Mr. Gough59-years-old is a well known presence in the small community of lawyers. Brunswick, population 16,000, in contrast with the other two defendants’ lawyers, who hail from the larger metropolitan areas of Atlanta Macon.
ItIs Mr. Gough’s demeanor that most closely resembles that of an aw-shucks country lawyer character from the movies, with a voice that honks and drawls and tends to ladle on the folksiness. On Thursday, as he called for — and then appeared to backpedal on — a ban on BlackPreachers in the courtroom Mr. Gough wondered aloud what it would be like “if a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks sitting in the back.”
But Mr. Gough’s presentation is, like so much about him, confounding, and sometimes contradictory. ThoughHe attended law school at The UniversityOf Georgia, Mr. GoughOn this day, I grew up Long Island. HeOver a number years, headed up the Republican PartyIn Glynn County, GaHe claimed that he was the legal director for two years of a group called Poor Minority Justice Association. From 1989 to 1993, he served as a prosecutor in the local district attorney’s office. ForHe represented the poorest defendants within his community for four years, starting in 2012. Brunswick Judicial CircuitPublic Defender
HeFor a variety of reasons, he was fired as public defender. Among them was the allegation that he fomented a culture of “fear and intimidation” in the office, according to statements during his appeals hearing from Bryan P. Tyson, who was at the time the executive director for the state public defense council.
Mr. TysonIn a letter firing Mr. GoughIt was noted that a female employee had been hired in Mr. Gough’s office had accused him of retaliation after she had filed a sexual harassment complaint against another employee. The state public defender “credited her claim of retaliation,” Mr. Tyson wrote, and “took remedial action.”
Mr. TysonAlso, be chastised Mr. Gough for engaging in a “media campaign” that took aim at the BrunswickDistrict attorney in the area at the time. Jackie Johnson. Mr. GoughHad been publicly accused Ms. Johnson of failing to file cases in a timely manner, a move that he said wasted taxpayer money and impeded indigent clients’ right to a speedy trial.
Mr. TysonIn his letter, he stated that Mr. GoughThe district attorney was also accused of being too close to the local police. He said that Mr. GoughHad complained that the Superior Court was being run “as a debtors’ prison,” issuing steep restitution and probation fees to the poor.
Source: NY Times
