Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE -- A State House candidate told commissioners Tuesday he was threatened for speaking out against a rezoning proposal.

Glen Williams, a Centerville man seeking the House District 93 seat, was at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center for a Board of Commissioners hearing involving a proposed Dollar General on Mink Livsey Road.

After commissioners voted to deny the proposal, Williams said the applicant's attorney, Simon Bloom, confronted him in the corridor outside the auditorium, threatening to sue him.

"I was accosted and verbally threatened with a lawsuit," Williams told commissioners during a public comment period later in the meeting. Several neighbors also told the board what they witnessed, in an attempt to have a record of the altercation.

Attorney Michael Sullivan, who was at the meeting on other business, also addressed the board, explaining a provision of Georgia law, known as the anti-SLAPP measure, that protects people who speak up during government meetings from litigation.

In the upcoming July 31 primary, Williams will face incumbent Dar'shun Kendrick and Dexter Dawston for the Democratic nomination for the seat.