Probate judge recording captures concern over finishing first term, affair (May 1, 2015)
Warrant hearing for Mays deferred with conflict of interest questions (April 15, 2015)
More accusations between Mays, Pearson (Feb. 10, 2015)
Probate judge faces more lawsuits (Jan. 28, 2015)
Appeal filed in Probate judge case with contractor (Dec. 8, 2014)
Contractor wins lawsuit against probate judge(Nov. 5, 2014)
Woman suing probate judge federally indicted, accused of stealing from lotto winner(Nov. 6, 2014)
Warrant applied for judge's arrest (Oct. 27, 2014)
The case involving Rockdale County Probate Court Judge Charles Mays and former Probate Court worker Freya Pearson is over in Superior Court, having been dropped earlier this month.
Pearson's attorney says they will be filing a case in Magistrate Court instead.
After nearly seven months of accusations, Mays' defense attorney Gary Washington announced Pearson and her attorney, Mike Waldrop, who also serves as Conyers' attorney, filed a motion to dismiss the application for an arrest warrant against Mays without prejudice on May 5.
Two weeks ago, upon request, the Mays camp received a letter from the DeKalb County Superior Court, where the case hearing took place, saying the "there are no more issues pending" and "there is nothing for the court to rule on," said Washington.
"It is over. It is finished. It is done," said Washington, during a press conference held at the Hawthorn Suites, 1659 Centennial Olympic Parkway, Conyers.
Waldrop said afterwards in a phone interview, "It's neither over, finished, nor done."
Accompanying Mays and Washington at the press conference Tuesday were Mays' wife, children, other members of his family and friends "who have continually stood beside me," as Mays described them.
Washington continued to say now that the case was over he was "legally free" to make comments about the case.
On Oct. 15, Pearson, through Waldrop, had applied for an arrest warrant for Mays for theft of services felony regarding approximately $20,000 of back pay she alleged is due for work on setting up a mental health or veteran's accountability court.
"The charges against Judge Mays were completely false," said Washington. "The judge is innocent because he has committed no crime. The work of the court is a serious matter. Our courts exist to resolve legitimate legal disputes and to maintain the rule of law.
"This case however has been nothing more than a misuse of public resources and an abuse of the judicial process for selfish motives and personal gains by an individual with a questionable character and past."
After Washington spoke, Mays answered questions about how he felt during the whole process.
"I was always confident because I hadn't don't anything wrong," said Mays. "I knew justice would prevail."
"I'm afraid their claim to victory is premature," Waldrop said, afterwards.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Linda Hunter, who heard the case on April 15 after Rockdale's judges recused themselves, "made it clear she felt like matters like this should be handled in Magistrate court. They were better positioned to handle cases like this. She felt like it would be a better use of the court's resources," Waldrop said.
"Based on that, we dismissed it without prejudice. We will be refiling this week in Rockdale Magistrate Court the same basic allegations, with some adjustments, and same substantive crimes."
"There was no ruling on the merits up there," Waldrop said.
Mays also announced at the press conference his intention to run for re-election in 2016 "to provide an additional four years of quality of service to the Rockdale County citizens," he said.
