Georgia Criminal Defense Blog

In a cautionary tale about the very serious nature of criminal suits for clients and attorneys alike, a Superior Court judge has ordered a couple and their attorney to pay more than $1 million in legal fees and court costs from a dismissed case. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the lawsuit alleged sexual misconduct against Bishop Earl Paulk, one of Atlanta’s preeminent preachers in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Mona Brewer claimed in the suit that she had a 14-year coercive affair with Paulk, but the suit was dropped by the Brewers last July.

The judge entered the order Friday, January 22nd against Mona and Bobby Brewer and their attorney, for costs incurred by three different legal firms who defended Paulk in the Superior Court case.

Atlanta Sexual Misconduct charges are some of the most serious charges one can claim against another individual. The damage that these claims can have on an individual’s reputation can be devastating, regardless of whether the charges turn out to be true or not. A series of sexual misconduct allegations plagued Paulk’s work and as a result of this, he lost influence in the community, and eventually, his ministry.

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Two Peachtree City boys have been charged with manufacturing an explosive device after police say they injured a mail carrier with the device they put in a mailbox to get even with a local bully. According to an Associated Press news report, the teenagers – ages 15 and 16 – admitted that they planted the device in the mailbox.

Their names are not being released because of their age. According to the article, the boys threw one of the devices onto the porch of a home where the 17-year-old boy, the target of the attack, reportedly lived. The mailman then found another device that was placed in the home’s mailbox. He reportedly suffered minor chemical burns and an inhalation injury, the newspaper reports.

This is apparently a case where the boys, who were pushed around by this neighborhood bully, decided to get back at him by trying to pull off this prank and in the end landed themselves in a lot of trouble. Georgia Juvenile crime cases are complicated and can go from bad to worse very quickly without the expertise of an experienced and knowledgeable criminal defense attorney.

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A recent op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution touches on the devastating effects entry into Georgia’s “draconian” sex offender database can have on lives and careers. The article, which follows a local man’s struggle to keep a valued employee – and a registered sex offender – on staff, exposes the many issues of HB 908, which seeks to reinstate the sex offender law that was tossed out in 2006 due to its unconstitutional limits on the lives and careers of sex offenders.

The article points out that the current bill does not distinguish between severe and low-risk offenders and fails to make sensible provisions for people who are barred from living where children congregate. If passed, the law could reinstate restrictions on where registered offenders live and work, a move that could actually increase public risk as some sex offenders fail to register with their local sheriff due to fear about the law’s impact on their lives.

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A recent Supreme Court ruling has further narrowed Georgia’s law concerning implied consent and DUI. The Georgia Supreme Court recently ruled that a Richmond County man, Harley Snyder, should not have been required to give over a blood sample that led to his DUI conviction in a fatal accident without a search warrant. Though Snyder could have been forced to undergo blood alcohol testing if the crash had resulted in obvious injury or death, nobody appeared to be injured on the scene of the 2004 crash, though a passenger died ten days after the accident occurred.

Georgia’s implied consent law used to require drivers involved in serious accidents to undergo drug and alcohol testing. However, recent probable cause cases and this Supreme Court case have served to chip away at the implied consent law, forcing officers to require DUI testing only when probable cause exists. This is good news for Georgians, whose rights to resist unreasonable search and seizure are endangered by the implied consent doctrine.

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