Fulton Judiciary Weaponizes Project ORCA

Cobb Judges Abandon Constitution to Protect the Establishment

Fulton County's Project ORCA recently recruited two Cobb County Senior Judges, the Honorable G. Grant Brantley and the Honorable Adele P. Grubbs allegedly to assist in managing the Fulton County Superior Court backlog of cases. The timing of the recruitment and their resulting rulings leave little to conjecture. Cobb Senior Judges are being used as mere cover fire for the improprieties of Fulton judges, and for what?

This article comes as an unanticipated 5th Part in a series of articles following an array of retaliatory actions of the Fulton County judiciary and law enforcement against a man not backing down to the system, Power vs. Truth. Derrick Jackson, a resident of Fulton County was robbed of his due process rights under the Constitution just days before Christmas of 2022 by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melynee Leftridge. "After Jackson took to the media about the situation, his family was thrown out of their home located in The Country Club of the South by the Fulton County Sheriff's SCORPION Unit without a proper court order."

Project ORCA

"On June 30, 2021, during a Fulton County Board of Commissioners meeting with the county’s mayors at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, County Manager Dick Anderson said Fulton’s court case backlog had gotten out of control."

Fulton Leaders 'Brainstormed'

Just over five months later, when Fulton’s courts finally reopened, county leaders embarked on a plan to address the backlog—which, after being inventoried, totaled 148,209 open and active cases. Fulton, the state’s largest and most populous county with Georgia’s largest court case backlog, chose a name just as big for the strategy: Project Orca.

According to an article written by Everett Catts of the Daily Report, available at law.com:

For Fulton, 'orca' has been synonymous with 'solution.' As of July 31, about a year and a half after launching Project Orca, the county had disposed of 108,661 cases, becoming a model for justice systems across the state and nation. In July, Fulton won one of the National Association of Counties’ Achievement Awards for its innovative methods of whittling down the backlog. In May it won an Association County Commissioners of Georgia County of Excellence Award for the same reason.

So, how exactly does this Project Orca devour cases at such a rapid pace? What exactly is the secret? Cobb County attorney, Matthew D. McMaster, shared his opinion: "The court's due diligence is our due process. And due diligence takes time. If time is being reduced, so is due diligence and, in turn, due process. It's as simple as that."

When asked if there’s evidence proving that due process rights were being sacrificed at the hand of Project Orca, McMaster responded: "Absolutely. The numbers don't lie.”

To McMaster’s point, looking at the numbers, disposing of over 100,000 in a year and a half is certainly a model for a system, without time for justice.

Cobb Leaders Rest On Their Laurels

So why would Cobb County senior judges be complicit with Fulton County's agenda? A surface level search reveals that the start and end of the analysis lies with their incentive. In other words, follow the money.

Former Alpharetta judge was personal attorney for city prosecutor

According to an article written by Adrianne Murchison and published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in July of 2022, the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) found "reasonable cause" that Zimmerman "violated the code of judicial conduct.” It has since been confirmed that while Zimmerman was acting as the Alpharetta Municipal Court Judge, he "presided over thousands of cases argued by a solicitor who had hired him to be her private attorney," which is of course a conflict of interest.

"The JQC resolved its investigation against Zimmerman in June when he decided to step down from the bench. He agreed not to accept any elected or appointed judicial office in the future 'in lieu of formal charges,' the JQC report states. The report said the agreement is 'a fair disposition of the matter and is in the interests of justice.'"

Alpharetta judge presided over cases, represented defendants at same time, investigation finds

In a story by Bryan Mims of WSB-TV, it was reported that Zimmerman acted as both lawyer and judge in at least six cases dating back to 2008. Zimmerman denied the accusations. According to the investigation by the City of Alpharetta: "Instead of removing the case from the Municipal Court of Alpharetta to the State Court of Fulton County, Judge Zimmerman would negotiate the case with Solicitor Fran McQueen, use attorney Keith Brandon as a ‘straw man’ defense attorney on a plea in absentia and then have another Judge for the Municipal Court sign the orders."

"It was just devastating to think that the person in charge of making sure our court system worked well and worked legally was also the person who seems to have let us down," said city attorney Randy Rich.

Follow the Money

But why would Judge Grubbs appoint a special master whose ethics have been so severely questioned that he is barred from serving as a judge in the State of Georgia?

A Short-Sighted Swan Song

It appears that heavily distinguished and once well respected Cobb County judges (Grubbs and Brantley) have in retirement abandoned their principals and have willingly taken on the role of enabling the Fulton injustice system at the expense of their own good names. But why? What changed (if anything) that transformed these once highly regarded Cobb County judicial leaders into mere henchmen of the Fulton County establishment?

The most obvious answer prevails: How senior judges make their money.

By Andy Lee White
Coauthor of Atlanta Pop in the '50s, '60s & '70s: The Magic of Bill Lowery

October 14, 2023

See also

• Part 1: Karma prevails and Recusal Motion ensues
• Part 2: Fulton Sheriff wrongfully evicts Mother and children
• Part 3: Georgia Ethics Code Does Not Apply To Fulton Judges
• Part 4: Cobb County judge sets the record straight in Fulton, or is it all a facade?