John Kent Edwards, Jr & William Pope Langdale, III

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In April 2015, I discovered peculiarities in the campaign finance disclosures for state court judge John K. Edwards, Jr. These reports show that his campaign manager, William P. Langdale, III, directed contributions to the campaign in excess of statutory limits. Public records also indicate that Langdale served as chairman of the committee “Citizens to Re-Elect Judge John Kent Edwards, Jr.” Publicly-available documents indicate that Langdale obfuscated these contributions with incorrect and misleading addresses for six affiliated business entities. Through diligent examination of annual corporate registrations, it can be shown that Langdale was directly responsible for $8,000 of the first-week contributions and potentially $13,000 of total contributions. It is my conclusion and belief that such actions were designed to influence a sitting judge and create favorable venue for litigation by Langdale’s law firm.

As of 2012 when the election occurred, the contribution limits for a local election were fixed at $2,500.1 Contributions in excess of this amount violate O.C.G.A. § 21-5-41(b) and O.C.G.A. § 21-5-41(c) as defined by O.C.G.A. § 21-5-40(2) and O.C.G.A. § 21-5-42.

O.C.G.A. § 21-5-40(2)
‘Affiliated corporation’ means with respect to any business entity any other business entity related thereto: as a parent business entity; as a subsidiary business entity; as a sister business entity; by common ownership or control; or by control of one business entity by the other.

O.C.G.A. § 21-5-41(B)
No person, corporation, political committee, or political party shall make, and no candidate or campaign committee shall receive from any such entity, contributions to any candidate for the General Assembly or public office other than state-wide elected office which in the aggregate for an election cycle exceed…

O.C.G.A. § 21-5-41(C)
No business entity shall make any election contributions to any candidate which when aggregated with contributions to the same candidate for the same election from any affiliated corporations exceed the per election maximum allowable contribution limits for such candidate as specified in subsection (a) of this Code section.

O.C.G.A. § 21-5-42
For purposes of this article, a contribution to a campaign committee of a candidate for any public office shall be deemed to be a contribution to such candidate.

The following narrative discusses how the contributions were concealed as well as a theory of wrongdoing and intent.

In addition to being a managing partner of the Langdale-Vallotton law firm, William P. Langdale, III served as President and CFO of Langdale Capital Assets. Together with his father William P. Langdale, Jr. (who sits as Chairman of the Board), the two men serve as organizers, owners, agents, executive officers, finance officers, and attorneys-in-fact for approximately thirty-five local entities, one of which appears to be a shell company chartered in the State of Delaware but operated from Lowndes County. Langdale capital itself owns/operates numerous local business entities, five of which were used to facilitate the suspicious contributions.

Campaign Contributions

According to entity filings on Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission’s website,1 the election committee registered on May 2, 2012. Following this, the first campaign disclosure shows that the campaign raised $37,406 in contributions from May 2, 2012 through June 30, 2012.2 Of this amount, $13,000 was raised within the first seven days:

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What is not readily clear from the campaign disclosure is that William P. Langdale, III was directly responsible for 62% ($8,000) of the first-week contributions. This is a direct violation of the Campaign Finance Act of 2010 which not only limited primary contributions to $2,500 from a single source, but also extended this limit to aggregate contributions from “affiliated” sources.3

Contributing Entities

As was previously noted, William P. Langdale, III is the CEO and President of Langdale Capital Assets which owns/operates a number of subsidiaries and affiliates and of the eight contributions received in the first week, six came from Langdale Capital Assets and entities that it operated:

The affiliations of these entities is further—and perhaps purposefully—obscured by the manner in which they were disclosed. The following disclosures are taken directly from the campaign finance disclosure reports.

Despite the “LLC” designation, there is no such entity registered with the Office of the Secretary of State. However, common knowledge and internet sources all point to its existence as a Valdosta law firm operating since 1972. Its website, langdalevallotton.com, refers to the firm as a LLP located at 1007 North Patterson Street and post office box 1547, and these addresses are listed in all of the approximately thirty-five entities previously mentioned. This is also the principal address of Langdale Capital Assets whose website, langdalecapital.com, identifies it as the operator of, inter alia, Langdale Vallotton, Valdosta Flying Services, Lankey Properties, and Palmetto Pecan.

