The City of Dunwoody has prevailed in a long-running open records lawsuit filed by resident Joe Hirsch, and Hirsch has been ordered to pay $182,000 in attorneys’ fees incurred by the city.
Hirsch, who identified himself in the 226-page lawsuit as a journalist on X, named three city employees in his Oct. 31, 2023 suit – Dunwoody City Clerk Sharon Lowery, Clerk Eric Shealy, and Information Technology Department Head Ginger LePage. He also named the city as a defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that the trio lied about and/or covered up information related to an open records request Hirsch made regarding an incident that occurred between a police officer and the manager of a Dunwoody tire store.
In a release from the city on Aug. 13, officials said the ruling, handed down on Dec. 2, 2025, by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge David B. Irwin, found “the City and its employees had complied with the Open Records Act.”
“Despite the plaintiff’s repeated attacks on social media and in public comments at City Council meetings, the rulings showed the City and its employees acted legally and in good faith,” the release said.
After the rulings, Dunwoody filed a motion to collect attorney’s fees, which was granted May 22, in the amount of $182,478.10 – “the full amount requested by defendants.”
In the order obtained by Rough Draft Atlanta, Irwin described the plaintiff’s claims as“substantially frivolous and vexatious … The record shows that plaintiff’s litigation strategy was designed to harass, intimidate, and impose unnecessary costs on the City and its employees.”
“An award of attorney’s fees will compensate Defendants for the extraordinary costs incurred and deter future litigants from engaging in similar misconduct,” Irwin wrote in his conclusion.
Irwin’s final order and judgment, handed down June 3, reinforced his order that Hirsch must pay the city $182,478.
Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch said she was “grateful for Judge Irwin’s diligence and careful consideration.”
“This has been very difficult for the City employees named in this civil action,” Deutsch said in a statement. “The Court’s orders grant summary judgment in favor of the City and the individual defendants, and I’m gratified that our employees have been vindicated. It was also important for us to seek attorneys’ fees for the costs associated with our defense.”
The lawsuit details
Hirsch’s lawsuit surrounded an Oct. 13, 2021 incident involving Dunwoody Police Officer Minh Pham and an unnamed store manager at Mr. Tire on Dunwoody Village Parkway. A call received by 911 claimed that Pham was being belligerent.
The lawsuit claims that Pham “essentially held hostage a Mr. Tire store manager against his will by causing the store manager to believe he was being detained for failing to fix the officer’s wife’s personal car.”
A communications log that Hirsch included in the lawsuit showed a call from Mr. Tire at 1333 Dunwoody Parkway was reported as a civil dispute between two parties, and the caller advised that “a customer and her husband are refusing to let them leave.” The reference to “them” does not list a person’s name. In the report, the caller was only identified as “John.” The call log identified the husband as a police officer.
In the lawsuit, Hirsch said that he became concerned after hearing about the alleged incident and filed an open records request around Oct. 28, asking for all text messages to and from Pham from Oct. 13 to Oct. 14.
An email sent from Dunwoody City Clerk Eric Shealy to Hirsch five days later said the city found “no records that are responsive to your request using the information provided.”
However, in July, Hirsch sent a message to Dustin Guwin, a Dunwoody contract employee hired through a staffing agency, asking him about the text messages.
According to the suit, Guwin replied that LePage had acknowledged there were four text messages on Pham’s phone during the period Hirsch requested, despite former Dunwoody Police Chief Billy Grogan having told Guwin there were none.
Hirsch also included in the lawsuit the minutes of several council meetings wherein, during public comment, he said that LePage and Lowery should be investigated and criminally charged for lying to him regarding Pham’s texts.
Hirsch’s response
“This case remains under appeal,” Hirsch said in an email response to Rough Draft. “I am confident that a full and fair review of the facts will confirm what the record already shows: that Dunwoody continues to violate multiple provisions of Georgia’s Open Records Act.
“It is unfortunate that the city characterizes this outcome as a victory. In truth, it is a loss for the residents of Dunwoody, who deserve a transparent local government,” the statement continued.
“My attorney, who helped me identify the city’s numerous violations of the Open Records Act, was widely recognized as an expert in this field and had previously been consulted by the state of Georgia in drafting its transparency statutes. He believed, as I do, that transparency is a fundamental safeguard of democratic government. Unfortunately, he became seriously ill during the course of this litigation, a fact the city was aware of, and he passed away just days before my response to the motion for summary judgment was due.
“I retained new counsel immediately and requested additional time from the city to respond. Dunwoody declined, refusing to grant any extension following my attorney’s death, and suggested, without basis, that his illness had been used to delay the case.
“Regardless of the court’s ruling, the underlying facts remain unchanged: Dunwoody continues to operate without adequate transparency, and this outcome reflects a system in which loyalty is rewarded over accountability.”
