BRUNSWICK JUDGE FACING CHARGES TO STEP DOWN FROM BENCH

An influential South Georgia judge accused of locking up defendants
indefinitely and cutting off their access to relatives and lawyers
will step down from the bench and avoid a potentially explosive trial.

In a letter delivered Tuesday to Gov. Nathan Deal, Judge Amanda
Williams of Brunswick said she intends to retire from the bench on
Jan. 2. She also signed a consent order agreeing to never again seek
or hold judicial office.

In November, the state Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a
dozen ethics charges against Williams. It accused her of jailing
participants in her drug court for indefinite terms, giving false
statements when asked about it, behaving in a tyrannical manner on
the bench and allowing family members who were attorneys appear in
cases before her.

Last week, the commission filed more charges, alleging that Williams
gave special treatment to a man facing family violence charges by
letting him enter drug court. She was also accused of allowing a
lawyer defending her before the judicial commission to represent
clients with cases before her.

Williams did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The seven-member commission was to consider Williams' case during a
trial expected early next year. Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief
Justice Leah Ward Sears and former state Attorney General Mike Bowers
had signed on to prosecute the case against Williams.

"It's the best resolution I could have hoped for," Sears said
Tuesday, referring to Williams' decision to step down. "This is what
needed to happen. I'm just sorry that her judicial circuit and the
state had to go through all of this to get to this point."

Williams, chief judge of the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit,
first won election to the Superior Court bench in 1990. She has
presided over Glynn County's drug court for more than a dozen years
and the operation was expanded to include participants from Camden
and Wayne counties, making it the largest drug court in the state.

Williams came under intense scrutiny early this year when the public
radio show, "This American Life," broadcast "Very Tough Love," a
segment that gave a harsh review of her drug court.

According to the commission's charges, Williams jailed a drug court
participant, who had previously been flagged for having suicidal
tendencies, for an open-ended term of detention and ordered her to be
placed on "total restriction," meaning no access to her family or her
lawyer. Two months later, the woman attempted suicide in the Glynn
County jail, the charges said.

The complaint also said Williams "summarily jailed" a drug court
participant because he used the term "baby momma" when he asked to be
excused from a Saturday session to attend a family function. Last
year, when a group of juvenile probationers appeared in her drug
court, Williams began screaming at one girl because she was chuckling
in court. When the girl began to sob, Williams ordered her removed
and placed in handcuffs, the complaint said.

Superior Court Judge Anthony Harrison of Brunswick said Tuesday the
drug court will remain in operation and the circuit's judges will
meet next week to decide how to proceed. As for Williams' decision,
Harrison said, "I am sad to see her career end the way it did."

Attorney Mary Helen Moses, who strongly criticized Williams during an
unsuccessful campaign last year to unseat her from the bench, said
she was gratified the commission's charges were filed and have now
been resolved.

"I hope it means we'll see some positive reforms in the drug court,"
she said. "This provides an opportunity for the Brunswick Judicial
Circuit to move forward and do better."