While JLH Land Company was not one of Langdale Capital Assets’ declared holdings, it was clearly affiliated with Langdale Vallotton and Langdale Capital at the time of its contribution:

As of January 27, 2011, JLH had already amended its registered address to 2736 James Road, but this correct address was not used in the campaign disclosure. Had it been used, it would have been apparent that it shared physical space with Lankey Properties which made an identical contribution on the same date:

For a better understanding of the connection between JLH and Lankey, one must turn to Lankey’s 2011 annual registration. This registration was filed by Marvin Dickey who was also the owner/operator of JLH Land Company (both of which were then sharing the James Road address). In the 2012 election year, Lankey’s annual registration was filed by William P. Langdale, III but following the election in 2013 Lankey’s annual registration was again filed by Marvin Dickey who was this time declared as Lankey’s CFO. As of 2013 Dickey had also been named CEO, CFO, Secretary, and Agent of JLH Properties. Lankey in turn has no named officers but lists William P. Langdale, III as its agent who was already the CFO and President of Langdale Capital Assets, which also made an identical contribution on the same date:

Although in 2012 Langdale Capital had registered its address as 1007 N. Patterson Street (the same as Langdale Vallotton), Langdale Capital later amended its address to 2936 James Road—an address which does not exist. With the aid of various internet resources, the true address of Langdale Capital Assets is 2736 James Road which was (and still is) the same physical address of JLH Land Company and Lankey Properties. As noted previously, Langdale Capital operates Palmetto Pecan which also made an identical contribution on the same date:

Palmetto Pecan had been in operation for only nine months at the time it made its contribution. As with Lankey Properties, Palmetto Pecan enumerates no officers merely specifying William P. Langdale, Jr. as its agent and the same address as Langdale Capital and Langdale Vallotton. However, Langdale Capital’s website states that it in fact operates Palmetto Pecan. This website also lists Valdosta Flying Services as an “affiliate” and the annual registration names William P. Langdale, III as CEO and CFO. Not surprisingly, Valdosta Flying Services made a nearly identical contribution on the same date as well:

As noted, Langdale Capital and its officers William P. Langdale, III and William P. Langdale, Jr are named as organizers, owners, agents, executive officers, finance officers, and attorneys-in-fact of roughly thirty-five local entities. It would be impossible for a citizen to ascertain any further connections through which the Langdales might have orchestrated contributions. There are, however, a few contributions that are facially suspicious: SEM Properties ($1,000), Mala Vallotton ($1,000 – not employed), Suzane Lastinger ($1,000 – not employed), Dorothy and Van Hastings ($1,000 – retired), William P. Langdale, Jr. ($500 – chairman of Langdale Capital), Josh Carroll ($500 – secretary of Langdale Capital), and Tremont Village II ($300 – client of Langdale Vallotton).

Theory of Wrongdoing

John K. Edwards, Jr. came into office in 2006 when the sitting state court judge of Lowndes County resigned. Lowndes County always had only one state court judgeship since its establish­ment. This stands in sharp contrast to the five rotating superior court judgeships.

The advantage of a single judge presiding in state court is considerable in that any action commenced will always receive the same judicial assignment and all motions and hearings will be conducted by the same judge who will also decide summary judgments and preside over trials.

Based on the evidence, I now believe that Langdale Vallotton wanted to establish the state court as a preferable venue for litigation by its attorneys, which it in fact accomplished by chairing the election committee and by directing unlawful contributions to the candidate. In turn, these contributions had two effects: 1) ensuring adequate funding to launch a peremptory campaign against challenger Sandra Guest, and 2) garnering the favor of the incumbent judicial candidate. I further believe that the incumbent judge knew the nature and source of the contributions. For example, it is common knowledge that William P. Langdale, III is an attorney with Langdale Vallotton, that he is a chief officer of Langdale Capital Assets, and that he is an avid pilot with multiple licensures. This alone would constitute twice the lawful limitation on contributions. Common sense would also compel one to conclude that a candidate would not entrust his election campaign to someone whom he did not know thoroughly.

In addition to the facts already presented, campaign finance disclosures show that Palmetto Pecan, Lankey Properties, and Valdosta Flying Services made no other political contributions. Langdale Capital also made no other local contributions in 2012. Only JLH and Langdale Vallotton contributed elsewhere, each giving $250 and $2,500 to a probate candidate, respectively. Further still, there is no evidence within other campaign finance disclosures to indicate that these six entities contributed in any other judicial elections from 2010 through 2014.4

Enumerations of Misconduct

The evidence thus far presented should not be regarded as the entirety of a diligent investigation. Rather, it is presented so that skilled investigations may be undertaken by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, the Georgia Bar Association, the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the District Attorney, and the Attorney General. It is by no means exhaustive and there are many data sets that should be analyzed, which among other data sets, might include the number of civil actions which Langdale Vallotton initiated in state court relative to those that it commenced in superior court, as well as the number of favorable judgments obtained in state court in which Langdale Vallotton was a party relative to the average favorable judgments of actions in state court in which Langdale Vallotton was not a party.

As a non-attorney, I do not purport to correctly interpret the legal, ethical, or professional standards which bind the campaign participants involved. In an apart from violations of the Campaign Finance Act, there would seem to be violations of Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct 8.2(b), 8.3(a), 8.3(b), 8.4(a)(4), and 8.4(a)(6) as well as violations of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct Cannon 2 and Cannon 3.

Conclusion

While the foregoing investigation by no means rises to crisis level, any corruption no matter how great or trivial stands to impact thousands of citizens who depends on justice and integrity to ensure just civil restitutions and fair criminal proceedings.

Referenced documents
PDF bundle of all referenced documents