Meigs mayor cancels court

Published 6:09 pm Wednesday, December 2, 2015

MEIGS — The mayor’s defiance of a vote of the Meigs City Council caused Municipal Court in this embattled little city to be “postponed.”

This delay affected all who were scheduled to appear before Judge Richard Kent, most notably Mayor Linda Harris’ nephew, Jerome Kantrell Simpson, and another relative.

Email newsletter signup

According to the minutes of the Nov. 2 meeting, the Meigs City Council voted to keep former City Clerk Bailey Palmer on as clerk of the court and it wanted her to train the women who were hired to replace her as city clerk.

Palmer told the Times-Enterprise in an interview a few days later that she would not train the new hires.

She said, “I will do my court duties on December 1 and that’s it.”

On Nov. 27, Palmer said Council Member Stephanie Battle called her and said “They had court handled” and didn’t need Palmer. Palmer said she told Battle that whoever replaced her had to be certified.

The Times-Enterprise obtained several emails through an open records request. In one dated Nov. 3, Meigs Police Chief Gary Price questioned Harris about the decision to not let Palmer perform her duties as clerk of court.

He said, “It has been brought to my attention that you will not allow Ms. Bailey Palmer to continue as our court clerk. With that decision, you have placed the city at risk for being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”

“As you already know, the City of Meigs has an established municipal proceeding that is governed by the State of Georgia,” he continued. “Judge Richard Kent has stated that he has explained this to you, in full details. Municipal Court cannot function without a court clerk. With all of the attention being placed on the current administration it, would appear as if you were assisting someone with having their charges dismissed, by not allowing Ms. Palmer to continue as the court clerk.”

Harris responded in another email, “I have spoken to Judge Kent. He stated to me that we do need a court clerk. I will not discuss with you about Ms. Palmer.  Ms. Palmer gave her reason for quitting in the Times Enterprise, so with that statement alone, we must find another court clerk.”

She continued, “We will be postponing court for tomorrow until next month or until we figure out how we will go forth with court proceedings.”

“To clarify your concerns, Ms. Palmer will not be the court clerk for tomorrow,” Harris wrote. “Again, I have spoken briefly to Judge Kent about how we are going to handle court.” 

Harris reportedly also told her nephew not to report to court on Tuesday.

In an email on Tuesday, Price told Harris, “You see I know that you should not have instructed your nephew, Jerome Kantrell Simpson, 209 Palmer Road, to not appear in court. It would appear as if you were hindering the prosecution of his case. This is what I was trying to prevent from happening. Being that he has the exact address listed as yours, it looks bad in the eyes of the public. You have stated that you want the police department to be run with a ‘sense of transparency.’ And this request, when honored, will make you as the chief executive officer look bad. It looks as if you deliberately sabotaged the Municipal Court in order to protect your nephew and Mr. Jamal Stacey, who is your brother’s stepson (who was facing a traffic offense in which he had already made arrangement to pay.)”

Price implored Harris in his first email, “The perception of this can be avoided by allowing her (Palmer) to, at the least, continue to perform the duties she has been trained to do. This will also allow the council an opportunity to assist with the hiring of a qualified person who can come and perform those duties. As the chief executive officer of Meigs, I asked that you make the executive decision that will allow the city to continue to grow.” 

Palmer was in tears Wednesday as she explained the predicament she finds herself in due to the mayor’s decision. She explained that as the certified Clerk of the Court for Meigs, she is held accountable for the necessary reports being filed. She said if the correct reports are not filed, there will be fines.

“The fine is more than I make in a year,” she said, her voice quivering with emotion.

She called on county and state representatives, including Thomas County Commissioner Ken Hickey and state Rep. Sam Watson, to do something to help Meigs.

“Everybody is being held accountable except for her (Harris),” Palmer said.

“So many people in Meigs are fighting for the right thing,” she said, passionately, “It is heartbreaking and so sad that nobody cares. If she is becoming a monster, the people who are supposed to do something about it are creating her.”

The Times-Enterprise has, so far, been unable to reach Kent for comment. A series of questions was emailed to Harris and copied to City Attorney Tom Lehman. These questions were unanswered at press time.