Judge sides with marshals

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com
and JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson must accept prisoners at the county jail who were arrested by the Fayette County Marshal’s Office because the department’s police powers are in compliance with Georgia law, a senior Superior Court Judge has ruled.

The ruling ends a suit filed by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners after jail officials turned away a prisoner arrested by a county marshal for DUI in December 2003. Previously, Johnson said accepting prisoners arrested by marshals would put him and the county at liability because of questions about their police powers.

Because Johnson agreed to jail marshal’s prisoners while the suit was pending, the court decision is likely to have little effect other than to settle the dispute.

“I’m quite happy with the ruling. The whole purpose was to settle the authority of the marshals,” said Commission Chairman Greg Dunn.

Johnson claimed the Marshal’s Office was operating illegally because it was created without a referendum required for all new county police departments formed after Jan. 1, 1992. But in his order on the case, Senior Superior Court Judge William Ison ruled that the Marshal’s Office was operational before that date and thus not subject to a referendum.

“After considering the affidavits and exhibits of both parties, the court finds the county has shown that the marshal’s service was established with full arrest powers in existence and operational and functioning on Jan. 1, 1992,” Ison wrote in the one-page order.

The only evidence presented by the sheriff contrary to the Marshal’s Office operating before 1992 came in an affidavit from former county manager Billy Beckett, Ison noted in his ruling.

“Mr. Beckett’s affidavit was pierced by plaintiff’s evidence and that no additional facts have been shown by the respondent,” Ison wrote in the order, granting summary judgment on behalf of the county, which averts a jury trial on the matter.

Johnson could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

Dunn said the lawsuit should settle the matter.

“They are a county police department. We don’t have any plans on expanding their job. We just want them to be able to do their jobs,” he added.

Although county marshals rarely handle traffic cases, they are certified police officers and are empowered to make arrests, county officials have said. The main duties of the Marshal’s Office include patrolling county owned property, investigating county matters and enforcing county ordinances, which includes the writing of citations.

In the DUI arrest from December 2003, a county marshal first witnessed the vehicle proceed through a red light in Fayetteville without attempting to stop, according to reports of the incident. The driver was ultimately arrested for DUI but since jail officials refused to house the prisoner, she was ultimately released to a family member.

Dunn said Wednesday’s ruling should clear up any perception in the public’s mind about the authority of the marshals.

This leaves one other active legal dispute between Johnson and the commission. He sued the county last summer after it threatened to remove a hangar building the sheriff’s department built on the former site of the county’s magistrate and juvenile courts, which is immediately adjacent to the sheriff’s department complex.

The commission threatened to remove the building after which Johnson filed suit to keep that from happening. The hangar houses the department’s helicopter, impounded vehicles and other law enforcement equipment including uniforms, vests and radios.

Johnson maintains he got permission from the county to build the storage facility in 2002, but the commission contends it has not authorized building the structure at that site.

That suit also remains unresolved.


		Friday, July 22, 2005