Dwight L. Thomas. (Courtesy photo)

A former president of the Georgia Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers is demanding an investigation of alleged "thuggish" behavior by Clayton County bailiffs who ousted him from the courtroom.

Atlanta criminal defense attorney Dwight Thomas also called for the removal of two bailiffs and a Clayton County sheriff's deputy from their posts at the county courthouse after they physically removed him from Judge Robert Mack's courtroom Friday.

In a letter to Clayton County Chief Superior Court Judge Geronda Carter Monday, Thomas said he was threatened, shouted at, then removed from court by the trio of officers as he was addressing Mack with the judge's permission. Thomas said he was removed as he complained about one bailiff's earlier behavior in evicting Thomas and his clients from an empty conference room generally reserved for attorneys to use.

The trio, he said, should not be allowed to work in contact with the taxpaying public or legal professionals.

Thomas asked the chief judge to call in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is calling on Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill to open a separate internal affairs investigation.

Thomas said Mack—whom he described as "an appreciated professional friend of many years—did nothing to curtail the bailiffs' behavior. "I do not have an issue with Judge Mack with the exception that he ceded control and power to three thugs to evict a lawyer from court" and denied him his "constitutional right to petition a court for grievance," Thomas wrote in his letter to Carter.

Judge Robert Mack. (Courtesy photo)

Mack; Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill, whose office is responsible for court protective services; and Sheriff Major Jonathan Manning, the commander in charge of court protective services, couldn't be reached for comment.

Thomas—who is also a past-president of the DeKalb Lawyers Association—said his ouster from Mack's courtroom stemmed from a desire to wish the judge a happy new year and his attempt to use the empty conference room to speak with clients he was representing in a separate matter before another judge.

Thomas said that, as he opened the conference room door, he was confronted by bailiff Kevin Gooley, who approached him in "an aggressive, hostile, threatening, and confrontational manner" and ordered Thomas and his clients to "get out." Thomas said, when he told Gooley he was a lawyer, the bailiff responded that he "did not care," Thomas said.

Thomas said he and his clients left, but the lawyer decided to raise Gooley's behavior with the judge before leaving the courthouse. Thomas said he waited in the courtroom until he was recognized by Mack. But when he identified Gooley, who had followed him into the courtroom, as having treated him "rudely and unprofessionally," Thomas said in his letter. "All hell began to break out."

Gooley first interrupted Thomas, then marched over to the lawyer as he was addressing the judge, "got in my face and stated, 'You are not going to use my conference room and if you don't like it we can take it outside and I will handle you,'"  Thomas said in his letter to the chief judge. As Thomas continued to protest, Gooley was joined by a deputy and a second bailiff who surrounded the 68-year-old lawyer and forced him from the courtroom.

"At no time was I ever disrespectful to Judge Mack and at no time did Judge Mack order me to leave the courtroom nor order or direct that I could no longer speak to him," Thomas said. "My client's family and I left the courtroom under humiliation, embarrassment and threats of violence."

Thomas called Mack's lack of response "judicial impotence."

"I don't know whether he was afraid of these people or what to do," Thomas said. "He lost control."

Thomas said the sheriff called him later to apologize, telling him that the bailiffs "didn't know who you were."

But, the lawyer added, "They shouldn't treat anyone like that. …These people conducted themselves like thugs in the courtroom, like goons. I'm not going to let that happen to another lawyer."

Read the letter: