Recorder's Court judge candidate Anthony Burton talks crime, bond and mental health

Editor's note: The Savannah Morning News spoke with the three candidates for Recorder's Court judge about their platform, why they're running and what they will do to curb crime in Savannah and Chatham County. Hear each of the candidates on the Savannah Morning News' The Commute podcast this week. 

Anthony Burton is one of three candidates running for Recorder's Court judge to fill the seat vacant by Chief Recorder's court judge Tammy Stokes. Burton was previously a Assistant District Attorney in the Chatham County District Attorney's Office. Early voting is taking place, but residents can also cast ballots on May 24.

Other Q&As: Recorder's Court Candidate Joe Huffman wants to 'ensure equal justice under the law'

Chatham Recorder's Court candidate Richard Sanders talks alternative sentencing

Savannah Morning News: Tell us just a little bit about yourself and your platform.

AB: "I have been an attorney since 2014. I started out being a prosecutor in Douglas County. Before that, I interned in the Solicitor General's Office of the city of Atlanta. In 2015, I came to Chatham County, Meg Heap hired me; I worked there until this year. My platform is I'm ethical, experienced, efficient, effective."

SMN: Let's touch on those words that you mentioned: ethical, efficient, experienced, efficient, and effective. When you say that, what do you mean?

AB: "Ethics to me, is very easy for an attorney because we are the only profession that I know of where everything that you need to know to be ethical is written down. It's the law, you follow it and you follow it as written. Being ethical means following the law as written as attended. Experience: During my time in the DA’s office, I started counting how many cases that I've personally handled from start to finish. And it was a pretty laborious task. I finally got to 8,000 cases that I personally handled, about halfway through and I decided I could stop counting; no one who's going to be able to have that level of experience when it comes to criminal cases, which this part of Recorder’s Court. It is purely a criminal court.

"Efficient and effective really go hand in hand. And it comes with the experience, too. So having dealt with so many cases, I am aware of every program. I'm aware of what works, what doesn't work. I used to work in front of Judge Abbott, and I would say so you know, judge, I don't have a lot to base this on, but I think we might be dealing with someone with mental health or we might be dealing with someone with a drug addiction. And the defense attorney would chime in and says you know, Mr. Burton, you’re right. You can look at their record, you could look at their booking picture or those different things and you can really get an idea of the issues facing someone that comes before you. And not only is it a knowledge of what the programs are that work, it also lets you know what doesn't work.

"One of the big things that I've been running on is the bond issue. And one of the cases I tell people about all the time is an individual who had five separate felony arrests. The first one was breaking into a car and he was given a bond. That's what bond I would have given. He made it maybe about a week, and then he was breaking into another car he was released out on bomb. About a week from that arrest, he's breaking into another car, stealing a gun. He was given a bond on that case, that's a bond I would not have given, given the time period between the two incidences. Had I been the judge, he would not have been able to go on to get the next three, the last one being a home invasion with a stolen gun that he arrived to a stolen car. So, you need to know what works: treatment programs, mental health issues and Gateway [Behavioral Health Center]. But you also need to know what doesn't work, and what doesn't work is letting someone out three, four, five and six time. I've said before that Chatham County is being second, third, fourth, and fifth chance to death."

SMN: To that point, I want to ask why are you running for Recorder’s Court judge and what are you hoping to offer residents?

AB: "I was in the DA 's office in 2020 when COVID hit and it changed the way that everything happened in the courthouse. The courthouse was basically shut down. Everything was done through Zoom. And the law was thrown out the window. It stopped being what can we do to administer justice, to let's get everyone out, let's make sure the jail is empty. We don't need to worry about arresting, we don't need to worry about prosecuting.

"One of the cases that always comes to mind is that of an individual that in 2019 was a violent felon. He had seven prior felonies, at least two of them were violent, aggravated assaults, aggravated batteries. And we met in 2019, defense counsel, myself and the judge; I went over his record, I went over his new charges. It was trafficking and cocaine and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. And at the end of that hearing judge says OK, this individual is a risk to the community. He's a risk to reoffend. And we're not going to grant bond. Jump forward to I believe it was April of 2020. We get together nothing on his case has changed. The only thing that has changed is now we're in the COVID era. And he's released out over my objections. And it took him about a month before he then took a metal pipe to an individual's head, busting their orbital socket. It was an elderly individual; under Georgia law, anyone that's over 65 is considered an elder and it can be elder abuse, and busted his oral socket for the $20 in crack money that he was out. I kept seeing things like that.

"I saw murderers being released. I saw rapists being released. I just said I couldn't sit back and not do anything anymore. Is this position that I'm running for the end all be all? Am I going to be able to make every single call and every single case and fix Chatham County all on my own? No. But it is a small step in which I think I can take in which I can do a lot of good for Chatham County. My opponents have said, well, you can't set a bond and Recorder's Court for a murder. They’re right. That's correct. What I can do is set no bond in that third, fourth, or fifth case where that individual is actively searching for a gun to commit that murder and stop that murder from happening. That's how I can help Chatham County."

