Olivia Coley-Pearson is the first Black woman to serve on Douglas’s City Commission and is actively involved in helping people exercise their right to vote in Coffee County, Georgia—work that has led to multiple arrests based on false reports by election officials.

In 2016, Commissioner Coley-Pearson was charged with four felonies after Coffee County election officials baselessly alleged that she was illegally assisting Black elderly/illiterate voters. She went to trial twice. Three of the four counts were dismissed at the first trial. In the second trial on the remaining count, SCHR represented Commissioner Coley-Pearson. A jury acquitted her of the final count after deliberating for approximately 20 minutes.

On October 27, 2020, Commissioner Coley-Pearson assisted a voter who had difficulty reading during the early voting period for the general election. Based on false claims that Commissioner Coley-Pearson created a disturbance in the polling place and illegally touched the voting machines, election officials voted to ban her from the premises. Police officers then issued a trespass warning banning her from “any polling place that is controlled by the Coffee County Board of Elections during the time of voting or any other Board of Elections business.” The ban was permanent and impacted her ability to assist voters and constituents as an elected official.

Later that day, in the parking lot in front of the Board of Elections, Commissioner Coley-Pearson was arrested and charged with criminal trespass pursuant to the trespass ban.  (She had returned to the Board of Elections to provide another voter with transportation to and from the polls.)  SCHR represented her again in this newest prosecution, which was later dismissed in December 2022. SCHR also filed a civil rights case challenging the trespass ban and resulting arrest as unconstitutional. After we sought a preliminary injunction, defendants repealed the ban and we settled the claims against the City of Douglas and its officers for damages. But the claims against Coffee County officials remained.

On August 31, 2023, the district court entered an 82-page order granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss on several issues.  The court concluded that the criminal trespass warning was not unconstitutional, and even if it was unconstitutional, it was issued by the city police department and that the vote of the county Board of Elections did not change that fact.  The court also rejected our retaliation claims, despite Ms. Coley-Pearson being targeted again by the same Board of Election personnel, and found qualified immunity protected the individual defendant.

On March 28, 2024, Ms. Coley-Pearson appealed the district court decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where our co-counsel, Zack Greenamyre, argued for a reversal of the district court order. Ms. Coley-Pearson awaits a ruling from the appellate court.