Members of the legal community elsewhere in Georgia will determine the judge and prosecutor for the ethics case against Waycross District 3 City Commissioner Katrena Felder.
Muncipal Court Judge Douglas Gibson, Judge Pro Tempore Adrienne Gibson and Solicitor Joseph Johnson have recused themselves from involvement in the case. Each cited their appointments and subsequent contracts with the city to conduct the court’s business as the reason given earlier this month to Interim City Attorney Huey Spearman in letters.
Spearman informed city commissioners at their planning and information session, March 17, Gibson has petitioned Judge Joe Huffman, District 1 Representative for the Council of Municipal Court Judges, to name someone to preside over the case. Johnson has looked to Georgia Attorney General’s Office and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council for a path toward selecting his.
Spearman said Huffman had requested the case file he provided the city court to review before assigning a judge. Carla Nipper, the court’s clerk, has provided that to Huffman, Spearman said.
He said the role of prosecutor remains “unclear.”
Spearman said the AG and PAC have conferred and he’s received letters this week providing the AG doesn’t have the authority to appoint a substitute municipal prosecutor, but only a State Court of Superior Court prosecutor.
He said state law provides a municipal prosecutor with a conflict can be replaced by appointment by the governing authority (Waycross City Commission) or by the City Attorney.
“I have responded that neither of these options work because I would have the same conflict as Judge Gibson and and Joseph Johnson in that I am appointed by the City Commission who is my client, and cannot also prosecute a sitting city commissioner, nor would I want to do so,” Spearman said in a email response to a question by the Journal-Herald seeking additional clarification on the situation of the recusals.
Also in that email, Spearman said in terms of the commission appointing a substitute, that seems inappropriate due to the identity of the respondent (Felder).
He said if the respondent were anyone other than a sitting commissioner he could prosecute the case, and/or the city commission could appoint a substitute prosecutor.
Spearman also cited the fact since it was the governing authority that referred the case to the city court it would seem inappropriate for it to pick the prosecutor.
In view of all this, Spearman said he’d recommended in responses to both the AG and PAC the appointed judge assigned to the case be responsible for appointing a substitute prosecutor.
Spearman filed Clayton Nelson v. Katrena Felder with the city court Tuesday, February 24.
Nelson filed his complaint September 2, 2024.
It alleged Felder misused her city-issued credit card and also attended a partisan event, which is prohibited for city commissioners.
The Citizen Ethics Board was empaneled last fall to hear the case. After nearly a dozen meetings and hearings to consider the complaint, voted 3-2 of violations having occurred. It voted December 13 by the same split to recommend the penalty of prosecution to the commission.
Shawn Taylor, chairman of the ethics board, delivered the recommendation to commissioners December 16.
The commission accepted the board’s recommendation and an addendum from Commissioner Alvin Nelson by a 3-1 vote January 7.
Nelson added the request of Waycross Police Chief Tommy Cox notifying the GBI to examine the evidence including all credit card transactions (by Felder) in the last three years to validate and determine if any criminal actions had occurred.
