The agency in charge of investigating judicial misconduct has one Georgia Superior Court Judge on its radar. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) has filed several charges against Judge Shermela Williams, accusing her of a growing list of ethics violations, including delaying rulings and using her position to get involved in the legal proceedings of a relative.
Williams was elected in 2020 and has served as a judge in Fulton County’s Superior Court since January 2021. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the Director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission is trying to find out if any of Williams’ actions since she’s been on the bench have violated the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct. The first hearing is scheduled to start on March 5.
Some of the conduct in question includes allegations of Williams giving preferential treatment to a sorority sister in a child custody case and reaching out to an attorney for her uncle, who was facing a contempt case in front of a different judge, hoping to “work something out.” But one of the strangest allegations was that Williams held a young woman in a courthouse holding cell “without any legal findings or justification” during her parents’ divorce case after she admitted to damaging things in his apartment due to their strained relationship.
“Today you came here and admitted to … 36 years’ worth of prison on this stuff. Do you understand that?” the JQC alleges Williams told the woman. “And all for a divorce that had nothing to do with you, right?”
Although Williams isn’t speaking out publicly about the charges, her attorney, Gabe Banks, said removing his client from the bench would be “inconsistent with the manner in which the JQC has resolved other cases” and a betrayal of the Fulton County voters who elected her.
“All Judge Williams wants and deserves is to be treated fairly. The same rules should apply to every judge. Most importantly, discipline should be meted out evenhandedly and should not be politically motivated,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.