WALTON COUNTY, Ga. — Lawyers for a man banned from a local county after a speeding ticket are now fighting back.
Attorneys say they want to make sure this never happens again.
Channel 2's Tony Thomas obtained a copy of the lawsuit filed by a team of lawyers. It calls the banishment of Ricardo Riley from Walton County after a speeding ticket cruel and unusual punishment.
Riley said he's still reeling from the sentence he was given by Loganville municipal judge Brad Brownlow; a year's probation and banishment from Walton County.
"You are willing to pay a fine?" Thomas asked Riley.
"Yeah, I was speeding," Riley said.
Although Riley originally went into court representing himself, he now has a table full of lawyers handling his case free of charge. The group says it came forward after seeing Thomas' original story on Riley's sentence.
"I was just outraged," attorney Lawrence Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman, along with other lawyers, a private investigator and a civil rights activist, have banded together filing a motion to get the sentence tossed out.
"I just say, what's next? Are we going to have public stonings for jay walking? I mean it makes no sense for certain people in the communities to be handed harsher sentences than others," activist Marcus Coleman told Thomas.
"It's an abuse of the judge's discretion. It's a city court judge trying to ban someone from the county. I'm not even sure his jurisdiction reaches outside of the city," attorney Marvin Arrington Junior said.
"We hope to bring attention to what has happened. We still face battles here in the south," attorney Mark Murray said.
Although Brownlow allowed Channel 2 Action News in his court earlier this month, he said the judicial code of ethics barred him from speaking about the case.
"I'm just hoping this never happens to anyone else and I get a fair charge," Riley said.
The lawyers told Thomas they have been in contact with the court and talked about a reduced sentence but no agreement was reached.
It's unclear when the new motion might be heard.
WSBTV
