Legal invoices that Augusta Law Department didn’t want the public to know about show the local government during some of its worst moments.
The case information redacted from view in the city’s recent response to an open records request shows the names of dozens of plaintiffs injured in crashes involving sheriff’s deputies over the last few years.
The invoices, which the law department un-redacted last week to comply partially with state law, reveal the government’s tendency to involve outside attorneys in many legal matters.
Two related firms – Frails & Wilson and Lyons, Jones & Frails, made up about 42% outside legal spending this year, with the firms billing $310,162 as of Friday.
The law department was created in the late 2000s with the stated purpose of reducing Augusta’s reliance on external legal services. But today, the city spends as much on outside services as it did in 2008 on all legal services, when the department didn’t exist.
The invoices show the two Frails firms’ worked on more than 40 different cases this year, including $38,311 to defend deputies and Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree from lawsuits arising from car crashes and police chases.
While the case had been going on since 2015, Augusta spent $30,645 this year to defend Roundtree and former deputy Thomas L. King from an injury case. Rather than settle it, the case went to trial in Richmond County State Court, where a jury awarded injured passenger, Rodriquez Bostic, $600,000. Taxpayers were on the hook for $450,000.
More recently, the Augusta Commission approved a $90,000 settlement with a woman injured in a deputy crash on Central Avenue. Lyons, Jones & Frails had billed $732 this year in that case, in the latest data available.
In another car crash case, Lyons, Jones & Frails billed $800 to work on a settlement with Dominique Haynes earlier this year. But after filing a motion to dismiss the case, the attorneys and their clients failed to attend a June 8 hearing. According to court documents, the no-show prompted Richmond County Superior Court Judge John Flythe to dismiss the motion.
Use of excessive force, discrimination, emergency response claims
Taxpayers have spent at least $38,526 with the Frails firms to handle claims of the excessive use of force and false arrest by deputies this year. The amount includes $23,723 to defend the sheriff’s office from a 2021 lawsuit filed by a retired school worker who said she was falsely accused, tackled and beaten by a deputy, Richard Russell, while visiting family members at Olmstead Homes.
Jones, Lyons & Frails has billed $9,277 this year to defend the sheriff’s office against allegations a supervisor repeatedly, publicly called an officer of Iraqi descent a “terrorist” with a bomb, and $3,415 in the jail death of Ashley Asuncion under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The invoices all clearly state they are for work done for the sheriff’s office, whether by Jones, Lyons & Frails or Frails & Wilson. But the cases being billed aren’t all for the sheriff’s office.
The firms have billed $9,956 this year to defend Augusta Fire Department against a lawsuit filed by the family of Nichoel Gaither, who died in 2021 while first-responders stood outside her door waiting for a deputy to arrive. Gaither gave permission to an ambulance dispatcher for them to forcibly enter.
Frails & Wilson also continues its representation of firefighters in the case of an Augusta businesswoman improperly administered Narcan and restrained, despite firefighters having no evidence she was having an overdose. The case has cost about $3,037 in external legal bills this year.
The firms have billed $3,560 this year to defend the sheriff’s office, the commission and Deputy Charlie T. Walker from a civil suit contending Walker raped a woman while working special duty at a private Julian Smith Casino event.
Taxpayers have spent $1,709 with one of the firms to defend the Richmond County Marshal’s Office in litigation accusing the office of improperly towing 17 vehicles and a trailer from a south Augusta car lot. They’d also paid to defend a city dump truck driver,
Abortion protests, Confederate causes, secrecy costs
Taxpayers have spent $18,939 this year to defend the sheriff’s office in a federal lawsuit filed by anti-abortion activist Steven Smith. Smith claims deputies harassed and wrongfully arrested him while he demonstrated at a former west Augusta abortion clinic.
The invoices include a host of billings for unspecified legal services, including $33,676 for “real estate matters” and another $11,316 for “general matters.”
The lawsuit filed by Augusta Economic Development Authority and the city against event promoter C4 Live, resulted in $2,650 invoiced charges with Frails & Wilson this year.
The city has spent $5,775 to defend itself against a lawsuit filed by local Sons of Confederate Veterans over the renaming of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge. The case hasn’t moved since March, when the sons group requested time to revise its complaint.
The sheriff’s office has used the firms to handle open records requests, although any work in that regard is not visible on the invoices or remains redacted.
The only obvious case is The Augusta Press’ suit to view bodycam video from the March arrest of an off-duty Burke County deputy at the Augusta Common. The firm has billed $1,892 this year to block release of the video.
That incident gave rise to another billing to handle the sheriff’s office demand for Burke Sgt. Allen Crispin’s wife to surrender her phone to Richmond County deputies.
The remaining external legal work listed in check records included $100,100 to Earth and Water Law. The Atlanta law firm is working on the city’s litigation over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over plans to demolish the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam.
The third-largest payee was law firm Shepard Plunkett Hamilton, which has made $22,500. Principal James Plunkett typically serves as counsel local government bond issues.
