Contemptible court sends juvenile public defender to jail

A split panel, 4-3. on appeal in In re Sherri Jefferson, 2007 Ga. App. LEXIS 391 (Ga. Ct. App. 2007), upheld...

From Appellate Law & Practice:

GA: 30 days for making a record of trial court’s strange bias

And Arbitrary & Capricious:

GA: beneath contempt

And Capital Defense Weekly:

Contemptible: juvie public defender sentenced to 30 days for defending her client

The Court of Appeals of Georgia upheld a Juvenile Court of Glynn County Ruling Which Sentences a Female Public Defender to Thirty (30) Days in Jail

GEORGIA - On Friday, March 30, 2007 the Court of Appeals of Georgia upheld a Juvenile Court of Glynn County ruling which sentenced a female public defender (who served the Brunswick Judicial Circuit as its Juvenile Division Chief and Asst Public Defender) to thirty (30) days in jail in which the attorney said to the court "with much respect your honor, you say that you have not prejudged this case but everything that I do to effectively represent my client I am being rebutted. . . with much respect your honor, it appears that you are biased in your view [of this case]." The Judge claimed her statements were disrespectful. George M Rountree had issued an Order and made several statements on the record asserting that he had not prejudged the case, he made those statements without provocation. Judge Ken Smith, a member of the Sons of the Confederate and Juvenile Judge of the Jeff Davis County Court also participated in the sentencing. The attorney is an African-American female and, would be the first female Attorney in Georgia's history to serve a sentence of this sought and possibly the first and only attorney, black or white to have such a sentence imposed. According to the attorney, GPDSC the agency did nothing to assist her office in her defense (however, her circuit defender aided with the trial and appeal). GPDSC continuously interfered with her level of representation when she refused to play politics with agencies like the Department of Juvenile Justice and, further failed to address the long-standing problems that she had problems with the judge in that juvenile court for several months prior to the incident in question which is also documented in a 15 page affidavit which was filed and submitted on May 10, 2006 in the juvenile court as well as with the Georgia Council of Juvenile Judges. The attorney represented a white-male juvenile (B.W. case no.: A06A2253) who was railroaded by the juvenile court and tried as a designated felon which would have resulted in a 5 year prison term. As a result of her representation, the juvenile was not sentenced under the designated felon status and received a jail term of six months in a boot-camp. It appears that no other attorney in this State has suffered such a sentence, especially not a public defender who have long been accused of lack of zealous advocacy.

DA Stephen Kelley and Charles Olson of PAC represented the interest of the juvenile court and Grayson Lane and Sherri Jefferson were the Appellant.

According to Attorney Jefferson she sent "DA Stephen Kelley a faxed memo advising of her intent to serve her sentence and requesting information from him as to when he would like her to proceed. . . she added that, "she is proud to be serving a sentence for providing effective and zealous defense for a juvenile who was victimized by the juvenile court, and that this court decision will not deter her from continuing to zealously defend children of this State, regardless of their race, who are victimized by the Department of Juvenile Justice and/or Glynn County Juvenile Court. She closed by saying "this sentence and decision is an attack against the indigency services of this state and juvenile justice reform which she proudly advocates."

Sherri Jefferson