JUDGE HAS GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER JAILED AFTER HE REQUESTS PUBLIC RECORDS ON HER
MELISSA DYKES
THE DAILY SHEEPLE
JULY 8, 2016
Mark Thomason, a publisher out of North Georgia, and his attorney Russell Stookey, were both charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud after filing an Open Records Act request that apparently hit a little too close to home for a judge.
Thomason was also charged making a false statement in his request. They were arrested, spent the night in jail, released on $10,000 bond, and will be subject to random drug screens and a laundry list of things they cannot do or they’ll be thrown back in jail before their trial.
By all appearances, the arrests are in retaliation for pissing off Superior Court chief judge and chair of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission Brenda Weaver, who obtained the indictments on Thomason and his lawyer seemingly because of what they were after in their records request in regard to her business dealings.
In his open records request, Thomason asked for copies of any checks that were “cashed illegally” and his lawyer Stookey subpoenaed the banks where Weaver and a fellow judge hold bank accounts for their office expenses.
In trying to stop them from getting that information, Judge Weaver implied that Thomason and Stookey were attempting to steal bank account information from the checks — as if to commit fraud. Weaver stated she did not grant the two men her permission before the lawyer sent the subpoenas.
Kinda hard to find out the truth about a judge’s potentially illegal activities if you have to go through the judge in question for permission to do so first.
The Rest…HERE
