The state ethics board that investigates Georgia’s elected officials has recommended that a campaign finance complaint against recently re-elected Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones be dismissed.
The complaint, filed by Savannah attorney Wade Herring less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, alleged that Cook Jones failed to meet the state’s deadline to file a report listing her campaign contributors.
However, five days after the deadline and Herring’s complaint, Cook Jones filed the required report. According to Haley Barrett, the spokesperson for the ethics commission, she was allowed to do so under a grace period put in place due to Hurricane Helene.
The commission’s staff, who are legally restricted from investigating complaints about candidates within 30 days of an election, agreed to dismiss the complaint after speaking with Cook Jones, Barrett said. The commission’s board is scheduled to formally approve the staff’s recommendation at its quarterly meeting in March.
Cook Jones declined to comment. Herring did not respond to a request for comment.
The Democrat who was first elected in 2020 won reelection on Nov. 5 by more than 9,000 votes over Republican Andre Pretorius. Cook Jones campaigned on continuing her leadership of the office, which included balancing prosecution of violent crimes and reduction of mass incarceration.
In a previous interview, she told The Current her second-term will be focused on beefing up initiatives like the cold case and conviction integrity units, expanding victim advocacy, and advocating for criminal justice reform at the state capitol.
One other part of Herring’s complaint said Cook Jones had not filed her latest personal financial disclosure. That was unfounded, according to Barrett.
Attacks didn’t move voters
Cook Jones overcame Herring’s complaint, well-funded attacks by Republicans and former employees, as well as a lack of endorsements from top Savannah Democrats.
She wrestled with concerns over murder convictions, domestic violence and victim advocacy. Her professional conduct was called into question after a judge sanctioned her for alleged efforts to skip a deposition in a civil lawsuit brought by a former employee, something the district attorney said she missed because she was prosecuting a rape case.
Cook Jones ran for reelection touting her strong community relationships and her work as a prosecutor. She defended her decisions to dismiss murder cases tied to misconduct, weathering criticism by Savannah’s mayor. She sought indictments for city police officers who broke the law, and compiled prosecution statistics by hand after county commissioners were uninterested in buying different software to track it.
At her belated election-victory party on Dec. 5, Cook Jones said the attacks against her personally and as district attorney only strengthened her resolve.
“I don’t care what you say about me as a DA. I don’t do this for glory, I don’t do this for stats, I don’t do it for fame or influence,” Cook Jones. “I do it because the lives in this community are important to me. … because as wealthy as we are in Savannah, Chatham County, we can do much better.”
Her victory has not silenced all of her critics, however.
“Sure have been a lot of homicides in Savannah the past few weeks. And all of them happening in precincts that voted for Shalena Crook Jones. So I guess I’m glad people are getting what they wanted,” Anthony Burton, a local lawyer who previously worked at the DA’s office, wrote on Facebook on Dec. 11. “Look somewhere else for pity.”
