A case that has waited for months for a decision got one just before the Christmas holiday as Senior Judge Stephen Schuster finally filed his decision to grant the defense their motion to quash indictments against State Representative Trey Kelley (R-16th District.)

Kelley, who was formally indicted and arrested last December on a reckless conduct misdemeanor, sought to have the charges against him dropped in what turned out to be a monthslong decision finally filed by Judge Schuster late this afternoon. He heard arguments from the defense and from Tallapoosa Circuit District Attorney Jack Browning over the motion back in late June of this year.

His 12-page filing explained his reasons for allowing the defense motion to move forward to quash the indictment, but it doesn’t end the case as Browning already has plans to seek out the state appeals court for a ruling on the matter.

Polk County’s State Representative was charged with his connection to the hit and run death of Eric Keais on September 11, 2019. Ryan Dover, who was also charged and arrested last year, still faces charges of his own.

In the decision handed down today, Judge Schuster did find issues with the case, specifically that he hadn’t heard enough factual evidence to make a determination of who was at fault for the accident. He also cited the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s interpretation of statutes “by taking an originalism and textualist approach” to the law.

“Simply stated a judge does not bend laws to fit a desired outcome,” the decision stated. “A judge follows the law and words are given their ordinary and everyday meaning. They are to be given the meaning assigned to them when a statute is made into law.”

The judge argued that since “The General Demurrer argument is that KELLEY can admit the allegations in County 2 and since he has no legal obligation or obligation proscribed by criminal statute to Mr. Keais the conduct cannot be charged as a violation of a criminal statute.” He additionally felt the indictments linking a reckless conduct charge was “unconstitutionally vague and violates KELLEY’s constitutionally protected right of due process under the State and U.S. Constitution.”

This afternoon’s filing also went into further analysis of the legal arguments around the indictments and that, simply put, the Judge didn’t believe the indictments as they were filed constituted a crime committed by Kelley.

Read the full filing from Judge Schuster here.

Following this afternoon’s filing, the District Attorney stated that he planned to file an appeal of the ruling by Judge Schuster to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Since the filing came so late in the afternoon, he said that he would have to examine it further on Wednesday to determine the best legal course of action going forward.

“I believe that we have charged him correctly,” Browning added.