My reason for eating in Pell County that Tuesday matters: federal judges do not visit small Georgia towns seeking confrontation. Judgerobe sales
I am no investigator. Judges rule on cases brought before them; pursuing cases ourselves would be improper.
Yet my family roots lie in Pell County.
My maternal aunt Lorraine Bishop, seventy-six, lives on eleven acres off Old Mill Road, three miles from Halvorsen Springs. After thirty-four years teaching third grade at Pell County Elementary, she still sends me local newspaper clippings, as she has since I attended law school. Each bears a sticky note in her looping handwriting: “Thought you’d want to see this, baby.” ConsultLawyers
Last spring, the clippings described disturbing arrests: a mechanic detained for “loitering” beside his garage; a deacon charged with “obstruction” for questioning a search of his son; and a widow whose home was sold for taxes three months after she spent nineteen days jailed on a charge later dismissed.
In June, Lorraine sent something besides clippings: a manila envelope containing thirty-one handwritten letters from county residents. They used notebook paper, church letterhead, even the reverse of a feed-store receipt.
Every letter concerned Sheriff Voss.
“These folks wrote to the GBI,” Aunt Lorraine said on the phone. “To the governor. To the county commission. Nothing happened. Some of them got visits from deputies the next week asking why they were making trouble.” Her voice shook. “Amara, I know you can’t do anything. You’re a judge. But somebody in Atlanta needs to read these. Somebody who’ll know where to send them.” Judgerobe sales
She was right: my judicial office gave me no investigative role. But as a citizen, I could appropriately report credible evidence of possible federal crimes.
The following morning I brought the letters to Chief Judge Harold Brennan. We copied and logged them before he forwarded the originals to the Northern District of Georgia’s United States Attorney and the FBI Atlanta public corruption squad. I documented my family connection and pledged to recuse myself from resulting cases.
I expected my involvement to end there.
