The lawyer looking to unseat DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Courtney Johnson is going after the incumbent for her handling of the criminal trial of ex-CEO Burrell Ellis and an incident in which Johnson's purported refusal to grant a bathroom break spurred an embarrassing courtroom mishap.

A mailer circulating in DeKalb County by challenger Genet Hopewell includes a quote from former United Nations Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young that he “never felt so disrespected in a courtroom in my life as I did before Judge Courtney Johnson.” Andrew had testified during Ellis' trial and sentencing hearing.

The flyer drew a quick rebuke from Johnson as the candidates head into a May 22 election.

In an email, Johnson said she was “very disappointed, but not completely surprised, to see that my opponent has chosen to run a smear campaign rather than to run on her own record and what she would bring to this position. However, the response that I have gotten from people as I've been campaigning through the county is disgust that someone would send something that distasteful through the mail.”

“It's always sad when someone chooses to also run on spreading misinformation rather than their own record or lack thereof,” Johnson said.

Former District Attorney Robert James tried Ellis twice before getting a guilty verdict on attempted extortion and perjury charges, and Johnson sentenced him to 18 months in prison in 2015.

Ellis served eight months before the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his conviction last year and ordered a new trial. The Supreme Court found Ellis' attorneys were barred from eliciting testimony from county contractors not listed in the indictment, potentially creating a misleading “implication that Ellis had a general policy of pressuring vendors” for campaign contributions.

James was voted out in 2016, and his successor, Sherry Boston, declined to retry Ellis. The county reimbursed his legal fees and interest of almost $1.1 million.

Hopewell's flyer plays up both the reversal and the fees, also drawing heavily on the September incident in which attorney Jan Hankins with the DeKalb County Conflict Defender's office reportedly tried to get Johnson's attention, eventually holding up a sign saying “bathroom” that Johnson would later say she never saw.

Hankins had an accident, the story went viral, and the Judicial Qualifications Commission opened an investigation.

Under the heading “When you Google Judge Courtney Johnson,” Hopewell's flyer reprints snippets of several reports of the incident.

Hopewell defended the accuracy of the mailer Tuesday night.

“Ms. Johnson and I agree that the election should be about our records,” Hopewell said in an email. “My mailer is all about our records and what people have to say about them. Courtney's record includes a JQC investigation, her record includes being unanimously overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court because of errors she made, her record includes leaving DeKalb taxpayers with a 1.1 million dollar bill. I challenge her to identify a single assertion that is untrue.”

“What's distasteful is when a judge abuses the power of her office,” Hopewell added.

The Johnson-Hopewell race is not the only contest in the DeKalb Superior Court. A six-way contest to fill the seat of retiring Judge Daniel Coursey has drawn candidates including Tunde Akinyele, Gina Bernard, Roderick Bridges, Kirby Clements Jr., Latisha Dear-Jackson and Nicholas Smith.