WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A federal judge says there's no evidence that Warner Robins officials rejected a downtown housing project due to racial bias.
Last week, the judge threw out part of a lawsuit filed by four companies including Woda Cooper Development.
The companies claimed that in 2019, Mayor Randy Toms and several city councilors rejected a 90-unit low-income project at Perkins Field.
They say Toms and the others favored the project at first, but changed their minds due to public reaction.
The companies said they lost more than $3 million due to the project getting killed.
They said people criticized the project in a Facebook group called “Enough is Enough” and elsewhere.
People wrote that the low-income project would bring more crime and drugs to downtown.
However, Judge Marc Treadwell last week ruled that those comments aren't proof of racism.
He also noted that Toms and other officials said they weren't aware of the comments.
In 2021, Toms told 13WMAZ that the claim that he opposed the project based on race was “a flat lie.”
Last week, Treadwell wrote, in part, “There is no evidence, circumstantial or direct, that the city acted to ratify the alleged racial motivations of the community."
Two years ago, Treadwell threw out most of the lawsuit, but let that bias complaint go forward.
However last week, he granted the city's motion to reject that as well.
Treadwell agreed to keep one part of the lawsuit alive.
The companies claim that city lawyers retaliated against them for filing the lawsuit by threatening criminal prosecution for making false claims.