The criminal charges against a Blue Ridge weekly newspaper publisher and his attorney, charges based on their attempts to access public records, were dropped Monday, putting to rest a case that riled media nationwide and stunned the legal community.
Judge Richard Winegarden, a retired Gwinnett Superior Court judge brought in to hear the case, conceded that it was unusual to call a hearing on a prosecutor’s motion to dismiss charges. But he recited a lengthy list of other events in the criminal case against Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason and Hiawassee attorney Russell Stookey that also made it extraordinary. Continue…
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