SMN: You'd mentioned bonds. Is it solely just the viewpoint of issuing a harsh bond and that's it? Or are there other next steps that you're ensuring as judge to ensure that they may not reoffend? Obviously, bond is one side of it, but are there other aspects that you may explore to make sure they don't reoffend?

AB: "This goes back to the types of things I've seen as a prosecutor for the past eight years. It is not just do you release them on an OR (own recognizances) bond; OR means zero money, no conditions, nothing like that. It's not a situation of it’s either no OR bond or no bond forever. One of the things we would end up doing prior to COVID is someone comes in, and they would be in the absolute throes of addiction. It's something you don't need to have a medical degree to be able to look at someone with the open sores, the inability to stand up without their eyes drooping, falling forward on their while they're standing to tell that they are in the throes of addiction, and they probably don't have much longer. Through my experience, I've realized that when that person comes in, you cannot talk to that person; you can only talk to the drug.

"What we would do pre-COVID, say, step one, this person is going to need to dry out a little. So the jail has a great medical staff, we've had people go through withdrawals there and they've been able to get the treatment that they need to be able to do that safely. And then you bring that person back forward.

"When it comes to mental health, there are some people that benefit from going to the jail; the jail has one of the first mental health programs in the state if I'm not mistaken. We also have great organizations like gateway; I've sent many people there through bonds.

"One of the things I've told people, is, as a prosecutor, my job was not to send anyone to prison. My job was not to get a conviction. My job was to make sure that I never had to see you in the courtroom again because that meant you were back in trouble. You fix a lot of the issues through the bond process where people will not, and not just people, but also the community will not benefit from a conviction from a prison sentence. A majority of the cases you have are not going to be the kinds of case where someone comes in, you go, oh, this person needs life in prison or something like that."

SMN: At a previous forum, you mentioned you had a role in creating a drug possession pre-diversion, pretrial diversion program. Can you talk about your role in that and how many people you've recommended to that program and what's been the outcome.

AB: "I made this because one of the things we saw from COVID was a massive backlog and a massive backlog of cases, that you had violent cases, you had murders, you had rapes, those took top priority. So, they were going through with the grand jury process, getting case numbers, that kind of thing. One of the things I've realized through my experience in the DA’s office, is that you have individuals that are one off kind of possession, criminals, for lack of a better word, and you have those that are addicts.

"I created this program, and what it is, is an agreement between the state and the individual [the defendant] is required to provide the state with a written narrative, describing their involvement in the charged offense, and the state will begin a countdown of one year. The defendant is required to not get any new arrest during this one-year period.

"This program was able to benefit the individuals arrested, because it allowed for people to get their cases dismissed. And it also benefited the state because we took all these cases, and able to differentiate between which ones needed our time and which ones didn't. As for how many people signed up, I provided it to our public defenders in the courtroom who handled a majority of our cases and to several of the private defense attorneys who would ask for a plea offer in one of these cases. I don't know how many ended up signing up for it, it was a good number that accepted.

"The agreements are back in the office that I used to work at, and I don't have access to that anymore. But we were able to go through and dismiss a substantial amount of cases for individuals who did not benefit from any type of treatment or anything like that."

SMN: Your other opponents have sat on the bench before, but you come from a prosecutorial background. Can you talk about what you would bring to Recorder’s Court?

AB: "I'm actually a little surprised that they want to talk about their experience on the bench so much. If they were doing what they should be doing, crime would not be rising as much as it is. So, I don't know why they would want to hang their hat on. They've sat on a bench as the city sees some of the worst crime since I've been here. When it comes down to it, sitting as a judge in a municipal court, you sit there you have some traffic cases come before you. It's an appointed position, no one ends up electing them.

"As a judge, you sit back, and you let the other attorneys educate you on what the law is. That's why judges ask for briefs. That's why judges ask attorneys to write orders for him. That's why judges want to have hearings and all these other kinds of things. When you're the attorney, and specifically as a prosecutor, you're the one that has to know the law. You're the one that has to educate the judge on what the law is. You're the one that has to know more than everyone else in that courtroom.

"As a district attorney, I don't know if I've ever had less than 300 or 400 cases that I'm personally responsible for making sure that everything is handled. And again, it's every type of case. So, if you want to come before me and have a hearing on a terroristic threat. I already know the elements, I already know that there has to be some type of corroborating evidence or else there's no case there at all and that judge from municipality may not know that.

"Prosecutors have a yearly CLE trip, continued learning education trip…This is part of being a good attorney. This is part of being a good prosecutor. And it should be part of being a good judge, but it's not required for a judge. But you stay up to date on long and you make sure that you with my experience, I will be the most educated person in the courtroom when it comes to criminal law. And I will stay that way. Because I enjoy criminal law."

SMN: You have a strong social media presence, and one thing that you've mentioned is that you're a law and order candidate. Can you define what that is, and can you speak to some residents who may wonder if that means that you're going to a harsh judge?

