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Public defender keeps job despite charges

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

Griffin Judicial Circuit Chief Public Defender Arthur Hurst English IV will keep his job despite his Aug. 18 arrest for theft and fraud charges.

But if the 30-year-old Barnesville resident is convicted of the felony theft charges he faces, English will lose his job.

“Being charged in and of itself is not enough to be removed,” said Mike Mears, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. “Any felony involving theft charges would fall up under grounds for removal, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

English faces charges for receiving a stolen four-wheeler and trailer and for allegedly removing the vehicle identification number from the trailer. Each of the charges including two counts of theft by receiving and one count of removal or falsification of an identifying number are felony charges, said Capt. Mike Stephens, chief operations director for Lamar County Sheriff’s Department.

English’s arrest is connected to his brother Mac English’s arrest, Stephens indicated.

Mac English, 28, of Barnesville, was convicted in July on two counts of criminal solicitation of murder and one count of criminal solicitation to conceal the death of another.

The charges stem from a substantiated accusation that Mac English attempted to arrange the murder of two former Department of Natural Resources Rangers: Al White, who is now an investigator with the Towaliga Circuit Public Defenders Office in Forsyth; and Joe Buice, who is now the Lamar County sheriff. Mac English is serving a 13-year sentence in Autry State Prison in Grovetown.

Arthur English turned himself in to the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department Thursday. He was released on his own recognizance.

English oversees an office that handles indigent defense cases in Spalding, Pike, Upson and Fayette counties.

Prior to his Thursday arrest, English took a 60-day leave of absence from his post in July to deal with health and personal issues. A number of legal issues surrounded English and his family at the time of his departure.

English’s mother, Shanna English, 60, of Barnesville, was arrested April 15 for felony theft by receiving stolen property. Shanna English allegedly accepted jewelry stolen during a burglary in Lamar County.

The arrest reportedly was not linked to the Mac English murder-for-hire case, Lamar County Sheriff’s officials said.

“He has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the resolution of the charges against him,” Mears said.

Attorney Tammy Jacobs Bell will man the office in English’s absence.

“We are going to operate on a presumption that he is innocent until the court proves him guilty,” Mears said.

Meanwhile, a special solicitor has been requested by Spalding County State Solicitor Trey Howell III to weigh in on another legal problem that faces the chief public defender.

The solicitor will determine if English will face a misdemeanor vehicular homicide charge for the March 11 death of former Locust Grove city manager 61-year-old Hiram Graybill Daniel Jr. of Stockbridge.

English was behind the wheel of a white 2004 GMC Yukon when he failed to stop and slammed into the back of Daniel’s white 1998 Ford Mustang in Griffin.

Daniel was transported by air ambulance to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta where he later died from subdural hematoma, an injury to the brain, Spalding County Coroner Sonny Foster said.