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Lumpkin County Administration Building
Lumpkin County is in the crosshairs of a lawsuit filed by the owners of The Complete Combatant after their self defense business was ordered to cease all training that involved shooting at the Porter Springs gun range.
It was at this month’s work session that the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners announced that they had been served with the suit in response to their rejection of the company’s Special Land Use Application (SLUA) request.
The decision came after complaints from around the community over Brian Hill’s self defense program for the “armed citizen,” a business that has been located on Porter Springs Road since 2017.
After being instructed by the Lumpkin County Planning Department to go forward with a SLUA request, the board heard comments from the public regarding the gun range, before deciding to reject the SLUA at the September board meeting.
Commissioner Chairman Chris Dockery brought up the legal dispute at the end of the board’s Nov. 2 work session before going into a closed door session to discuss the matter privately amongst the other board members and staff.
He explained that he couldn’t go into much detail.
“This is to discuss pending litigation,” he said. “We can’t discuss details of the litigation, but I’ll ask our counsel to give the public just a brief synopsis of what we will be discussing.”
County attorney Joy Edelberg continued.
“The county has received service of a Writ of Certiorari,” she said, “which was granted to the Complete Combatant to file their appeal of the board’s decision on the SLUA and that will be heard in superior court.”
A writ of certiorari is a request for a legal decision to be reviewed by a higher court, according to uscourts.gov.
According to the case file, Hill is represented in the appeal by John R. Monroe of John Monroe Law, who proclaims to be “premier gun rights law firm in Georgia.”
The file records 11 bullet points for why the decision made by the board is “illegal,” ranging from arguments made in the Georgia Constitution as well as the Constitution of the United States.
The seven-page document says “The decision of the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners is adverse to Petitioner and is dissatisfactory to Petitioner.”
With the case coming against the county, the three superior court judges, Raymond E. George, Joy R. Parks and T Buckley Levins removed themselves from the case to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest.
“In order to avoid any appearance of the absence of impartiality in the conduct of the above-styled case and…the undersigned hereby disqualifies himself,” the document read.
James E. Cornwell Jr., senior judge of the Superior Courts in Georgia, will instead be assigned to the case.
Hill declined to speak on the litigation when contacted by The Nugget.
Through a bit of grassroots fundraising via Gofundme, The Complete Combatant has surpassed its goal and has raised over $13,000 so far to help pay for the litigation fees.