Fulton Co. lawmaker files lawsuit against DA Fani Willis’ office, county commissioner, ethics board

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — State Rep. Mesha Mainor, representing part of Fulton County, is suing District Attorney Fani Willis, Commissioner Marvin Arrington, and multiple departments of the county government.

Mainor announced the lawsuit itself on Friday, saying she’d be holding a news conference on Tuesday morning at the State Capitol.

According to the announcement, Mainor said she’ll also be addressing oversight of Georgia prosecutors and statistics regarding Fulton County Jail inmates waiting for prosecution beyond a 90-day threshold after being denied bond.

“Citizens and family members must know they have a right to file a motion for a bond and the judge must grant the bond if they have been confined to jail more than 90 days and District Attorney Fani Willis has failed to prosecute,” Mainor said in a statement.

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Mainor, a Fulton County Republican lawmaker, was a Democrat before recently switching parties. She filed the lawsuit on April 2, according to court records.

The lawsuit names Willis and Arrington in both their individual and official capacities, as well as the overall Fulton County government, the Fulton County Ethics Board and the Fulton County D.A.’s Office.

In the civil filing, Mainor requested a jury trial and alleges the defendants deprived her of certain rights while acting under the color of state law.

Part of the lawsuit ties back to a series of incidents while Rep. Mainor was running for office in 2019, according to the lawsuit. At that time, Mainor’s suit says she hired a man named Corwin Monson as a campaign volunteer.

Before working together on the campaign, Mainor’s lawsuit said the two were friends for several years with many friends in common.

Mainor said she was forced to fire Monson from his volunteer position with her campaign “after witnessing his unruly, belligerent behavior.” Afterward, Mainor said Monson started to stalk her, showing up uninvited to campaign events, joining Mainor’s church and sitting outside of her home.

Monson also is said, according to Mainor’s lawsuit, to have called her from several phone numbers and left multiple voicemails, with “Monson later turn[ing] these voicemails into a song.” He also told Mainor he was in love with her and arrived at her home to propose in front of her children, who were minors, according to the lawsuit.

In June 2019, Monson was cited for criminal trespass at Mainor’s home after refusing to leave her property. The following August, Mainor filed a temporary protective order against him, which a judge granted.

Monson was arrested in September 2019 and September 2020 for violating the temporary protective order, the lawsuit says. In September 2020, Monson was indicted for aggravated stalking by the Fulton County DA’s Office, as well as violating the protective order, the record says.

At the start of 2021, Monson was indicted by the Fulton DA again for a second aggravated assault charge, where Mainor was the victim. The lawsuit says Monson faced up to 20 years in prison due to the cases.

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Mainor’s lawsuit says Monson is a “close friend and associate of Defendant Commissioner Arrington.” The commissioner was hired as Monson’s defense attorney for the September 2020 aggravated stalking case, according to Mainor’s lawsuit. Mainor’s lawsuit says an Assistant District Attorney “informed Plaintiff Mainor of the influence Defendant Commissioner Arrington wielded” in the D.A.’s office and that he “used his influence to circumvent the office policies of the District Attorney’s office.”

The lawsuit says these actions include “intimidating the ADAs by copying the District Attorney on emails, negotiating plea deals directly with the District Attorney instead of the ADAs, and demanding meetings with the District Attorney when ADAs refused to bend to his will,” and alleges that Fulton County residents hire the commissioner as their defense attorney due to this power he is accused of yielding in the DA’s office.

Mainor further alleges that Arrington negotiated with former D.A. Paul Howard to have Monson plead guilty to a misdemeanor, though charged with a felony, going outside of the DA’s office policies. The lawsuit also states that Arrington is heard “conspiring to cause the sitting judge on the criminal case” to be removed from office while on phone calls at the county jail with Monson.

Focusing on Willis, Mainor alleges in her lawsuit that Arrington later admitted to telling her about the Monson case before she was sworn in, saying he accused Mainor herself of being “crazy” while speaking to the new D.A. and influencing a bias against her during the case. Mainor alleges Arrington encouraged Monson’s wife to harass her as well, and a second protective order was sought against Mrs. Alesha Monson.

Arrington is said to have resigned as Mr. Monson’s attorney in December 2020 after the jail calls were made public.

The lawsuit goes over the events in the case after Willis was sworn in, alleging that handling of the case was unusual and against policy, and accusing Willis of “dropping the ball” regarding the plea deal for Mr. Monson. Mainor accuses both Arrington and Willis of operating under the color of law while causing “severe financial and emotional damages” to her, due to the alleged failure to properly prosecute Mr. Monson, and for violating her constitutional rights through deliberate indifference.

The lawsuit names the Fulton County Ethics Board as a defendant due to what Mainor alleges was a failure to follow proper procedure while reviewing more than 30 violations submitted in an ethics complaint against Arrington. The complaint was later closed.

When Mr. Monson was released from jail in November 2021, Mainor said he “immediately began stalking” her again. His probation included a condition to have no direct or indirect contact with Mainor, but began to show up to events hosted by Mainor’s friends and neighbors after being released, the lawsuit says.

The same month, Mainor “ran into Monson as she was exiting a gas station near her home,” a few hundred feet from her house, according to the court filing. When Mainor told the DA’s office of the incident, the lawsuit alleges no actions were taken.

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A December 2021 incident at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building, where Mainor works, led to a new investigation into Monson for violating the temporary restraining order. Mainor’s lawsuit says the DA’s office again declined to prosecute Monson for the violation, noting that A.D.A. Yolanda Mack said “It doesn’t appear that his [Monson’s] intentions were to violate the order but simply give testimony on his ethics complaint against you. He didn’t have any contact with you directly or indirectly.”

As a result of the incidents detailed in the lawsuit, Mainor is seeking a jury trial and alleging that Arrington, Willis, and the Fulton County Ethics Board had violated the state’s Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, inflicting intentional emotional distress and requesting the court order compensatory and consequential damages to Mainor.

Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the Fulton County Government and Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for comment on the lawsuit.

Mainor is expected to hold her news conference on Tuesday, April 30 at 10 a.m. on the steps of the State Capitol.

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