ATLANTA — Some key Republican state senators appeared cool to legislation separating Newton’s judicial system from Walton County despite the pleas of two prominent Covington residents.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by another Newton senator, District 17 Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, heard from Covington attorney Stephanie Lindsey, Newton County Democratic Party Chairman Gene Wills and District Attorney Randy McGinley during a Feb. 23 hearing on Senate Bill 249.

District 43 State Sen. Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia, sponsored the bill to move Newton County into a new single-county Newton Judicial Circuit and separate it from Walton with which it has been paired for decades in the Alcovy Judicial Circuit.

Anderson's bill would place the three Superior Court judges who are Newton residents — Cheveda McCamy, Ken Wynne and Layla Zon — in the new circuit and leave Judges John Ott and Jeff Foster in the Alcovy Circuit. It also would require the appointment of a new district attorney because McGinley is a Walton County resident.

Lindsey, who has advocated for the legislation since its introduction in 2021, noted the the Senate or House must approve the bill by "Crossover Day" on March 15 or likely run out of time to approve it this year.

She said Newton County's caseload is heavier than Columbia County despite it being split off from the Augusta Judicial Circuit into its own circuit in 2021.

Lindsey said studies showed the cost of establishing the new Columbia County circuit in Senate Bill 9 was "excessive" because of the cost of salaries for a new district attorney and staff members and a building to house them.

"Some say Senate Bill 9 passed because of partisanship," Lindsey said. "Some say Senate Bill 9 passed because it was a further attempt to disenfranchise Black voters, which is a tough topic for us all."

She said she viewed it as "the will of the people" in Columbia County and believed the same "will" existed for a new judicial circuit containing only Newton County.

Lawmakers approved Senate Bill 9 in 2021. It was challenged in court and appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Opponents argued that the election of Augusta Judicial Circuit's first Black DA months before the 2021 session motivated the split, but supporters argued that race had nothing to do with it.

Wills said he believed McGinley, a Republican from Walton County, was “not representing our county.”

Newton County gave a majority of its votes in the 2020 district attorney election to Democrat candidate Destiny Bryant. McGinley lost the Newton vote but won the two-county race with a big majority vote in Walton County. 

“His values are different,” Wills said of McGinley. “The way we feel certain people are treated in our county, we’re not OK with it but it appears that the Republicans are.”

He said Walton County’s interest “is very different from Newton County’s interests” and the Alcovy Circuit represents a majority Democratic county being “controlled by a minority.” 

Strickland countered that the Columbia County governing body voted unanimously for its own circuit. The Newton County Board of Commissioners split its vote 3-2 in favor of a Newton-only circuit which showed "you don't have the same kind of buy-in that you had" with Senate Bill 9, Strickland said.

District 46 State Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, is an attorney whose district includes much of Walton County. 

He said he often works in the Walton County courthouse in Monroe and received information directly from a Superior Court judge that the three Newton judges did not want to split the circuit.

"What the public is perceiving (is) this is discontent with a white, Republican DA in Walton County winning the race last year," Cowsert said.

"I'm getting extremely uncomfortable with the resegregation of our judicial districts," he said. 

"The African-American population spent half a century trying to get rid of segregation and have integration,” Cowsert said. ”This feels like a Black separatist movement where Newton County is wanting to be separated and I don't feel real good being a part of this process.”

McGinley told the senators a split "financially, logistically, procedurally" does not "make any sense."

He said the caseload per judge in the Alcovy circuit was 15% lower than the state average.

In addition, the Alcovy circuit operates a series of accountability courts in which residents of both counties participate. However, most operate in one county or the other but not both. 

A split would require establishment of new accountability courts which would require extra expenditures, he said.