$64,335.32 and counting. That is the amount of taxpayer funds that the Fayette County Republican Party and its chairman, Tyrone Jones, have burned through in their quest to wrongly remove me, Marilyn Watts, from the Fayette County Board of Elections.
Recently, Mr. Jones wrote a letter to the editor about this case. His dishonesty cannot be allowed to stand unrefuted. My letter will outline the true facts of this case, not be a pathetic attempt to deflect and spin away like Mr. Jones’ letter.
I encourage anyone who is interested to look up this case on the Fayette County Superior Court docket. It is styled “Scott Fabricius, the Fayette County Republican Party vs. Marilyn Watts — Civil Action No. 2013V-0816 J1.”
The Superior Court judge, who heard this case, ruled in his findings: “Fabricius in his deposition repeatedly admitted that he had no personal knowledge with respect to the contents of the petition. Fabricius committed perjury then and during the trail. During the trial of this case, Richard Hobbs, as counsel for the petitioners, stipulated in open court that Fabricius had no personal knowledge of anything stated in the petition. At trial of the case, the petitioners failed to present any evidence of any misconduct, misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance of Marilyn Watts. The undisputed evidence presented showed that Marilyn Watts’ work as a member of the Board of Elections was exemplary. This action, therefore, was completely frivolous in that it was based upon a false verification (perjury) and meritless claims. Therefore this action was merely the latest effort by the Fayette County Republican Party, Scott Fabricius and Richard Hobbs to harass Marilyn Watts and her family. As such, it falls squarely into the intent of OCGA 9-15-14 as abusive and frivolous ligation. The evidence offered by petitioners was either perjury or baseless. The Court finds that this lawsuit was pursued for an improper purpose to harass Marilyn Watts and thus the Court concludes that it is authorized to award attorneys’ fees and expenses under OCGA 9-15-14(b).
”The facts clearly show that Petitioners and Hobbs’ actions were merely the latest efforts to harass Marilyn Watts with unfounded and meritless allegations. Additionally, Petitioners stipulated that they offered perjured evidence against Marilyn Watts. It appears that Hobbs’ conduct in filing or having the Verification filed, after he was present at the deposition of Fabricius, was suspect at best and suborning perjury at worst. Wherefore, the Court having found that with respect to this ligation, there existed such complete absence of any justifiable issue of law or fact that it could not be reasonably believed that a court would accept the asserted claim, the Court GRANTS the Motion awarding to the Respondent the total amount of $30,000 attorney’s fees and expenses against Scott Fabricius and the Fayette County Republican Party.”
Now, Tyrone Jones wrote a letter to the editor blaming the Commissioners for the judge’s findings that they reimburse $30,000 of the $64,335 paid by the county. This letter twisted the facts and outright lied about the case altogether. I submit that if the County Commissioners did not seek to recover these fees, they would not be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. The Fayette County GOP, Scott Fabricius and Richard Hobbs should have thought of this result when they embarked on their blitzkrieg against Marilyn Watts.
At the beginning of the hearing the judge asked both lawyers if they wanted to pay for the court reporter to take down the hearing. John Sparks for Marilyn Watts said, “Yes,” and Richard Hobbs said, “No, let the county and taxpayers pay for it.” This one example shows how complete their disregard for the taxpayer has been throughout this case.
Tyrone Jones was asked by several party members to withdraw the case when he became chairman and would not. They can blame the local party having to repay the county on their own treacherous intentions and their pro bono attorney, Richard Hobbs. (A classic case of you get what you pay for).
The only fraud that is being perpetuated is you and your followers, Tyrone, holding yourself out as “the” true conservative Republicans. No conservative Republican would ever blow nearly $65,000 (and still growing) of taxpayers dollars on a petty vendetta. Under your “leadership” the local GOP has been destroyed and rendered nothing but a social club.
You really should not point your crooked finger at others alleging wrongdoing, after the corrupt and illegal manner in which my replacement, the current Republican appointee to the Board of Elections, was named. Just like you, my replacement is not qualified to hold this position.
The taxpayers of this county should hold, you, Tyrone Jones, Scott Fabricius, Steve Brown (the driving force behind this debacle), Richard Hobbs and the board of the Fayette County Republican Party in contempt for wasting their hard-earned dollars in this personal crusade against me and my family.
Marilyn Watts
Fayetteville, Ga.
