Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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Wednesday, October 8, 2003 |
DA offers insight into possible judicial circuit split for FayetteBy JOHN
MUNFORD
Speaking to the Fayette County Bar Association last week, District Attorney Bill McBroom presented information about the federal government's battle against terrorists. But local attorneys were more interested in his viewpoints about possibly making Fayette County its own judicial circuit, severing it from its current relationship with Spalding, Upson and Pike counties. McBroom said he heard splitting Fayette into its own circuit "from what I've heard will cost the county some money." At the same time, McBroom said he thought such a move would cut his budget by $260,000. McBroom agreed that prosecuting felonies in Fayette County is far different from doing the same job in Spalding, Pike and Upson. There are more violent crimes in the other counties, while Fayette tends to have more child molestation and embezzlement/theft cases, McBroom said. "People here are also better educated and have a higher income," McBroom said. "You just don't see people resorting to violence as much." Creating a separate judicial circuit for Fayette County would likely leave the county with just one Superior Court judge for the first year, with another judge coming on the following year if necessary, McBroom pointed out. Currently, the Griffin Judicial Circuit has four judges that rotate through Fayette, Spalding, Pike and Upson counties. In October, a report was presented to the Georgia Judicial Council that recommended against creating a separate circuit for Fayette County. That report, however, speculated that growth in the Griffin Judicial Circuit could require the addition of a fifth judgeship in the coming few years, however. The topic of the possible circuit split was brought up after McBroom shared information he learned from a recent terrorism training conference in Washington, D.C., that was offered to local district attorneys. McBroom said government agents are focusing on following the money trail and targeting groups that fronted as charities or businesses which actually provided funds to terrorists. "They had to have money to take flying lessons," McBroom said, referring to the terrorists who hijacked the passenger aircraft which were used as weapons Sept. 11, 2001. McBroom said the federal government is trying to deal with immigration problems, as thousands of illegal aliens evade capture once they receive a letter from the department of Immigration and Naturalization Services asking them to turn themselves in so they can be deported to their home country. "Guess what? They're not showing up" to be deported, McBroom said.
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