AB: "Law and order is another word for ethical; law and order means you are going to follow the law. There is a quote over the court of appeals: Justice be done though the heavens may fall. So, it does not mean that I'm going to be overly harsh. I think people would actually be surprised at some of the things that I would end up rolling on. One of the things I saw a bunch in the DA’s office is people would be arrested with a firearm, and the officer would run that firearm, and it would come back as stolen. And they would not ask any other questions. They would arrest for theft by receiving stolen property.

"Well, without any type of investigation. You can't prove that to a jury. So, it's not enough to go in front of someone and say, you know, ladies and gentlemen, he had a gun on them and it was stolen. So, you as the defendant, you can say, I bought it from someone else. I actually got in an argument with an officer one time at a training. And I said, say you and I meet at Walmart, and I sell you a gun for $500. And you give me $500 and you ride off, and then you find out that gun was stolen. Are you guilty of theft by receiving? He's like, Well, no, I wouldn't be. So, there's things you can look at.

"I want to be hard on the gun crime in Chatham County, specifically in Savannah, where we're having a shooting just about every day. But if the law says, you've caught this individual, they had a gun, it was stolen, but there is not the evidence to support a conviction, it's on the judge to get rid of that case. And you know, that's what law and order means. It means holding people accountable on all sides, officers, individuals, victims, defendants defense prosecution everyone."

SMN: You've been critical with the DA’s office in the past. Obviously, you're running for Recorder’s Court judge and the DA will have to come before you. How will your critique of the DA’s office affect your ability to be impartial in cases in which they are coming before you?

AB: "So, I am not a fan of Shalena Cook Jones, and if she came into my courtroom for her own criminal matter, I would probably need to recuse myself. However, the cases that the DA’s office handles are not hers. So, the idea that the domestic violence victim would come into the courtroom, and me, who is run on law and order, is going to say, well, I don't like the DA so victim, we're dismissing your case, your abusers coming home to live with you take that DA’s office. That's just ridiculous. And that would be just the most opposite thing that a law and order candidate would be able to do. So, it's not her cases, it does not say, Shalena Cook Jones versus defendant. It's the state of Georgia against the laws of Georgia, and it's upholding those laws. So, there would be no issue."

SMN: You talked about crime in Savannah and by extension, Chatham County. How will you as Recorder’s Court judge work to combat the level of crime that we're seeing?

AB: "Through my experience, you can look at someone’s record, and you can make a very good judgment on what you should do. The idea that OK, if I stop this person from getting a stolen gun, every murder in Chatham County is going to stop. That's not true. And I'm not here to stop every murder. I would if I could, but I can only do so much. But we can put a damper on people before they end up escalating."

SMN: Can you talk about the function and importance of Recorders Court.

AB: "Recorder’s Court is the place where about 90% of all criminal cases start in Chatham County, from your murders all the way down to your seatbelt violations. It's for lack of a better word, a funnel court. Everyone comes in from a bunch of different jurisdictions. That's where they get an arraignment, first appearance, a preliminary hearing, and in a majority of cases and their bond is set.

"So, all of those things happen you come in, and then you can plea out to many types of cases all of the misdemeanors. I have been working with the Superior Court because they can grant extra powers to Recorder’s Court. So, what I would like to do is take in the felony drug possessions and basically use my program that I worked to end up cutting down on the backlog significantly.

"Right now, you can take please for misdemeanors and traffic cases, you can do bench trials in Recorder’s Court. But if someone wants to have their case bound up, or if it's a type of case that you can't handle, then it'll go to State Court, if it's a misdemeanor, it'll go to Superior Court, if it's felony. So that is basically its function is to try and cut down on the backlog that all the other cases end up or all the other courts end up getting fast action on immediate cases. And to set bonds in most of those cases.

"I really think if I am able to work out that we can handle those stroke cases down there, the Superior Court is going to end up having a significant drop in their own cases. And that ends up benefiting them because they'll have more time to handle their more important cases. But it'll also cut down on the amount of time that is needed."

SMN: Why should residents vote for you?

AB: "They should vote for me because I am doing this for the right reasons. I'm not trying to use this as a stepping stone into another court later on. I'm a criminal attorney, Recorder’s Court is purely criminal. If I were to go to State Court, I would have to deal with civil cases. If I was going to go to Superior Court, I would have to deal with domestic cases. I'm doing this, because I look at it as the way that I can help Chatham County.

"Besides doing it for the right reasons, I'm also the one that is the most knowledgeable. I'm the only one who has been on the frontlines trying to understand and combat crime for the past better part of a decade. And that experience, my commitment to follow the law, my commitment to find the most efficient way to do it, and my knowledge of knowing the most effective ways to do it, that's why people should vote for me."

This interview was edited for length and clarity. 

Raisa is a Watchdog and Investigative Reporter for The Savannah Morning News. Contact her at rhabersham@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Chatham elections 2022: Recorder's Court candidate Anthony Burton Q&A