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COVINGTON, Ga. — A personal service is deliberate for former Superior Courtroom Decide Greeley Ellis, who died Friday, Dec. 30, at age 90.
Ellis, a longtime Covington resident and civic and enterprise chief, served as a Superior Courtroom choose within the Alcovy Judicial Circuit for 11 years from 1978 to 1989.
The previous choose grew to become well-known regionally when he presided over one of many first RICO instances in Georgia in 1983 in Monroe in a case involving members of a gaggle generally known as the “Dixie Mafia.”
The Adel native graduated from the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level, New York. He served within the Military in Germany and attended Mercer Regulation Faculty and Emory Regulation Faculty the place he graduated in 1959.
Ellis practiced regulation in Atlanta earlier than shifting to Covington in 1960 to begin his personal apply.
He was a director of Newton Federal Financial institution for greater than 56 years and served as board chairman for 16 years. He served as Covington metropolis lawyer within the Sixties and as a member of the Newton County Faculty Board from 1967 to 1970.
He additionally served as president of the Newton County Chamber of Commerce, and arranged the Newton County Industrial Improvement Authority in 1965 the place he served as chairman for 14 years.
Ellis was president of the Kiwanis Membership in 1965 and a founding member of the Newton County Basis. In 2015, he was awarded the Distinguished Graduate Award from the West Level Society of Atlanta.
He was a personal lawyer from 1958 till Gov. George Busbee appointed him to the judgeship in Might 1978. He received election later that 12 months and reelection in 1982 and 1986.
Ellis presided over the trials of Winder resident Harold Smith Chancey, Charles I. Cagle of Demorest and Audie Jordan of Social Circle who had been members of a gaggle generally known as the “Dixie Mafia.” They confronted expenses of violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) regulation in a trial that lasted over six weeks, in keeping with The Walton Tribune newspaper.
Sources near the case estimated half 1,000,000 {dollars} was spent on protection attorneys. Ellis sentenced Chancey, Jordan and Cagle to the utmost 20-year jail sentences for racketeering in June 1983, and ordered every to pay a $25,000 superb.
In 1989, Ellis resigned his judgeship to run for the 1990 Republican nomination for governor however misplaced to future congressman and U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson.
Superior Courtroom Decide John Ott, who retired Dec. 31 after 32 years on the bench, was appointed in 1990 to exchange Ellis.
Ellis is survived by his spouse, Temple; sons, George Hunter Ellis of Augusta, Andrew Berdan Ellis of Leicester, North Carolina, and Paul Wilson Ellis of Flowery Department; a sister, Jean Wright; and 5 grandchildren.
A personal burial ceremony will probably be held within the Covington Metropolis Cemetery, in keeping with an obituary from J.C. Harwell and Son Funeral Residence.
Contributions in reminiscence of Ellis could also be made to the Shepherd Middle, 2020 Peachtree Highway, NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, the place Ellis recuperated following a automobile wreck in 1975.
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