Wednesday, December 31, 2003
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003 |
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Fayette County vs. Sheriff: Marshals’ power to jail arrested suspects in dispute By JOHN MUNFORD The Fayette County Commission is taking Sheriff Randall Johnson to court to force him to accept at the jail prisoners that have been arrested by county marshals. The suit was filed in Fayette Superior Court Dec. 23, two days after jail staffers turned away a prisoner arrested by a marshal for DUI and other charges. It claims Georgia law requires the jail to accept prisoners from the marshals office who are arrested for any indictable offense. If prisoners from the marshals office aren’t accepted at the jail, “... the certified police officers working for the Fayette County Marshals Department will be forced to release those persons arrested for violating the law.” The commission is petitioning the court for a temporary injunction and permanent order to force Johnson to accept prisoners arrested by marshals. The county is also seeking a mandamus, which orders a public agency or government body to perform an act required by law which it has previously neglected or refused to do. Sheriff Johnson contends the marshals office is not a law enforcement agency because a referendum was not held to establish it as a county police department as required by Georgia law. Accepting prisoners from the marshals office could create legal liabilities for the jail if the marshals are making illegal arrests, Johnson has said. The county contends the marshals department became a law enforcement agency in 1989, three years before the referendum requirement went into effect. However, the action was so low-key as to go virtually unnoticed at the time. The turf battles between county sheriffs and county commissions have been going on for decades in Georgia. Until the middle of the last century, the elected sheriff traditionally was the chief law enforcement officer in each county, and was not answerable to the elected commissions. Commissions, seeking more control over tax expenditures and wary of sheriffs’ political clout, began setting up county police departments, taking over the law enforcement functions within unincorporated areas of counties and leaving sheriffs with little to do but run jails and serve court summons. Still potent politically, sheriffs fought back with the 1992 law requiring a voter referendum before a county could set up a separate police department. Johnson notified county officials of his decision to no longer accept prisoners in a letter Aug. 21. In addition to his legal concerns, Johnson cited a state law saying marshals cannot “exercise any of the powers or authority which are by law vested in the office of the sheriff or any other peace officer.” Fayette Commission Chairman Greg Dunn has said the county marshals, despite being called that by the commission in the enabling ordinance 14 years ago, are not marshals under Georgia law. Dunn contends the department was so named to distinguish it from the sheriff’s department. Accepting a prisoner arrested on charges by the marshals department, “... would place me personally and the county in a position of tremendous legal liability,” Johnson wrote in his letter to the county commission. Since that notification, two other prisoners from the marshals department were taken into custody by the jail, according to the suit. But both those prisoners were held on charges from other jurisdictions, which was not the case Sunday, Dec. 21, when a marshal brought a prisoner to the jail whom he had arrested for DUI and other charges. The Hampton woman was arrested after Deputy Marshal Mark Thayer spotted her go through a red light at the intersection of Grady Avenue and Ga. Highway 85 without attempting to stop. It was later determined that Deborah M. Parker, 54, was legally intoxicated, according to an incident report filed by Thayer. Parker was charged with DUI, failure to obey a traffic control device and possession of an open container of alcohol. According to the suit, jail officials refused to accept Parker because she was arrested by the marshals office. According to the county’s suit, Georgia law says the only reason a prisoner can be turned away by a jailer is if the prisoner “has not received medical treatment for obvious physical injuries or conditions of an emergency nature.” Failure to accept a prisoner when warranted could lead to a misdemeanor charge with a fine of up to $1,000, the suit indicated. Along with the suit, the county supplied a copy of a resolution signed by then-County Commission Chairman George Patton which gave the county marshals police powers, including the power of arrest “under the direction and control of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners.” The resolution, dated July 13, 1989, also said, “The County Marshal shall have the power to make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes in Fayette County, and all the powers of the Sheriff as peace officers in Fayette County.” The county also supplied a 1989 letter from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council indicating that the marshals department had become a certified state law enforcement agency. The marshals department was actually created by the county commission back in 1983 to enforce county ordinances. The suit was filed by Dennis A. Davenport of Fox, McNally and Grant, the firm which represents the county. The case is currently assigned to Superior Court Judge Tommy Hankinson of Thomaston, but it is likely that all four judges in the Griffin Judicial Circuit will recuse themselves from the case, forcing the appointment of a judge from outside the county.
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