Something is Rotten in the Clerk’s Office

Cobb County Superior Court Chief Judge Gregory Poole has declared a Judicial Emergency, “due to serious issues that have arisen in the Superior Court Clerk’s Office within that circuit.”

One of the issues cited in the Emergency Declaration, which will last for an initial period of 30 days, was the installation of a new software system in late June, but, as the Declaration notes, the Clerk’s office has been “plagued by many serious issues” before the software conversion, which has impacted notice of filings that have impacted the “due process and other constitutional rights of litigants”.

The current Clerk, Democrat Connie Taylor, was elected in 2020 defeating Republican incumbent Clerk Rebecca Keaton, in a Democratic sweep of contested Cobb County offices. Almost immediately after assuming office, scandals stated to swarm around Taylor’s administration of the office. The first involved Taylor pocketing over $425,000 in addition to her $170,000 a year salary by pocketing passport fees. While Georgia law at the time – the Georgia General Assembly has since changed the law to disallow the practice – allowed the practice, it hadn’t been abused like Taylor.

Even Bill Torpy writing in a 2022 opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution took issue with Taylor writing, “Yes, that’s correct. Taylor, the county’s first Democratic court clerk, is carrying on a tradition of many elected court clerks who view revenue pouring into their offices as their money. Not to pick on Taylor, but she’s now the Poster Lady for a rotten system. It’s not like she herself processes the passport applications at home on weekends. No, that work is performed by taxpayer-paid employees in a taxpayer-paid-for building and done on computers paid for by … well, you get it.”

It wasn’t just the fact that Taylor took advantage of the law, but, in the face of potential scandal, Taylor allegedly ordered that the records be destroyed. Torpy also notes, “Taylor allegedly told [County employee Maya] Curry they needed to ‘get rid’ of records and, ‘We’re just going to have to Donald Trump this thing.'”

While the GBI is still investigating Taylor over those records, by the end of 2023, Taylor’s office was nearly three months behind in filing online court records, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

“One local attorney who asked for anonymity said lawyers are constantly facing deadlines and are thus reliant on the availability of online records. The attorney called the backlog, which is preventing them from accessing records dating back months through the online system, ‘a total failure.’”

Cobb Superior Court Judge Rob Leonard posted on his Facebook page:

“This morning [the Clerk’s website] was indexed thru 9/6/2023, a full quarter behind. I’m having to hold default judgments and bench warrants, attorneys aren’t getting notices, addresses aren’t getting changed. I can’t stress this enough, if you have something important that needs attention, or even a responsive pleading with a hearing coming up, please send my office a courtesy copy.”

These scandals and the GBI investigation (the GBI has sent its findings on to Attorney General Chris Carr’s office) were enough that earlier this year, Taylor faced several challengers Brunessa Elizabeth Drayton, Carole Melton and Nicholas Simpson in the Democratic Primary, but won the primary without a runoff receiving 23,868 (53%) of the vote.

To make matters worse, in June, Taylor implemented a new filing system with no notice. In a July 16, 2024 article, the Marietta Daily Journal reported, “An inexplicable switch of case management systems by Cobb Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor led to court notices never being delivered, an unprecedented number of no-shows before the bench and several days where no court documents could be electronically filed.”

The Judicial Emergency comes a day after the Cobb County Board of Commissioners filed a Motion for Intervene after Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill ruled the County’s Home Rule Map “unconstitutional”.

In her ruling, Judge Hill ordered that a new primary and new general election would need to be held as the Cobb County Board of Elections relied on the Home Rule rather than the State Map to qualify candidates for the Post 2 and Post 4 seats on the County Commission. Despite a stark warning by the Georgia Supreme Court, the intervention by the County Commission coupled with the 30 day Judicial Emergency, could only delay the process more.

With Taylor’s primary win, unless the State of Georgia removes Taylor, Cobb County voters only have Republican Cobb Planning Board Commissioner Deborah Dance as the only other option to end Taylor’s chaotic tenure.