- Law Job Star
Teaching the Courtroom a Thing or Two: Educator Turned Prosecutor Eleanor Dixon
by Mary Waldron
by Mary Waldron
Next, Dixon became a high school teacher at Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, teaching world history, economics, and civics. She was also very active in working with the youth at her church. Even though Dixon "loved" working with teenagers, she decided to go to law school after three years of teaching, initially because she wanted to make more money. "I thought I'd be a big corporate lawyer," Dixon says. Dixon attended Georgia State University for law school full-time, receiving news that she was pregnant after her first semester. "It was kind of crazy," she says of the experience. Despite her initial reason for going into law, Dixon found a passion for it when she started an internship with the prosecutor's office in metro Atlanta. "I loved it. I fell in love with that," Dixon says of her job. "I've been prosecuting since 1991. I think it's just part of being in a helping profession — helping others. I certainly got that from my father. My sister is also in a 'helping' profession as well; she works with the elderly. It's just my family." Once Dixon graduated from law school, she was invited to work in the prosecutor's office where she interned. She started out in the solicitor's office, prosecuting misdemeanor cases. Briefly after that, she worked for a judge to see if she had any interest in civil law. Dixon quickly realized civil law was not for her, and she got a prosecuting job at the Atlanta District Attorney's Office instead. She also worked in the State Attorney General's Office in the special prosecution department. Next, she was offered a position leading the crimes against women and children unit at the Cobb County District Attorney's Office, which she took and has held for seven and a half years. "It's kind of nice to still get to work with kids after all these years," she says of her current position. Dixon most recently led the prosecution side of a case that sent parents Sonya and Joseph Smith to jail for life for the murder of their eight-year-old boy, Josef Smith. Dixon and her team argued that Smith was the victim of chronic child abuse and met his fate when his parents forced him into a three-foot-by-two-foot wooden box, which was later tied shut with extension cords. Smith was discovered not breathing by his older brother and was declared brain dead when taken to the hospital. Smith's parents were part of the Remnant Fellowship Church, which encourages parents to physically discipline their children. One of Dixon's more challenging cases was that of Gunther Fiek, a tae kwon do instructor who taught at the Christian Activity Center (CAC), a multipurpose recreation and activity building belonging to Eastside Baptist Church (EBC) in Marietta, GA. From about 1995 to 2000, Fiek molested 23 boys ranging in age from four to 12. The case, which lasted about three weeks, featured a series of testimonies from children he molested. Dixon and her team sent Fiek to jail for 90 years. "That was a very challenging case," she says. "So here was this young, good-looking, popular tae kwon do teacher who ended up abusing the parents' trust and the kids' trust. That definitely is very memorable." A unique case that Dixon handled ended up changing a law in Georgia. Kyle Bishop, a man who was in his 30s at the time, befriended his neighbor, a young teenage girl, and started a sexual relationship with her. The girl's parents suspected something was going on and recorded their daughter's phone conversations as proof against Bishop. The court did not allow a recorded conversation between the daughter and Bishop to serve as evidence because the law prohibited it. Although the teenager finally admitted what had happened and Bishop was convicted, Dixon knew the law that prohibited the phone recordings needed to be changed. She was able to assist in taking it to the legislature to be updated so that parents could record their children's conversations and use them as evidence in courts of law. A fan of theater and performance, Dixon likes to infuse her legal career with her interest in performing. "I love to be able to get up and argue my case in front of a jury. I really get a lot out of that. I didn't want to sit behind a desk and do desk work or contract law. I just wanted to be up in the courtroom. I feel very much at home in the courtroom," Dixon says. In the Josef Smith case, Dixon was criticized by some attorneys because of her "dramatic" technique of presenting a birthday cake and singing "Happy Birthday" to commemorate Smith's ninth birthday that he didn't get to celebrate because of his death. Her bold style also involves using the courtroom space to its fullest, even if that means taking a seat on the witness stand for emphasis, which she did in her closing argument for the Smith case. "In this electronic and media age that we live in, jurors expect to be entertained. Our job isn't to entertain them, but our job is to get their attention so that they'll be invested in the case. I like to use a lot of examples from real life and things that catch jurors' attention so that I can make my point. I think you need to make it lively — they're going to remember it," she says.
“Also, other senior assistant district attorneys in the Fulton D.A.’s office really guided me on the path,” Dixon learned a thing or two when she went into law, including the following: "Don't do it for the money." She learned early on that legal professionals need to have passions for their areas of law in order to have fruitful careers. |
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