Meet the Houston County District Attorney candidates – Houston County Chief Assistant District Attorney – Erikka Williams

Originally from a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio called Shaker Heights, Chief Assistant District Attorney Erikka Williams has been in middle Georgia since August of 2001. Shortly after passing the Georgia bar, former District Attorney Kelly Burke hired Williams, and for the past 18 years, she has worked in the D.A.’s office. Now she is running for the seat that Burke once held. Her opponent is George Hartwig, who has served as District Attorney for almost a decade. Hartwig is Williams’ current boss, but the bold move to challenge him for the position was driven by what she’s witnessed in recent years.

“I’m running because the office is currently being mismanaged and it is affecting the way that the office runs and the way victims receive justice for their cases,” said Williams.

In citing main issues that she deems problematic, Williams pointed out that, “The biggest thing is that Mr. Hartwig is involved in a relationship with a subordinate employee. The district attorney is an elected official,” she explained, “and as an elected official, he gets to set pretty much his own policies on things and not follow county rules. His office manager is the person that he’s in the relationship with. It has caused problems because she has an awful lot of power and control for someone that is involved in a relationship with the district attorney and it is creating problems for other employees in the office. So much so, that several employees, including myself, went to the county commission last year and asked for help. We were told that there was nothing that could be done because he is an elected official.”

According to Williams, Hartwig has become very distant. “He’s not talking to employees. We used to be like a family,” she expressed. “Before COVID, we would often eat together and fellowship together. For Thanksgiving, we’d have what we called a non-traditional Thanksgiving lunch, and people would bring food. It would be potluck, but you’d have to bring something you wouldn’t normally have, so we’d bring tacos, wings or whatever. Those type things, Mr. Hartwig stopped coming to. It would be really weird because he would be right there in the office. So he just distanced himself from us.”

While Williams mentioned that she could understand the person in the position of the boss having boundaries, she said the changes spilled into business dealings. “As the chief assistant, it became problematic because my access to certain information was cut off. I used to be a part of the hiring and the write-up process, but that just tapered off. So everything that goes on in that office right now is between the two of them.”

The personal relationship between Hartwig and his office manager, according to Williams, has had an extremely negative effect. “Because of this situation, we have lost lots of employees. We’ve had significant amounts of turnover. Mr. Hartwig became increasingly mean and petty,” she described. “We were deemed to be essential employees during the height of the pandemic. Despite the fact that we’ve always had a system set up where we could telework, if necessary; Mr. Hartwig didn’t want anyone teleworking during the pandemic. We had a 19-year employee that requested hand soap and paper towels for the common area. They were told whatever paper towels were needed could be gotten from the bathroom. What is particularly disgusting about that is that as a law enforcement agency, the D.A. has access to forfeiture funds that can be used to purchase supplies for the office, but he just refused. He was just being spiteful.”

Williams said she personally went to the store and purchased a 20-roll pack for the main office. “If you’re telling people that they need to be at work, you can certainly provide those supplies in the middle of a pandemic. But that’s just an example of the pettiness,” she continued. “That same 19-year employee pointed out the fact that he had named them essential and that they be there, and Mr. Hartwig fired her. Under Georgia law, you are required to provide someone with a termination notice. He has not provided that individual with one. I don’t know if that’s his fault or the personnel department’s fault, but I believe it’s ultimately his fault because he’s the department head.”

Williams told of an incident that happened in November 2019 wherein Hartwig’s office manager hired an employee. When Williams made a comment to the manger about hiring without telling her, Williams said that she got called into Hartwig’s office where she was “dressed down” about it by him in front of his manager.

“It became a point where I’d had enough, and I told him specifically what the problems were in the office—that he wasn’t talking to people; that people felt that he was turning the other way to avoid conversation. And then, I remember saying these words: ‘Whatever it is that the two of you have going on, we’ve got to do something.’ When he was dressing me down, the office doors were wide open, but as soon as I said, ‘Whatever the two of you have going on,’ she shot up and shut the doors,” Williams relayed. “Despite my being the chief assistant district attorney, George Hartwig and I have not had a conversation in person since November 2019. All of our conversations take place over email now.”

Williams wanted to reassure voters and the public in general that she wasn’t fabricating any of what she was sharing. All the information is available through open records. “I went down to the clerk’s office and got documentation that was openly available concerning the status of Mr. Hartwig’s divorce. The office manager he’s in relationship with had tried to file a TPO (temporary protective order) against Mrs. Hartwig. I got copies of all of that stuff on a Friday. The following Monday, via email, Mr. Hartwig transferred me from the main office to the juvenile court, which is in Warner Robins. He did that in an email that went out to everyone.”

On Election Day, Williams said that she hopes voters will cross party lines when they vote for district attorney. “Citizens can see in my body of work with the D.A.’s office. I have worked very well with our local law enforcement, but I’ve also worked very well with our community leaders, and that’s important right now because the tension between law enforcement and some parts of the community is just not good. I have spoken with members of law enforcement, who tend to be Republican, and they’re not satisfied with Mr. Hartwig. They don’t feel like he’s responsive to them. They can’t get to him. Every time they try, his office manager is there.”

If Williams is elected, she will be the first woman to hold the position, and she is more than ready for the challenge. After bringing integrity back to the office, the first thing Williams wants to do is address the backlog of cases.

“That’s an issue voters have a problem with. Some people don’t understand how the system works, so that kind of goes with the transparency. When people understand how the system works, they may understand why it takes two or three years for a case to get to trial. But when Hartwig tries to say things like, ‘I don’t have a part in the backlog,’ well, yes he does. When he takes people’s caseloads from them, then the person who has to take those caseloads has got to get up to speed. That takes time,” she said. “I also want to look at the cases we have pending and see if the cases are worth our time and limited resources,” Williams added. “I want to acknowledge to the county that we can’t prosecute fully every single arrest that is made. Nobody can.”

Williams explained that the system would collapse on itself if some weren’t offered the opportunity to accept responsibility for their bad behavior, make amends to the community and move on adding, “So let’s figure out those cases that we can do that for while still keeping the community safe. That way, we can focus on these shootings, rapes, robberies and child molestations… If that means we need to give more pre-trials to people that are charged with felony shoplifting, then let’s do it.”

Getting a website built for the D.A.’s office is also high on Williams’ list as well as increasing training. “I’ve participated in implicit bias training, and I think it’s a great thing,” she said. I would like to offer that to my staff because the thing about implicit bias is that it teaches you about biases you may not even know you have and how those things can impact how you look at a case. I would like to make that available to my staff. There would definitely be some staff restructuring as well.”

Outside of the scandalous stuff that is going on in the office, Williams insists that the D.A. office is filled with great people that work very hard to try to seek justice for victims of crime in Houston County even in the midst of a pandemic.

“As for me, I want people to know that I do have a varied caseload of cases that I have handled and taken to jury trial and bench trial,” said Williams. “I believe I’m the best suited person at this point with the way that things are going in the office, and I hope people will look past voting straight down party lines and choose me.”

Williams encourages citizens to visit her campaign website at www.erikkaforda.com.

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