Mark Millican
markmillican@daltoncitizen.com
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Leigh Patterson, the Rome Judicial Circuit district attorney, took some good-natured “ribbing” when she received the District Attorney of the Year award in Jekyll Island on Monday.
A 1982 graduate of Northwest Whitfield High School, Patterson was cited for prosecuting some high-profile cases — including the successful conviction of Sam Parker in Walker County in 2009 for the murder of his still-missing wife Theresa — along with a humorous defense of herself during campaign season.
“My campaign committee entered a barbecue contest that Cave Spring has every year,” Patterson said on Tuesday in a phone interview. “I was running for office (and) there were other people who entered it that were running for office, and we won first place for our ribs. They gave us a little clay plate they had made (as an award), and the Cave Spring Downtown Development Authority gave us $200 or $250 for winning first prize. Well, good Lord, that didn’t even cover the cost of our ingredients and barbecue. But I didn’t feel like I could just take that money, because I didn’t think it was right. I put it back into the campaign account.”
Patterson said even though the check was listed as prize money, Rome Democratic Party member George Anderson filed an ethics complaint against her.
“(Anderson) said the Cave Spring Downtown Development Authority can’t give me a campaign donation,” she said of the complaint. “Well, they didn’t! They gave me a prize. I won it, fair and square.”
Patterson said she had to travel to Atlanta and appear before the State Ethics Commission, whose members were amused.
“It was hysterical because they called me up there and I had to answer his complaint,” she recalled. “The guy who had the chair looked at me and said, ‘This is a very serious matter involving barbecue.’ Everybody in the room was cracking up. And I hung my head and said, ‘Well, it’s true, sir, I did win first place for my ribs. And I failed to confess to the Ethics Commission that last week at our fair, I won first place for my banana bread and first place for my cranberry muffins, too.’ They were in the floor — in hysterics! And George Anderson didn’t even show up for the hearing. They dismissed the complaint in its entirety and apologized to me for having to come down there.”
Patterson said she was “surprised” when she received the award presented at the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys’ annual training session for prosecutors, assistant DAs and DA investigators.
“I had no idea, they really fooled me,” she said. “I never expected to be honored like that by my colleagues. So it was really very nice.”
Patterson has been district attorney in Floyd County since January of 2003.
