the NEWS Oct. 25, 2014
Volume 6, Issue 29
Preparing for Ebola
local agencies come together to develop protocols to handle Ebola.
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rockdalenews.com
Serving Rockdale County and Conyers DEVELOPING STORY
Probate judge troubles continue By Michelle Kim
mkim@rockdalenews.com
Patriot Report The Patriots are struggling, Find out why.
Page 13
Election 2014
Kirby vs Thomas for Distr. 114
Page 3 Kim’s Closet, Wall of Hope revealed
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A former Probate Court worker will move forward with the lawsuit against Rockdale County Probate Court Judge Charles K. Mays, Sr. for almost $20,000 of unpaid backpay after no response was received from Mays or the county by the Friday deadline, according to her attorney. A related lawsuit and a separate lawsuit involved Mays will also move forward in Magistrate Court in November. Freya Pearson, through her attorney Michael Waldrop, had threatened to sue Mays if the $20,000 in wages and expenses was not paid by Friday, 4 p.m. Waldrop said no response had been received by the deadline
and that they would be filing the lawsuit on Monday, Oct. 27. Mays family advisor Pastor Charmaine Moss nee Hutcheson told The News last Sunday, Oct. 19, that DJ Asante was working on a statement from the Mays family. On Monday while leaving his office, Mays deferred comment but did say regarding Pearson, “None of the allegations she’s making are true.” Mays said a statement would be sent from his attorney DJ Asante by Tuesday. However no statement received by press time Friday. Asante is not a member of the Georgia Bar nor the South Carolina Bar, according to the online member directory. Since then, attempts to reach Mays for comment were not returned by press time. Two other lawsuits involving
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Mays – one by contractor Rodney Scott who thought he was buying a condominium from Mays and invested $10,500 in renovating the unit, and one from the Mays Family Trust against Pearson for $5,600 unpaid rent – will also move forward in Magistrate Court Nov. 5. Magistrate Court Judge Phinia Aten filed to recuse herself and Magistrate Judges Garland Moore and Cindy Stacey from both cases. The replacement judge will be selected by the District 4 Representative of the Council of Magistrate Court Judges Executive Committee, Beryl Anderson. Freya Pearson Pearson, a family friend, moved around the end of February from California with her 13-year-old
daughter and 5-year-old granddaughter to live with the Mays’ family in their rented McCalla Street home in order to work on setting up a Veterans or Mental Health accountability court. Since Mays is not an active attorney nor a member of the Georgia Bar, any accountability court handling felony matters would need to be handled with the Superior Court, according to the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts. Probate Courts typically handle matters such as birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, gun licenses, adoptions, wills. According to documents obtained by an Open Records Request, the court applied to the
See JUDGE, Page 4