The Georgia Supreme Court has docketed the case challenging the constitutionality of a two-year-old law allowing the governor to remove local school board members if they jeopardize the school district’s accreditation.

The high court confirmed the case was docketed today. A spokeswoman said the case will follow the normal course, meaning the justices will have two court terms, or about six months, to make a decision.

The challenge stems from a legal fight between ousted DeKalb County school board Chairman Eugene Walker and Governor Nathan Deal.

Deal issued an executive order on Feb. 25 suspending six of the school board’s nine members, including Walker. The ouster came after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation placed the DeKalb school system on probation. On March 13, Deal named new members to the board.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Judge Richard Story on Thursday asked the state high court to address two questions raised by the governor’s decision to remove and replace the school board members.

The questions are:

-        Does OCGA § 20-2-73 violate the Georgia constitutional doctrine that each school system shall be under the management and control of a board of education, the members of which shall be elected as provided by law? OR

-        Does the potential removal of school board members as provided for by OCGA § 20-2-73 exceed the General Assembly’s authority to enact general laws regarding local board of education under Article VIII, Section V?

The high court last year rejected Governor Sonny Perdue’s 2010 effort to rebuild the Warren County school board, but the Legislature in 2011 provided governors with new authority to replace school boards. Meanwhile, a restraining order remains in place in Fulton County that has blocked Deal’s attempts to replace the Sumter County board.

For more on this case read today’s article by Staff Writer R. Robin McDonald.

DeKalb County Solicitor Sherry Boston has teamed up with a county commissioner to fill the coffers of local food banks.  Here is the text of a press release issued today:

DeKalb County Officials to Sponsor Food Drive

Decatur, Ga.   – The plight of local food banks has caught the attention of two DeKalb County officials who are sponsoring a
food drive to help replenish the shelves at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Commissioner Kathie Gannon and DeKalb County Solicitor-General Sherry Boston are teaming up to sponsor a food drive to kick off on Valentine’s Day. “Solicitor-General Boston and I are asking all DeKalb employees and citizens to donate food for the hungry,” said Gannon. “This time of year after the holidays the pantry shelves at the Atlanta Community Food Bank are looking bare,” said Solicitor-General Boston.

Hunger is Georgia has become a bigger problem since the recession. Roughly 17% of the households and 28% of children in the area served by the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which includes DeKalb, do not always know where their next meal is coming from. Food collection barrels will be placed in DeKalb County government office buildings including the Court House and Maloof Center. The Food Drive will last from February 12 to February 28^th. Among the most needed items are canned tuna, peanut butter, fruit juices, canned vegetables and paper products.

“No one should have to choose between paying the rent, paying for their prescriptions or paying for food,” explained Boston. “I’ve seen the generosity of DeKalb County employees and I know they will help by donating food,” said Gannon. Nobody should go to bed hungry in DeKalb County. Citizens and employees are encouraged to bring donations to the following County buildings: Maloof Center at 1300 Commerce Drive, the Court House at 556 McDonough Street, the Clark Harrison Building at 330 West Ponce de Leon, the Tax Commissioners Office at 4380 memorial Drive.

The murder trial against Andrea Sneiderman will likely take place in July, according to a filing by her attorneys in a related civil case.

The potential trial date was mentioned in a motion by attorneys Mark Trigg and Douglas Chalmers Jr. asking Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs to postpone a deposition of Sneiderman until after the criminal trial.

Sneiderman was arrested Aug. 2, 2012, on charges that she worked with her boss, Hemy Neuman, to kill her husband, Rusty Sneiderman, so that they could be together and benefit from $2 million in life insurance. The motion, dated Jan. 4, came in litigation over the forfeiture of her assets, including the life insurance proceeds.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams has not set a trial date.

The motion said the deposition should be delayed because information gained from Sneiderman could be used against her in her criminal case. The plaintiff in the case is Steven Sneiderman, who is Rusty Sneiderman’s brother and the executor of his estate, and Esther Panitch is one of his attorneys.

“Counsel for the Estate is working hand in glove with the DeKalb County prosecutors and will structure her deposition questions in a manner best designed to help the prosecutors in the Criminal Case,” the motion said.

To support their motion, Sneiderman’s attorneys cited a recent decision in the litigation between DeKalb County School District and project management company Heery International. In that case, retired federal appeals court judge Stanley Birch Jr., who is serving as a special master for discovery issues, allowed the deposition of former school superintendent Crawford Lewis to be postponed until after his criminal trial, which is scheduled to start April 15.

DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James Jr. has promoted Kellie Stevens Hill to be his new chief assistant district attorney, replacing prosecutor Don Geary, who left for a similar position in Cobb County.

