If either M. Latroy Wiilliams or Greg Grant had been harboring any plans to put out a version of their candidate tout sheets (a.k.a. “bogus ballots”) in time for the November election, they were advised Friday that it could cost their their freedom, in the form of 10 days in jail.
Judge Acree
That was the sentence meted out by special judge Bill Acree in the contempt case brought against the two habitual purveyors of such pay-for-play ballots by attorneys Jake Brown and Bruce Kramer, who represented variants of the Democratic Party.
Both Grant and Williams had been enjoined by Judge Acree to cease and desist from publishing and distributing tout sheets in prior elections that all too closely resembled recommendations made by the Democratic Party or its official offshoots.
One of the ballots not only seemed to falsify a party origin, it actually bore a headline streamer that misrepresented a previous judicial finding and even misspelled the name of the candidate (Williams) it was meant to boost: “JUDGE ORDERED M. LATORY [sic] ALEXANDRIA-WILLIAMS ON BALLOT AS DEMOCRAT NO ‘JIM CROW’”.
Brown and Kramer renewed a legal action against Grant and Williams after both offenders had openly flouted Acree’s previous injunction against their attempting to invoke the Democratic Party’s credibility in previous pay-for-play ballots — on which the “recommended” candidates had paid for the privilege of having their names included.