BROOKS COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) – WALB has new information on a deadly dog attack in Brooks County, that left a 35-year-old mother of four dead and one of her children seriously injured in May.
We’ve been reporting on the brutal mauling of Courtney Williams, involving more than a dozen of her neighbor’s dogs.
WALB has learned the dogs’ owner isn’t being held liable because of the wording of local ordinances.
Thursday, May 9, was a typical day for Courtney Williams until she walked out into her front yard where her neighbors’ dogs attacked and killed her. When her kids got off the bus, the dogs went after them. Her 11-year-old was badly injured.
Due to Brooks County’s local ordinance, the dog owner was not required to confine nor restrain the dogs involved in the deadly attack.
“Whenever there is a serious injury or death period. They should never be using a local ordnance,” Claudine Wilkins, a former prosecutor, and attorney, said.
Wilkins wrote Georgia’s Responsible Dog Owner Act in 2012. After seeing reports of the deadly attack on Courtney Williams, she became determined to amend the state law, to make it easier to prosecute owners of dogs involved in attacks.
“So whether your ordnance is good or bad or not there yet. In a case like the Brooks County case, it should absolutely be a state violation,” Wilkins said.
WALB did some research and found that 29 counties in Georgia have no animal control ordinance or poorly written ordinances, which allows them to apply the state law.
The current state law requires owners of dogs classified as “dangerous” to register with local animal control and confine them. But in order to be considered dangerous by law, a dog has to have attacked before. The dogs that killed Courtney Williams, had not previously attacked.
“The state law needs a lot of repair,” Wilkins said. “We hope to study what needs to be changed. There have been a lot of serious attacks and now we know of a fatality that warrants the reason to change these things.”
Now Wilkins, in partnership with the Lt. Governor’s office, is forming a Senate study committee for the upcoming legislative session to amend the Georgia law about dangerous and vicious dog attacks.
Dr. Jim Crosby has studied dangerous dogs for years.
“There are typically warning signs that give us the opportunity to intervene and remediate to fix those problems,” Crosby said.
In the past, Georgia state law has been used to hold dog owners legally liable in deadly dog attacks.
62-year-old Dr. Nancy Shaw was found in a ditch after being attacked by roaming dogs on May 7, 2020, in Lyons, Georgia.
According to reports from the Lyons Police Department, “Gregory Van Mosley was charged with involuntary manslaughter after evidence recently obtained from the State Crime Lab allowed authorities to pursue prosecuting the case.”
In 2022, 80-year-old Rosetta Gesselman was mauled by her daughter’s three large dogs in Troup County, Georgia.
According to Troup County Sheriff’s Office, Tongia Gesselman was charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
“In the case of Courtney Williams, we have a death, and subsequently her children were then attacked,” Wilkins said. “That is a serious injury that is a vicious dog attack. In serious injury cases and fatalities, for sure, you want to use the state law always.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has closed its investigation and provided the file to District Attorney Brad Shealy for his review and any further action he deems appropriate in this case.
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