Candidate couple faces contempt arrest over dispute
By RICHARD WHITT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/09/06
A Cobb County Superior Court judge ordered the arrest Thursday of a husband and wife running for separate seats in the Georgia General Assembly.
Judge Adele P. Grubbs ordered the county sheriff to arrest J. Andrew "Andy" Rice and Kathryn W. "Taffy" Rice on contempt charges on the grounds that they refused to obey her court order.
Andy Rice is running for the Republican nomination for the Senate District 37 seat in west Cobb currently held by John Wiles. Taffy Rice is seeking to unseat House Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart of Powder Springs, also in the Republican primary. The Rices are considered underdogs.
Taffy Rice said she was unaware of the court's order. Andy Rice did not return a phone message.
Thursday's order followed years of court maneuverings by the Rices in a dispute with their neighborhood homeowners association about the height of a privacy fence. The association sued the Rices in June 2002 after they refused to lower the height of the fence.
After a two-day hearing in 2003, Grubbs ruled in favor of the association and ordered the fence to be removed or reduced to no more than eight feet in height.
The Rices, who are representing themselves, failed to show up for a hearing Tuesday and, instead, filed a motion calling the scheduled hearing "improper and nonbinding," according to Grubbs' order.
"The uncontroverted evidence before the court and in the record is that the defendants have failed to follow this court's order of April 15, 2003," Grubbs' order states. She ordered a hearing on the matter within 20 days of their arrest.