General Assembly can come up with fixes for how members are appointed.

Attorney Darren Summerville, who represents the Ethics Board, said it remains at an “absolute standstill” until all seven members are appointed in a way that passes legal muster.

He also argued that other provisions in the law had not been challenged and should be allowed to stand.