May 12, 1999

Ms. Sherie M. Welch

Clerk, Supreme Court of Georgia

State Judicial Building

40 Capitol Square, 5^th Floor

Atlanta, Georgia  30334

VIA HAND DELIVERY

            Re:  In Re: J. Allen Grimsley v. John Cole Vodicka, et al.

                    No. S99Y1154

 Dear Ms. Welch:

 This letter is to request an extension of time to file a response to J. Allen Grimsley’s motion for rule of contempt.  This letter request for an extension of time incorporates the Motion to Dismiss J. Allen Grimsley’s Motion for Rule of Contempt together with the attachments to that motion.

            On May 5, 1999, you sent John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen a notice of the docketing of this case.  This notice of filing provides that Appellees have twenty days to file their response brief.

            Appellees are employees of a community organization, Prison & Jail Project, which is located in Sumter County.  The entire annual budget of Prison & Jail Project, which has two full-time employees and often a paid student intern, ranges between $28,000 and $60,000 per year.  The Prison & Jail Project is without adequate uncommitted funds to engage counsel for John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen.  Millard Farmer has agreed to represent John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen on a pro bono basis.

            Counsel for John Cole Vodicka requests an extension of time to respond to J. Allen Grimsley’s Motion for Rule of Contempt.

            The response necessary in this matter will require a large amount of legal work.  There are numerous issues that need researching and, most likely, must be addressed, including, but not limited to, the standing of J. Allen Grimsley to bring this action seeking to have John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen held in criminal contempt, the constitutionality of the State Bar of Georgia Rule 4-221 (d), the constitutionality of O. C. G. A. §15-19-31, and the constitutionality and statutory authority of this Court to act as a Court of Inquiry.

            To identify the constitutional magnitude of the issues involved in this matter, an Affidavit of Tim Mellen is attached to motion to dismiss.  The motion indicate that John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen are accused of engaging in politically protected speech about the usage of public funds paid to J. Allen Grimsley.  John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen are accused of petitioning the government for a redress of grievances, a right that has been constitutionally protected since the beginning of this country.

            The Motion of J. Allen Grimsley is not the product of original thinking. The Judicial Qualifications Commission has threatened, but never brought a motion, to use a similar rule to State Bar of Georgia Rule 4-221 (d) to have John Cole Vodicka held in contempt.  At the time of the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s warnings to John Cole Vodicka to be quiet about judicial complaints that he filed, the Americus Times Recorder, on June 2, 1994, reported that Sherie M. Welch, the Clerk of this Court, advised as follows.

     Sherry [sic] Welch, Clerk of the Georgia Supreme Court, said told [sic] the Times-Recorder that the sanctions, if imposed, could range from contempt of court, to perjury, but that the court isn’t limited in the action it could take.

     ‘The court could probably do anything that seemed appropriate,’ Ms. Welch said, ‘In a case like this, contempt would probably be the most likely action, but there’s a possibility that a charge of perjury could be made. I don’t think there is one answer.  There’s no way to tell what the court would do.’

Emphasis supplied.

                      In an article by the same newspaper the following day, the reporter, Don Fletcher, apparently paraphrased the quote from his earlier story and reported as follows.

Sherry [sic] Welch, Clerk of Georgia Supreme Court, confirmed Wednesday that public disclosure of the complaint and its components, along with a news release issued by the Prison and Jail Project in conjunction with the filing, were breaches of Rule 20, Georgia Court Rules and Procedures, as they apply to the confidentiality of complaints filed with the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

Ms. Welch said the state’s high court could sanction Vodicka and his group in a variety of ways, including contempt of court charges or, possibly, the filing of perjury charges.

Emphasis supplied

             In the June 2, 1994 article, the Americus-Recorder reported as follows.

A local group which recently filed a formal complaint against Sumter County Chief Magistrate John W. Southwell may have violated confidentiality requirements by releasing a copy of the complaint to the news media.

A secretary at the Judicial Qualifications Commission in Atlanta said Wednesday that the Prison and Jail Project, on whose behalf the complaint was filed, has committed a breach of Rule 20, Georgia Court Rules and Procedures, as it pertains to the confidentiality of proceedings before the commission, and could face sanctions by the Georgia Supreme Court.

             The quotes from these articles are certainly not included for the accuracy of the information or the accuracy of the reporting, but to demonstrate the importance of an adequate amount of time to brief the issues involved in this matter, and the necessity for free speech by everyone – not just government employees.  If newspapers are going to quote a Clerk of the Georgia Supreme Court as informing the public that persons revealing the content of complaints about judges can be sanctioned “in a variety of ways, including contempt of court charges or, possibly, the filing of perjury charges”, by Rule 20 of the Judicial Qualifications Committee and by analogy Rule 4-211 of the State Bar of Georgia, we have rules that are wagging the rabid dog.

            Counsel for John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen requests an extension of time until the conclusion of the day on June 15, 1999 to file the response brief and other motions in this matter.

            A motion to dismiss J. Allen Grimsley’s Motion for Contempt is filed today based upon the fact that there is no evidence or record in this Court supporting the motion.

                  Sincerely,

                Millard Farmer

                Georgia Bar No. 255300

               Counsel for John Cole Vodicka and Tim Mellen

cc:   J. Allen Grimsley

        William P. Smith, III

        Thurbert E. Baker

         Michael B. Shapiro