Fani Willis — Disqualified for Secret Romance — Doubles Down and Hires Ex-Judge Who Jailed Woman for ‘Daddy Issues’

The hiring by the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, of a disgraced former judge underscores that the embattled prosecutor has scant intention of altering how she conducts business. The former Fulton County Superior Court judge, Shermela Williams — who resigned under pressure in February — is joining Ms. Willis’s office as a prosecutor. Ms. Williams previously served in that capacity under Ms. Willis before joining the state bench in 2021.As an elected Democratic judge Ms. Williams was the target of a misconduct probe by the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, a judicial ethics body. The commission charged her with more than 30 counts of violating the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct. A 66 page report argued for her removal from the bench, to which she was elected. Ms. Williams resigned in February before she could be removed by the Georgia Supreme Court. Most striking among the allegations against Ms. Williams is that she jailed for 45 minutes — for “shock value” — a 21 year-old woman, Molly Dennis, who had been summoned to testify in her parent’s divorce hearing. The then-judge accused the woman of being “flippant.” Ms. Williams has apologized for that incident and reflects that “Hindsight being 20/20 I would not have handled it like that.”That regret was insufficient amends for Ms. Dennis, who in October sued Ms. Williams for violating her constitutional rights. Ms. Dennis’s complaint says her rights were violated when Ms. Williams, upon releasing her from jail, lectured her about “daddy issues.” The lawsuit contends that “Judge Williams, an experienced former prosecutor, knew or should have known that no lawful basis existed to order plaintiff’s detention.”Ms. Dennis also alleges that Ms. Williams “filed her nails and took a call” during her parents’ divorce proceeding. Ms. Williams claims that she is protected from any liability on account of “absolute judicial immunity.” Her brief argues that it is “settled that judicial immunity will bar claims that are predicated on a judicial act, however controversial the act may be, and however tragic or injurious the consequences of the act may be.” The ethics committee found that Ms. Williams’s account of the episode — and others — was characterized by a “stunning lack of candor.” That closely mirrors the “odor of mendacity” that Judge Scott McAfee found characterized Ms. Willis’s account of her romantic relationship with her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, in her racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others for interference in the 2020 presidential election. The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Ms. Willis after concluding that this was the “rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice.” Ms. Willis’s office paid Mr. Wade, who had never prosecuted a felony before, some $700,000 for his services. He and Ms. Willis took vacations together to destinations like Aruba, Belize, and Napa Valley. They denied dating before his hiring, but the defendants in the case adduced evidence that the two exchanged thousands of telephone calls and texts before Mr. Wade was hired.Mr. Wade has since asserted on television that workplace affairs are “as American as apple pie.” After Ms. Willis was disqualified, another prosecutor, Peter Skandalakis, decided to drop the charges she brought. He struggled to find a prosecutor to take on the case. Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade claim that they broke up, but the two have been spotted together at LAX and during the roadside arrest of Ms. Willis’s daughter for a traffic violation. The ethics commission also found that Ms. Willis’s new employee gave preferential treatment to litigants who were her sorority sisters and that she sometimes took as long as 30 months to rule on routine cases. The report recommending her removal reckoned that “Judge Williams’ conduct as outlined above amounts to willful misconduct in office; willful and persistent failures to perform the duties of office; and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the judicial office into disrepute.”The director of the ethics commission, Courtney Veal, declares in a statement that Ms. Williams’s resignation was “an obvious attempt to resign her way out of accountability for her misconduct,” though Ms. Veal reckons that it is nonetheless “certainly best for Georgia’s citizens and judiciary.” Ms. Willis’s office calls Ms. Williams an “accomplished attorney” who has served with “distinction.”

Fani Willis — Disqualified for Secret Romance — Doubles Down and Hires Ex-Judge Who Jailed Woman for ‘Daddy Issues’

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