Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams (County of Fulton/Facebook).
A Superior Court judge in Georgia is accused of using “the prestige of her office” to advance her private interests and commit judicial misconduct, allegedly going so far as to lock up a young woman who testified in a divorce case for more than 30 minutes in a holding cell, just so she could demean her for having “daddy issues,” officials say.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams allegedly had a deputy take the 22-year-old to a holding cell and made her sit inside it for over half an hour before bringing her back into the courtroom to condemn her for the testimony she gave in her parents’ divorce case. The Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) handed down formal charges of misconduct to Williams on Monday and accused her of failing to “fairly, promptly and efficiently” dispose of cases in violation of the state’s code of judicial conduct.
She allegedly tried cutting corners and asked for favors related to cases involving her uncle and other “private interests,” according to the JQC complaint. For her uncle, Williams “lent the prestige of her office” and called a local law associate whose firm was handling a case for someone with a pending contempt action against the uncle in Fulton County Superior Court. According to the JQC, she tried getting them to agree to an extension of time, to no avail.
