Oconee County resident Suzannah Heimel has filed a motion asking Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren to recuse herself from the Court’s dismissal of Heimel’s appeal of a lower court decision regarding an action of the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration last August.
The state Supreme Court on Feb. 18 dismissed Heimel’s appeal of an Oct. 24 ruling by Oconee County Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott denying Heimel’s request for a writ of mandamus directed at the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration.
On that same date, Therese S. Barnes, Clerk/Court Executive for the Supreme Court, informed Heimel that C. Ryan Germany, who had represented Oconee County in the case before Judge Lott, also serves as legal counsel for the campaign committee of Judge Warren.
Barnes asked Heimel to notify her if “if you have no objection to the case proceeding in its present posture” of dismissal of her appeal or to “file a motion to recuse” directed at Judge Warren.
Barnes gave Heimel until noon on Feb. 26 to file her motion.
Heimel filed her motion on Feb. 24, and Oconee County Attorney Daniel Haygood confirmed on Feb. 25 that the county had been served notice of that legal request by Heimel.
Heimel, who has represented herself in her legal action, asks the Supreme Court to issue a statement declaring that Judge Warren will not hear any case in which Germany is an attorney for one of the parties involved.
Heimel’s Argument
Heimel said in her requests for the recusal that the case began when she “became aware that there were voters listed as voters in Oconee County who were not eligible to vote.”
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“Several of the registered voters had moved out of the county and several may have been deceased,” she wrote in her Feb. 24 request to the Supreme Court.
Heimel said that she had “requested that the Oconee County Board of Registrations hold a hearing at which the Appellant could present evidence.”
“The Board of Registration refused to hold a hearing for these 228 challenges, as required by statute,” Heimel wrote.
The case actually began when Oconee County resident Victoria Cruz submitted two lists to the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration prior to the Board’s Aug. 6 meeting containing 228 names and addresses of Oconee County registered voters.
At its Aug. 6 meeting, the Board dismissed the challenges to the registration by Cruz of all but two of the names on the lists, citing a lack of probable cause.
After holding a hearing on Aug. 15 on the two challenged voters from the lists submitted by Cruz, the Board voted to remove both names from the list.
On Sept. 4, Heimel filed suit in Oconee Superior Court asking the Court to issue a writ of mandamus forcing the Board of Elections and Registration to hold a hearing on the whole list of 228 voters submitted by Cruz.
Heimel named Sharon Gregg, director of Elections and Registration for Oconee County, and Jay Hanley, chair of the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, as defendants.
Oconee County hired Germany to represent Gregg and Hanley in that case.
Decision And Appeal
On Oct. 24, Judge Lott dismissed Heimel’s case and issued a restraining order preventing the county from taking any action on voting challenges before the Nov. 5 election.
Heimel appealed that ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals on Nov. 26, and that Court forwarded the appeal to the Supreme Court on Jan. 6 on the grounds that the Supreme Court had “exclusive appellate jurisdiction over all cases of election contest.”
On Feb. 18, the Supreme Court issued an order, signed by Clerk Barnes, saying that the Court had met and agreed “that jurisdiction lies in this Court.”
Heimel has been required to file an application for discretionary appeal, which she did not do, the order states, and “Accordingly, this appeal is dismissed.”
Separate Notification
In the separate Feb. 18 notification to Heimel, Clerk Barnes wrote that the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct requires that judges “should disclose on the record...information that the Court believes the parties or their lawyers might consider relevant to the question of disqualification, even if they believe there is no legal basis for disqualification.”
Barnes wrote that, “at the direction of Justice Warren, I have been instructed to notify you that C. Ryan Germany (a partner of Gilbert Harrell Sumerford & Martin, P.C., and attorney for Sharon Gregg et al.–appellee) serves as legal counsel for the campaign committee of Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren.”
“This letter should not be understood as a determination by Justice Warren that a legal basis for disqualification exists,” Barnes wrote.
Heimel, in her Feb. 24 response, said “It is improper for Judge Warren to have anything to do with this case, as Mr. Germany has been the lawyer for Oconee County for the duration of this case.”
“Ideally, Mr. Germany would have notified the undersigned and the Supreme Court when the Court of Appeals transferred the case to the Supreme Court,” she continued.
1 comment:
"Everything is a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works"
This is highly entertaining to watch.
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