Longtime Peachtree City defense attorney Joe Saia has been named the chief public defender of the Griffin Judicial Circuit, which includes Fayette County.

A graduate of the John Marshall Law School, Saia had been in private practice in Peachtree City since 1977 until he joined the public defender’s office when it was created last year.

He plans to make some minor changes to improve the office “in order to be ready for trial and better represent our clients.”

Saia said any of the other three attorneys who applied for the position could have done the job well.

“We really have an excellent staff,” Saia said.

Tammy Jacobs had been serving as the interim chief public defender in the absence of former public defender Arthur English.

Saia will oversee a staff of 10 attorneys and four investigators in addition to other administrative assistants. The office defends indigent clients accused of crimes in Fayette, Spalding, Pike and Upson counties.

Arthur English resigned in late November after the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council initiated a hearing to consider firing him for, among other things, using his office to assist his brother’s criminal case. Mac English was convicted in July of two counts of criminal solicitation of murder for trying to arrange the killings of two former Department of Natural Resources rangers.

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