Veteran Prosecutor Appointed as South Fulton Chief Municipal Court Judge
The South Fulton City Council approved the appointment of Fani Willis on Tuesday.
July 24, 2019 at 03:36 PM
3 minute read
South Fulton has appointed a veteran former Fulton County prosecutor as the city's new chief municipal court judge.
The South Fulton City Council voted to affirm Atlanta attorney Fani T. Willis as the city's new chief judge on Tuesday.
Mayor William “Bill” Edwards announced Willis's appointment, subject to city council approval, on Monday.
“This appointment is great for the city of South Fulton as Ms. Willis brings a vast amount of judicial experience and leadership to our municipal court,” Edwards said in announcing her appointment.
“I am obviously elated to be able to serve my own community,” Willis said Wednesday. “I just want to make sure I do so in a way that provides integrity to the courts and to the citizens who come before me either as victims or charged with crimes. … For me, it is a dream realized, and I intend to do it to the best of my ability.”
Willis said that while the position in nominally a part-time post, “I am known for working seven days a week.”
Willis earned her law degree from Emory University's School of Law and obtained her undergraduate degree from Howard University.
Willis, who currently has a private practice in Atlanta, previously served as a Fulton County deputy district attorney and was lead counsel in District Attorney Paul Howard's 2015 racketeering prosecution of a dozen Atlanta public school educators and administrators on charges that they falsified student standardized test scores in order to artificially boost them.
As a deputy DA, Willis supervised 25 attorneys and made decisions regarding prosecutions for armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and other complex cases.
Last year, Willis ran in a nonpartisan race for Fulton County Superior Court to replace Judge Tom Campbell, who decided not to seek reelection.
She lost the race to Kevin Farmer, then a Clayton County senior assistant district attorney, who defeated her in a runoff with more than 55% of the vote.
Earlier this year, Willis served as co-counsel with Ben Easterlin, executive director of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, in prosecuting judicial ethics charges brought by the judicial watchdog agency against Pike County Superior Court Judge Robert “Mack” Crawford. Willis said she intends to continue working with the JQC.
After a two-day ethics hearing, the JQC judicial panel—which suspended Crawford from the bench last fall—recommended his removal from the bench. Crawford has challenged the JQC recommendation to the Supreme Court of Georgia. Criminal charges of felony theft and violating his oath of office are pending against him in Pike County.
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