Julia Pierce | July 24, 2026

On June 10, 2026, I wrote a publication entitled “Clerk of Marion County Sheriff’s Office Violates the Georgia Open Records Act,” where I alleged that Linda Smith, from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office violated the Open Records Act by refusing to process my open records request unless I paid $50.00 in which I also presented video submitted by another citizen, Carol Streeter, indicating that she was told the same thing.

I was told that unless I paid the $50.00, they would not respond any further, and proved that they were unwilling to respond to my further emails citing that this was in fact a violation of the Open Records Act.

I was left with no choice but to file an Open Records complaint with the Attorney General’s office of Georgia, on June 9, 2026. Both Kristen Settlemire and Katelyn Dowdell worked for close to a month to investigate my complaint, and I included the letter in my previous publication mentioned above that was sent to Attorney Wayne Jernigan by the Attorney General’s office about my complaint.

Mr. Jernigan responded to the Attorney General’s office on July 9, 2026, in which I was provided as of today, July 24, 2026, 15 days later, and the letter is below.

In Mr. Jernigan’s response, he indicated that “the sheriff’s office cannot require a payment before they look up the information requested.” He indicated that he instructed Darrell Neal to compile a list of the surveillance cameras and provide them to me and then indicated that “The sheriff promises to comply with the provisions of the Open Records Law in the future.”

He indicated several other fabrications, that I am unsure as to why he would indicate to them, such as stating that I have put in 75 Open Records Requests to the County Commissioners and that once they complied all those requests and submitted the charges, I withdrew my request. This is factually inaccurate. I evidenced what happened in my previous publication with the 9 individual requests over 3 days, in which the county commissioners’ office through their county manager, Connie Harris, and their clerks, Gwen Nesbit and Heather Wright, chose to consolidate and charge the outrageous cost, entitled “Marion County, Georgia Manager’s Office Lacks Transparency, Evades Accountability, and Violates The Georgia Open Records Act.” Heather Wright ended up fulfilling my requests after I made a complaint to the Attorney General’s office at no charge. All the other requests through they county, I have indicated that I am willing to pay reasonable costs, but because those things I was asking for were less than 15 minutes, Heather did not charge me as per the Open Records Act.

Referencing, the open records requests to the elections supervisor, Tiffany Harris, she also consolidated my individual requests that were submitted individually, to which Wayne Jernigan was included on that email. I refused to pay that outrageous amount and chose to allow the investigating authorities to require the documentation if they needed it.

Below is the response I provided to the Attorney General’s office in reference to Mr. Jernigan’s response also addressing his factually incorrect statements.

Today, I decided to go to the Sheriff’s office, now that I had the letter where Mr. Jernigan corrected Sheriff Neal’s improper practices pertaining to the Open Records Act, instructed Sheriff Neal to compile the list for me, and indicated that it would be ready for me upon payment and pickup.

Linda Smith had contacted me on July 10, 2026 and indicated that the responsive documents were ready to pick up and the cost was $8.50.

When I emailed her back indicating that I requested this document electronically and I still did not have a breakdown of how the cost was calculated, she indicated that she had responded according to the county attorney and had no further comment.

In the same image above, you will see that I questioned that her response was within what the county attorney had instructed, and it is apparent that she did not follow his instructions per the letter that was sent to the Attorney General’s office, because the document below indicates that there is no list, and the laws she cited as why she did not have to return the list of surveillance cameras are not applicable. Ultimately, she defied the county attorney’s legal advice and instruction to Darell Neal. Whether she did this of her own accord or at the instruction of Darrell Neal, I do not know.

Additionally, I paid $8.50 of my client’s money, in good faith, that the responsive documents were within this envelope.

I have a hard time believing that this letter constitutes $8.50 worth of work, as this letter would have taken no more than 15 minutes to prepare, and under the Open Records Act, anything under 15 minutes is required to be free.

When I got home, I immediately emailed Kristen Settlemire and Katelyn Dowdell, with the letter and the receipts as attachments. Below is what I wrote them.

I indicated that not only did Linda Smith NOT do as she was instructed to do according to the county attorney, per the letter he sent to them, but she cited two laws that have nothing to do with why she didn’t have to include the list of surveillance cameras that Darrell Neal was instructed to compile and provide to me.

Linda cited O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(15) as authority for withholding the surveillance camera list. However, subsection (a)(15) pertains to individual farm water use records and does not appear applicable to a request for a general inventory of county-owned surveillance cameras.

Linda also cited O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(4), yet it does not explain how a general list identifying county-owned surveillance camera hardware would qualify for exemption as records related to a pending criminal investigation. Without additional explanation, it is difficult to understand how these exemptions apply to the records requested.

In Summary

The Marion County Attorney, Wayne Jernigan, admitted that Sheriff Darrell Neal was not following the Georgia Open Records Act, to the point it stated that he instructed him to correct the behavior and indicated that the sheriff promised to comply with the Georgia Open Records Act in the future?

Questions that Need Answers

Why did Linda Smith, the open records clerk at the MCSO, say that the county attorney advised her as to what was inclusive in her letter on July 10, 2026, when his letter to the Attorney General’s office on July 9, 2026, one day before indicated something completely different?

Why did Linda Smith cite two laws that have nothing to do with returning the surveillance camera list that Derrell Neal was directed to compile and provide?

Why was I charge $8.50 and required to pick up, for a letter that took no more than 15 minutes and could have been emailed as I requested?

Did Wayne Jernigan advise Linda Smith differently than what he assured the Georgia Attorney General’s office he advised sheriff Darrell Neal?

Did Darrell Neal advise Linda Smith adversely to the legal instruction that County Attorney Wayne Jernigan provided?

Why did Linda Smith not include the list Darrell Neal was told to compile and provide to me?

Why could Linda not have emailed me this document instead of requiring me to spend gas money to come pick it up?

What do you see? What are your thoughts?

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