Hill, a former Fulton County chief assistant district attorney who joined the DeKalb DA’s office last year, will be responsible for managing all trial line attorneys and the Public Integrity Unit. She worked on the prosecution of Brian Nichols, who killed a judge and three other people during his escape from custody in 2005, and she has practiced law for more than 20 years.

“Kellie brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position. She has an impeccable reputation,” James said in a statement.

It’s unknown whether Hill will take over prosecution of the murder case against Andrea Sneiderman, who is accused of conspiring to kill her husband, said spokesman Erik Burton. The case has so far been handled by James and Geary.

James is working to assemble his team on the Sneiderman case, Burton said.

Hill, whose hiring was announced Thursday, becomes the No. 3 attorney in the office, behind James and Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicole Marchand Golden. Hill’s title is chief trial assistant district attorney.

Geary last month decided to become the chief assistant district attorney for incoming District Attorney Vic Reynolds, whom he worked with as an assistant district attorney under Fulton DA Lewis Slaton from 1989 to 1992. Reynolds, who was elected in November, also recruited former DeKalb County Assistant District Attorney John Melvin, who specialized in white collar prosecutions.

James also said he hired two attorneys from the Cobb County district attorney’s office. They are Christopher Timmons, who will serve as an assistant district attorney in the office’s Public Integrity Unit, and Anna Green Cross, who will serve as deputy chief district attorney of capital and complex litigation.

Timmons was recently involved in the racketeering prosecutions of former Glock Inc. general counsel Paul Jannuzzo and former Atlanta federal prosecutor James R. Harper III, who was hired by Glock to investigate fraud.

Cross was a chief assistant district attorney in Cobb’s appellate division and death penalty unit.

“Chris brings a depth of experience in dealing with complicated white-collar, gang and racketeering cases. Anna has an extensive legal background, has written over 40 appellate briefs to the Supreme Court of Georgia and the Court of Appeals and handled numerous capital cases,” James said.

In other moves, James promoted Assistant District Attorney Mirna Andrews to the Crimes Against Children Unit and Assistant District Attorney Carrie McCurdy to the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. Wayne Pinkney was hired as an investigator for the Gang Unit and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

A Decatur obstetrician was arrested Wednesday on a charge that he illegally billed $205,000 to the government’s Medicaid program to perform elective abortion services.

The indictment against Dr. Andre Damian Williams, 62, owner of DeKalb Gynecology Associates and Legacy Obstetrics, claims he charged the government for abortion-related services including ultrasounds, evaluations, pregnancy tests and urinalysis from January 2009 through September 2011.

The indictment alleges some of the ultrasounds were never performed, and the payments he collected for other services were for greater amounts than he was entitled to because they were associated with abortions.

Under the federal law known as the Hyde Amendment, federal funds may not be used to pay for elective abortions and their associated services.

Medicaid fraud is punishable under state law by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to a news release by Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.

The case is being prosecuted by the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the attorney general’s office, said spokeswoman Lauren Kane.

Medicaid, a federal program that provides health services to people who can’t afford them, is administered through the state Department of Community Health.

DeKalb Gynecology Associates’ website says it’s a private medical office that provides early abortion services, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception and post-abortion follow-up care. The office was closed Wednesday, and an answering service said it couldn’t take a message.

A profile on Healthgrades.com says Williams is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and graduated from Howard University medical school in 1977.

The indictment was handed down in DeKalb County Superior Court on Dec. 20, but it wasn’t publicized by the attorney general’s office until after Williams was arrested Wednesday.

No lawyer was listed for Williams, and jail records showed he hadn’t posted a $25,000 bond as of Wednesday afternoon.

The case is State v. Williams, No. 12-CR-6359.

A grand jury indictment against two leaders of Gospel Tabernacle Church accuses them of selling unlicensed securities, a transaction that DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James Jr. said lost parishioners’ money.

Bishop Wiley Jackson and his brother, Rodney Jackson, sold $12,000 in investments to two women and offered to sell a security to a third woman, according to the indictment handed down Thursday.

“When people aren’t licensed and they engage in this type of activity, folks lose money, and that’s what happened here,” James said.

The Jackson brothers sold investment contracts in Genesis LLC, a company that James said doesn’t appear to have been registered with the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

“It’s important to be licensed because when you’re licensed, there’s regulation. The state knows about your company, what’s going on with your company, what kind of investment you’re selling,” James said.

A message left with Wiley Jackson’s office Thursday wasn’t immediately returned.

James said he wasn’t claiming that the defendants committed fraud, but that they didn’t follow legal procedures designed to protect consumers.

The security sales occurred in 2002, but the victims and the state didn’t find out about them until 2009, according to the indictment.

