Decatur, Ga. – A judge upheld the disqualification of a candidate who had had planned to run against the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 Georgia election interference case.

Tiffani Johnson is one of two people who filed paperwork to challenge Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. An administrative law judge earlier this month found that she was not qualified to run for the seat after she failed to appear at a hearing on a challenge to her eligibility, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger adopted that decision.

Johnson last week filed a petition for review of that decision in Fulton County Superior Court. After all of McAfee’s colleagues on the Fulton County bench were recused, a judge in neighboring DeKalb County took up the matter and held a hearing Thursday on Johnson’s petition.

At the end of the hearing, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Stacey Hydrick upheld the decision that said Johnson is not eligible, news outlets reported. A representative for Johnson’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

The ruling leaves McAfee with a single challenger, civil rights attorney Robert Patillo, in the nonpartisan race for his seat.

With early voting set to begin Monday for the May 21 election, it’s likely too late to remove Johnson’s name from the ballot. The law says that if a candidate is determined not to be qualified, that person’s name should be withheld from the ballot or stricken from any ballots. If there isn’t enough time to strike the candidate’s name, prominent notices are to be placed at polling places advising voters that the candidate is disqualified and that votes cast for her will not be counted.

Georgia law allows any person who is eligible to vote for a candidate to challenge the candidate’s qualifications by filing a complaint with the secretary of state’s office within two weeks of the qualification deadline. A lawyer for Sean Arnold, a Fulton County voter, filed the challenge on March 22.

Arnold’s complaint noted that the Georgia Constitution requires all judges to “reside in the geographical area in which they are elected to serve.” He noted that in Johnson’s qualification paperwork she listed her home address as being in DeKalb County and wrote that she had been a legal resident of neighboring Fulton County for “0 consecutive years.” The qualification paperwork Johnson signed includes a line that says the candidate is “an elector of the county of my residence eligible to vote in the election in which I am a candidate.”

Administrative Law Judge Ronit Walker on April 2 held a hearing on the matter but noted in her decision that Johnson did not appear.

Walker wrote that the burden of proof is on the candidate to “affirmatively establish eligibility for office” and that Johnson’s failure to appear at the hearing “rendered her incapable of meeting her burden of proof.”

Walker concluded that Johnson was unqualified to be a candidate for superior court judge in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. Raffensperger adopted the judge’s findings and conclusions in reaching his decision to disqualify her.

A lawyer Johnson, who said in her petition that she has since moved to Fulton County, argued that Johnson failed to show up for the hearing because she did not receive the notice for it.

Without addressing the merits of the residency challenge, Hydrick found that Johnson had been given sufficient notice ahead of the hearing before the administrative law judge and concluded that the disqualification was proper.

ELBERT CO. – A body has been found during an investigation of a missing Georgia man by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Release:

While conducting a missing person investigation, police have found a body in Elbert County on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.   

The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office asked the GBI to assist with a Baldwin County missing person case.  Dawson Brandon Lee, age 24, from Milledgeville, GA, had been missing for several days.  Records from Lee’s vehicle indicated he left Milledgeville and traveled to Elbert County on Wednesday, April 17.  Multiple agencies and four GBI regional investigative offices have assisted with attempting to find Lee. 

On Wednesday, at about 12:00 p.m., police found a man’s body in the woods near Lee’s abandoned vehicle in Elbert County.  

A GBI medical examiner will perform an autopsy to dermine the cause and manner of death and positively identify the man found.  Although the initial investigation indicates the man found is Dawson Brandon Lee, the results of the autopsy will confirm it.  

The early investigation indicates no signs of foul play. 

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) – Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed House Bill 404 into law Monday, April 22 balancing the power between renters and landlords, and giving renters extra protection.

It’s called Safe at Home Act. One of the things this new law says is that landlords have to provide rental housing that is “fit for human habitation.”

“Whether we’re talking about the power source. Whether we’re talking about water supply. Whether we’re talking about the actual living conditions. Whether we’re talking about the outside conditions, the roof, things of that nature just the basic things that make a home habitable,” said Georgia Representative of House District 140, Teddy Reese.

Reese said the law creates standards that can be enforced by courts.

“Prior to that a judge would actually be out of line to tell an individual that you got to go fix this you got to go fix that. There were very basic things. Well this expands that,” he said.

Columbus tenant Terry Williams said he’s been renting his home since April of last year.

“I’m just tired of living here. Everything in here is contaminated,” he said.

However, he said he was not ready for the amount of problems that followed.

“Two months I say give or take, I been noticing it had been raining in the house, leaked roof, mildew, mold, things of the wall not measured properly, Different bugs, insects coming in outside of the house,” he said.

Williams also showed News Leader 9 leaking hot water heater, rotten flooring, and exposed pipes and insulation in the back of the home.

He said he’s made multiple calls to his landlord along with work orders, but nothing is being done to make the needed repairs.

According to him, his next steps are seeking legal action.

“At least a new justice is coming out. So they’ll pretty much learn they lesson,” he said in regards to the new law.

The law also gives a three day grace period for renters before an eviction notice can be filed, and it caps security deposits to a two month rent equivalent. It will go into effect July 1.

“Before Governor (Brian) Kemp signed that bill, if you missed paying your rent by one day, that Landlord could go down there and file an eviction. Now under state law there is a three day grace period that an individual can go pay that rent and that eviction will not be applicable,” Reese said.

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