Exclusive: Athens rivalry at the center of GA GOP's prosecutor oversight push
Embattled Athens DA calls oversight measures an "overstep"
Democrat Deborah Gonzalez made history in 2020 when she was elected District Attorney in Athens, becoming the first Hispanic DA in Georgia history. It is this achievement, she believes, that is fueling a GOP push to expand state oversight on local prosecutors.
In 2020, Georgia voters elected several district attorneys who are non-white and have progressive ideologies. They have gained notoriety for refusing to prosecute abortion cases and low-level drug offenses. Gonzalez says that ever since they were elected, Georgia Republicans have been filing bills to try and hold prosecutors accountable. “As soon as myself and six other more progressive DAs were elected, they started filing these bills,” she said in a wide-ranging phone conversation. “These bills are not an oversight, but an overstep.”
The bills she is referring to would create an outside panel that would exercise oversight on district attorneys and solicitors general. In one version, state Republican leaders would select the members of the panel. A different version would have the members chosen by the state supreme court. The panel would have the power to investigate, discipline and even recommend removal of DAs that are determined to be unfit for office.
Gonzalez views the measures as political retaliation. State Rep. Houston Gaines, a Republican from Athens, is one of the lead sponsors of these bills. This is not the first time Gonzalez has clashed with Gaines: they were opponents in a state house race a few years ago.
Gaines believes that the measures are necessary because there are prosecutors across the state who are not doing their job, and it is leading to what he says are “public safety issues” in their communities, singling out Gonzalez. He and other Republican sponsors would like to see the oversight panel structured similarly to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates complaints filed against judges.
He also says that he believes Gonzalez should resign, pointing to a recent lawsuit that was filed against her office. The suit claims that Gonzalez is “unable and unwilling” to properly carry out her duties. Gaines also highlighted a recent staff turnover in her office. The plaintiff even created a website, lawsuitagainstda.com, for Athens residents to learn more about the suit.
Gonzalez says her office is losing staff because other DA offices are offering better pay. She says she has been pushing the Athens-Clarke County Commission to increase salaries in her office. “I’m losing people because they are going to other places for more money,” she said. “I cannot dictate how much I can pay my people.”
She went on to say that she feels that she is doing the work of both an ADA (Assistant District Attorney) and a DA. She criticized Athens-Clarke County officials for not heeding her calls for pay raises. “They did not listen, they did not offer any help, they did not do a market study, and so I kept losing people.”
Gonzalez says that she is not resigning and that she plans on running for re-election in 2024. “I don’t give much weight to anything Houston Gaines says about me,” she said Monday. “The majority of the people spoke with their vote and I was who they wanted in this position.”
The proposed oversight panel would comprise of former prosecutors and judges. Gaines said that he is not trying to make it easier to remove DAs and said that decisions made by the panel would be referred to the state supreme court for further consideration. “Just because you don’t like you don’t like your DA doesn’t mean you can get rid of them,” he said. “That’s not the intent of the bill.”
Gaines namechecks other embattled DAs when discussing these measures, including former Paulding County DA Dick Donovan, a Republican who was suspended from office in 2021 after pleading guilty to a charge of bribery stemming from a sexual misconduct case. Gonzalez said that Donovan’s case proves that there are already mechanisms in place to hold DAs accountable. “[Donovan] did criminal activity. I have not done criminal activity. They just don’t like the way I do my job,” she responded. “But they can’t say that I haven’t been doing it.”
Gonzalez also takes issue with the fact that Gaines and many of the other Republicans behind these measures are not prosecutors or attorneys. “And they show it through the language that they write these bills with.”
She and other critics have also warned that these bills do not clearly outline what behavior is classified as misconduct. Gaines says that the bills spell out several reasons why DAs could be referred to the oversight panel. “Whether it’s misconduct, or whether it’s wholesale choosing not to enforce entire classes of crimes — I think that’s outlined in the bill,” he said.
Gonzalez, however, doesn’t believe that her rivals are outlining improper behavior. She invoked the case of a top GOP state lawmaker who was charged in connection to a fatal hit and run accident. The charges against him were dismissed and the driver is still awaiting trial. The victim’s family also believes that city officials are sealing evidence. “Why aren’t they talking about that,” Gonzalez asked. “That, to me, is more of a dereliction of duty than the fact that I say - ‘hey we have limited resources.’”
Gaines and his Republican colleagues hope that these measures will help clear a backlog in court cases, both in Athens and other judicial circuits. Gov. Brian Kemp, another Athens native, has lashed out at Gonzalez’s office for not being aggressive on some cases. In December, child sex crime charges against a University of Georgia student were dismissed after a judge ruled that the DA’s office didn’t follow the proper procedures to bring the man to trial.
“Far-left local prosecutors are failing their constituents and making our communities less safe,” Kemp said on social media in response to the ruling. He and other state Republicans have expressed support for these prosecutorial oversight measures as part of a larger push to crack down on crime.
As for Gonzalez, she says she plans to continue with her pledge to not prosecute small drug offenses, even if these bills are enacted. She also says that she “will not prosecute women who are seeking reproductive health services.”
She says that these bills will not change the way she does her job, but she believes that they will only add to the case backlog, not clear it. “According to those standards, we now have to do a deep dive in each of these cases,” she says. “And that will slow things down.”