Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque. Image Gwinnett County website

Gwinnett Daily Post
October 30, 2019

King’s ethics complaint against Fosque to be heard in December

A Gwinnett County ethics board will hand the county an unusual Christmas present in December: a hearing on a complaint about comments a county commissioner made about the leader of a controversial pro-immigration enforcement group.

The ethics board assembled to hear the complaint that Dustin Inman Society founder D.A. King filed against Commissioner Marlene Fosque met for the first time Wednesday. The five-member panel picked its chairman and vice-chairman, underwent ethics training and decided to schedule two hearings for December.

The first hearing will be a preliminary hearing on Dec. 9. The second, and more crucial, one will be an evidenciary hearing — where testimony will be given and evidence presented — held on Dec. 19.

The ethics complaint stems from a 287(g) forum Fosque hosted — which King participated in at the invitation of Sheriff Butch Conway — in late July, as well as critical comments the commissioner made after the fact about King’s participation.

King filed the complaint in response to the comments Fosque made at the Aug. 6 commission meeting, during which she denounced King’s participation in the forum while citing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s assessment of the Dustin Inman Society as a hate group.

Supporters of the organization and King have denounced the Southern Poverty Law Center and called its legitimacy into question over the hate group assessment.

“This individual, as noted by an anti-defamation league director, has ties to the extreme elements of the anti-immigrant movement, spewing hatred and … (intimidating) advocacy groups,” Fosque said in August.

“This man from Cobb County, he should have never been invited by Sheriff Butch Conway to participate in our local Gwinnett discussion.”

In his complaint against Fosque said she violated state laws concerning defamation by “making charges against Plaintiff’s work with his non-profit organization the Dustin Inman Society and by uttering disparaging words causing special damages” to King.

“(The) actions of the Defendant clearly demonstrate an occasion where she did not uphold the laws of the State of Georgia as required by the relevant portion of the Gwinnett Code of Ordinances,” King wrote in the complaint. Read more here.