Decatur criminal lawyer and blogger J. Scott Key has written up an interesting death penalty decision issued by the Georgia Supreme Court last month.

The unanimous decision reversed a death sentence handed down in DeKalb County in 2008. The court said a DeKalb judge was wrong to forbid lawyers for defendant Clayton Jerrod Ellington, on trial for the murder of his wife and their twin two-year-old sons, from asking all prospective jurors whether they could consider a life sentence in a case involving the murder of young children. Prosecutors said that impartiality questions relating to facts not set forth in the indictment were improper, but the Supreme Court said that as soon as the jury was empaneled and the trial began, the age of the victims became a focus of the state’s argument that Ellington should be sentenced to death.

The takeaway, says Key, who filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, is to look beyond the indictment in preparing to try a case.

As you prepare for voir dire, consider what things about your case could be a problem for certain jurors. Then craft questions designed to find out who those jurors are. Anticipate that opposing counsel will object and say that you are asking jurors to prejudge facts. Prepare your response using the language in Ellington. And keep in mind that a case is often about much more than the language contained in the indictment.

An employee of Glaser, Currie & Bullman was arrested Tuesday for carrying a loaded handgun into the DeKalb County Courthouse.

The DeKalb Sheriff’s office issued a press release that said: “Brook Ingle, age 27, was taken into custody and charged with carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location when deputies found a loaded handgun in her purse.

Ingle told deputies that she was visiting the court to file civil documents for her employer, Glasser [sic], Currie and Bullman, Attorneys at Law.”

The release noted that Ingle, like another woman arrested for the same offense last week, was taken to the county jail.

Ingle said by telephone Tuesday that she preferred not to discuss her case.

The website of her employer, Glaser, Currie & Bullman, shows that it often represents plaintiffs claiming to have been mistreated by law enforcement officers.

DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said Monday he will seek the death penalty against three gangsters accused of killing a man because they thought he was gay.

The defendants—Darrius Aderhold, Christopher Foreman and Jonathan Ray—are charged with 22 felonies each in the Jan. 8 death of Robert Ross.

“These three individuals brutally beat, disfigured and killed Ross as part of gang initiation into the Bloods and because they perceived him to be a gay male,” James said in a statement. “This act was senseless and horrible. They took the life of Mr. Ross in a cold and calculated manner. We will hold them accountable.”

A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, but the case will likely be reassigned because of the death penalty notice, James’ statement said.

A March 29 indictment said the men attacked Ross with a chair leg, fractured his skull, beat him and robbed him of his jewelry, clothing and car.

They are charged with malice murder, violations of street gang terrorism laws, battery, assault, false imprisonment, robbery and theft.

The case is State v. Aderhold, No. 12-CR-2577.

Lawyers in the wrongful death suit against Andrea Sneiderman are accusing each other of engaging in professional misconduct.

Esther Panitch, who is suing Sneiderman on behalf of Sneiderman’s brother-in-law, wrote in a court filing Thursday that Andrea Sneiderman’s attorneys are making ad hominem attacks “to personally smear a lawyer in good standing.”

She was responding to a motion by Sneiderman attorney Mark Trigg, who on Tuesday asked a judge to sanction Panitch for racing to publicize Sneiderman’s relationship with Joseph Dell. Panitch suggested in a previous filing that Sneiderman may have sought to have her husband Rusty Sneiderman killed by her former boss, Hemy Neuman, so that she could be in a relationship with Dell.

Panitch represents Steven Sneiderman, the executor of Rusty Sneiderman’s estate, who is suing Andrea Sneiderman for her husband’s murder. Andrea Sneiderman also faces criminal murder charges for conspiring in the killing.

Trigg, writing in Andrea Sneiderman’s defense, claimed that Panitch was working with prosecutors in an effort to convict her in the media.

“It seems likely that the assertion at this late date that Andrea had another so-called ‘paramour’ is made in an effort to manipulate Mr. Neuman so that he will fall into a jealous rage, decide to no longer tell the truth in this regard, and finally provide something that so far is completely lacking: any direct evidence that Andrea Sneiderman was a co-conspirator in her husband’s murder,” Trigg wrote.

Panitch wrote that Trigg’s motion for sanctions against her, including attorney fees, is a waste of time.

“Such conduct is emblematic of tactics resorted to by parties whose logical arguments have failed them, and is exactly why the Georgia Bar seeks to dissuade such conduct for the betterment of the profession,” Panitch wrote. “While the Defendant and her counsel may mistakenly believe the undersigned was attempting to gain media attention by the filing, there was no such motive, nor anything to support such a claim, other than their own conjecture.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs has scheduled a Dec. 14 status hearing in the wrongful death case.

The case is Steven Sneiderman v. Andrea Sneiderman, No. 2012-CV-215225.