Wednesday, January 28, 2004
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004 |
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Marshals prisoners will be jailed again; suit against sheriff still headed to trial By JOHN MUNFORD A temporary truce has been reached in the dispute between the Fayette County Commission and Sheriff Randall Johnson over prisoners arrested by the county’s Marshal’s Office. The Fayette County Jail is again accepting prisoners, for now, who have been arrested by county marshals. In December, jail officials turned away a prisoner brought by a county marshal for DUI and other traffic charges. A consent order was reached between the parties last week to allow marshals prisoners “charged with or guilty of an indictable offense” to be held at the jail. But the issue isn’t solved, and both sides intend for it to proceed to trial, according to the consent order, which was signed by attorneys for both sides. The order was signed by the presiding judge on the case, Senior Superior Court Judge William H. Ison, who formerly presided in the Clayton judicial circuit. Sheriff Johnson had previously warned the county his department would no longer accept marshals prisoners because he believes the marshal’s office is not operating legally as a law enforcement agency. Johnson says accepting those prisoners puts him and the county at a tremendous legal liability for a potential lawsuit. Although the marshals enforce county ordinances and patrol county properties, they occasionally arrest suspects for traffic or other offenses they witness since they are sworn Georgia peace officers. Johnson specifically contends the marshal’s office should not have been created without a referendum Georgia law requires for voter approval to create a “county police department.” The county commission, which funds and operates the marshal’s office, contends it became a law enforcement agency before that law went into effect.
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