Thursday’s MDJ front page included a story reporting that former Gov. Roy Barnes wants a judge he appointed to Cobb Superior Court (Robert Flournoy) to prevent ex-Cobb EMC CEO Dwight Brown from being tried on charges of the theft of millions of dollars from Cobb EMC.
My blood boiled when I read your story about Barnes’ motion to toss out the second grand jury criminal indictment against Brown. Barnes claims the grand jury had a conflict of interest because several members get their electricity from Cobb EMC.
What about the conflict of interest Judge Flournoy has? As governor, Barnes made him a Superior Court judge. At Barnes’ request Flournoy tossed out the first indictment of Brown on an alleged technicality.
To avoid a serious conflict of interest charge, Judge Flournoy should remove himself from this case, and let Judge Stephen Schuster hear Barnes’ motion.
Without getting into the conflict of interest claims, it burns me up that we, the members of Cobb EMC, have to pay the inflated attorney fees charged by Barnes and the other more than 25 lawyers who have been paid to fight both the civil and the criminal cases.
However, the current bylaws of Cobb EMC require and mandate that all expenses of litigation, including attorney fees, of officers and directors must be paid by Cobb EMC, even if a grand jury indicts an officer or director for stealing money from Cobb EMC. There is no limit on how many lawyers Dwight Brown hires or how much he agrees to pay them. The bylaws require that Cobb EMC reimburse him for all litigation and attorney fees.
The only way to stop paying Brown’s attorney fees is to change the Cobb EMC bylaws. It takes a membership meeting and a two-thirds vote of the members present to enact a new bylaw. The next membership meeting will be on Feb. 18.
The bylaw changes which I call “Cobb EMC Members’ Bill of Rights” will do that and much more.
How many more thousands of dollars of attorney fees will Cobb EMC have to pay for Brown until the “Cobb EMC Members’ Bill of Rights” is adopted by the membership?
Fletcher Thompson
Cobb EMC Member
Former Congressman
East Cobb
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Every member should carefully read MR. Thompson's "Bill of Rights" before voting & be very cautious.
MDJ you are so quick to publish every little detail when it comes to the Thompson/Pounds, CEOA, etc.. Why have you not provided the public with a copy of this Oh So Wonderful "Bill of Rights" ?
Cobb EMC should appoint one attorney, at a reasonable agreed on monthly allowance, and anything over Brown should pay if he wants a high priced team. I would not be surprised if there are kickbacks to him for the privilege of being on the EMC payroll. Brown has 20 million of our money in the last 2 years and should be made to pay all his expenses.
Hopefully, Flournoy is toast in the next election. We cannot afford to keep such a biased judge on the taxpayer largess.