GLYNN JUDGE'S BENCH NOW A HOT SEAT

Threats, Closer Scrutiny Follow Profile of Her Drug
Court

When Amanda Williams opened the doors to a new drug court 12 years
ago, critics accused her of coddling criminals.

Today she presides over the state's largest drug court operation - and
no one is complaining about coddling anymore.

Operating for years in relative obscurity, Williams became a national
headline when the public-radio show "This American Life" recently
devoted an hourlong broadcast to a harsh review of her court. The
report said Williams jails people for indefinite terms and imposes
sanctions that are as punitive as any in the country.

Now strangers are posting threats to Williams on the Internet. A new
Facebook page titled "Judge Amanda Williams Must Be Stopped" includes
posts calling her a monster and noting, "This woman is the reason the
rest of the country thinks Georgia is such a backwater."

The "This American Life" broadcast, called "Very Tough Love,"
highlighted a number of cases in Williams' drug court, including that
of a woman who tried to commit suicide after spending more than two
months on an indefinite jail term. It also reported that Williams is
"a judge many people truly fear."

The broadcast was aired just a few months after Williams handily won
re-election to her sixth term in a campaign in which she was accused
of blatant nepotism and giving inappropriately harsh sentences to
offenders who elect not to enter her drug court.

Williams, while acknowledging she can be direct and demanding, said
the broadcast unjustly threatens the integrity of her court and drug
courts across Georgia.

"I've spent 121/2 years trying to give people an opportunity to get
clean and sober, in spite of their addictive behaviors," she said.
"You can really make a difference in people's lives. I can't tell you
how devastating this has been."

Williams retained a lawyer who fired off a single-spaced, 14-page
letter to "This American Life" host Ira Glass, telling him the judge
disputes the central features of his broadcast. Williams is not feared
for vindictiveness and excessive punishment. Instead, she is the
preferred judge for enhanced chances of leniency, Macon lawyer David
Oedel wrote.

"I stand ready to discuss your respective liabilities and possible
strategies for settlement short of litigation," Oedel concluded. "But
I must warn you that we are moving forward with legal action."

In response, Glass said he was not a "character assassin." He stood by
the primary point of his broadcast - that he could find no other drug
court in the country that uses Williams' harsh methods.

Over lunch last week at Hungry Hannah's, three blocks from the Glynn
County courthouse and where a "Reelect Amanda Williams" bumper sticker
still hangs on the wall, Williams acknowledged that it's almost
unheard of for a sitting judge to file a libel suit. But she also
declined to state her intentions.

other concerns

As Williams presided over her drug court the next morning, Judicial
Qualifications Commission Director Jeff Davis and investigator Richard
Hyde sat in the gallery observing the proceedings.

Davis said he could neither confirm nor deny whether the agency is
investigating Williams. But lawyers familiar with the probe said the
JQC is investigating the judge.

A likely focus of the investigation is Williams' imposition of
indefinite jail terms for drug court participants who repeatedly fail
drug tests, abscond or commit other violations. Court records show
Williams has signed orders in recent years that revoke a participant's
probation, sending the offender back to jail "until further order of
the court."

Jim Jenkins, a lawyer who represented two clients who participated in
Williams' court, said drug court judges can wield almost unlimited
power.

"I don't disagree with the people who tell me she means well," he
said. "But I think the record in too many cases speaks for itself,
that a lot of people have had their constitutional and procedural
rights run roughshod over."

The scrutiny comes when state leaders are embracing drug courts. Last
month, Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation creating a commission that
will study expanding drug courts as alternatives to prison, and he
signed the bill in a Hall County courtroom where his son, Judge Jason
Deal, runs a drug court.

Williams said she decided to establish a local drug court after seeing
the benefits of recovery for her husband. Her drug court is the
third-oldest in Georgia and takes first-time, nonviolent drug
offenders from Glynn, Camden and Wayne counties. In 12 years, about
1,300 defendants have agreed to participate and two-thirds of them
have graduated or are still in the program, Williams said.

A 2006 study by the Glynn drug court says 5.5 percent of its graduates
had been rearrested on felony charges within three years of leaving
the program. A 2003 National Institute of Justice study of 17,000 drug
court graduates nationwide showed that 25 percent of those
participants had been rearrested on felony charges within two years of
graduation.

Upon arrest, nonviolent drug defendants are jailed unless they can
post a $15,000 bond. All such cases are assigned to Williams, and
defendants who plead guilty and decide not to enter drug court must
serve 10 to 12 months in a probation detention center, where inmates
are put to work and are ineligible for parole. Or they can enter her
drug court and be released on a personal recognizance bond.

A successful participant can graduate after spending at least two
years in the program. If that happens, the defendant's felony
conviction is expunged.

But those who suffer repeated relapses during the program face jail
time and could have their stay in the program extended beyond two
years. Some are kicked out of the program and sentenced to detention.

Those who fail a drug test the first time and who don't admit they
used drugs must spend three days in jail. A second failed test brings
seven days and a third means 28 days.

Other drug courts are less punitive. In Forsyth County, the first
failed test means one day in jail; the second, three days; the third,
seven days; and the fourth, 14 days. Those penalties double when a
defendant denies using drugs.

Williams defends her use of lengthier jail time, such as 28 days for
the third failed drug test.

"It takes 21 days to break the habit and seven days to reflect on it,"
she said. "I didn't just decide I was going to be mean to these
people. It's all treatment-motivated."

As for indefinite incarceration, Williams said she signs such orders
for those who fail to appear in court so she can decide what to do
once they're arrested. She also does it for repeat offenders on a
waiting list for residential treatment.

"These people aren't sitting in jail forever and ever and ever and
ever," she said. "I'm fair. I'm consistent. I do care."

Law runs in the Family

Williams' drug court Wednesday was all business. Participants were not
allowed to put their hands in their pockets when standing before the
judge. Anyone who was disruptive was directed to apologize to the bailiffs.

Also appearing before Williams was lawyer Jason Clark, representing a
drug court client. Clark, who once interned for Williams as a law
clerk, is a law partner with Williams' son.

In Glynn legal circles, the Williams family footprint is hard to
miss.

Not only is Williams' son an attorney, so is her husband. Her daughter
serves as a guardian ad litem representing children in domestic cases.
And Williams' daughter-in-law, who once practiced law in the circuit,
is a law clerk for one of her mother-in-law's colleagues on the bench.

The Williams family's long legal reach has drawn criticism from
lawyers.

Williams has presided over domestic cases in which she appointed her
daughter as guardian representing children's best interests. In 2009,
her daughter-in-law obtained Williams' signature on a temporary
restraining order to stop a foreclosure.

Williams said complaints about these situations are red herrings
created by political opponents. Voters, she said, overwhelmingly
rejected the charges.

Williams said she assigned her daughter as guardian only in cases in
which both parties insisted on her involvement. She said she signed
the order for her daughter-in-law a day before the scheduled
foreclosure because no other judge was available and only after she
informed both parties in the case about the family ties.

Lawyer OppositioN

Last fall, St. Simons Island attorney Doug Alexander wrote to local
bar members during Williams' campaign, saying the chief judge was
unfit to stay on the bench. He cited her cases with her relatives and
accused her of berating parties who appear before her.

Alexander said he contributed to Williams' first run for office and
campaigned for her. "But I'm at a loss today to explain her behavior,"
he said.

In the 2010 election, Alexander supported Williams' opponent, lawyer
and law professor Mary Helen Moses, and the timing of his letter
coincided with the campaign.

As for the drug court, Alexander said, "There are clearly people out
there who were helped and God bless them. There are also some folks
who have been grossly mistreated in that program."

Ayla Wilson said it saved her life.

A high school dropout and heroin addict at age 19, Wilson said she was
caught driving the wrong way down a one-way street on Mother's Day
weekend in 2007. Police found drugs, syringes and a spoon in her car.

Even though inmates at the jail warned her about Williams' drug court
before she bonded out, Wilson entered the program.

"When I first appeared before her, it was like, 'Oh, my, God,'" Wilson
said. She remembers Williams, her voice raised, telling her, "You are
going to die!"

Wilson said she defied the program and its counselors from the outset.
She said she received the standard penalties for her repeated positive
drug tests: three days in jail for the first, seven for the second and
28 for the third.

After the third positive, in March 2008, Wilson said she has stayed
drug free. When she graduated from drug court in May 2009, her felony
conviction was expunged.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. "She did give me
tough love."