and JOHN THOMPSON

[email protected]

County marshals making traffic arrests are acting outside

the scope of their legal authority and may be placing the county in jeopardy

of lawsuits, Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson wrote to the Fayette

County Commission Thursday.

The sheriff served notice that the county jail will no

longer accept prisoners arrested by marshals if they involve violations

of state law.

"It is important for you to know that marshals do

not have the power of arrest without a warrant," Johnson wrote the

commissioners in a letter obtained by The Citizen under an open records

request.

Because of that, Johnson said, "I will not accept

traffic cases, or any other accusations of violations of state law made

Commission Chairman Greg Dunn is dismissing the controversy

as "nothing but silliness. There's nothing to it," he said.

Dunn called the sheriff's concerns "paranoia."

Dunn is still studying a letter from Johnson expressing

the sheriff's concerns about the marshals. The marshals' department was

created by the commission in the 1980s to enforce county ordinances like

zoning rules. "Their job description has not changed. They're doing

the same things they always have," Dunn said Thursday.

The sheriff's letter raises the question whether the

marshals have the statutory authority to do those "things they have

always" done and whether the uniformed marshals might be acting beyond

their jurisdiction.

The sheriff noted a mid-1990s opinion by the state attorney

general's office that said state law specifically forbids marshals from

acting with police powers.

In a story in The Citizen Wednesday, both County Administrator

Chris Cofty and longtime Emergency Services Chief Jack Krakeel denied

that the county intended for the marshals to become a de facto county

police force.

The flap has been replayed many times in Georgia. Generally

it pits a county's sheriff with his constitutional powers against a county

commission that wants more control over county law enforcement activities.

"Nothing has been said to me with respect to creating

a law enforcement police department," Krakeel said.

"My concern is, notwithstanding the recent comments

to the press, an attempt seems to be afoot to use the Marshal's Office

as a county police department," the sheriff countered. "The

law is clear and unambiguous that they are not the same, and marshals

cannot perform duties that may be performed by a county police department."

"If they [marshals] observe a traffic offense that

endangers the public, then yes," a marshal will make a traffic stop,

Krakeel said in The Citizen Wednesday. "... If someone is crossing

a double-yellow line on a curve or weaving erratically," the marshals

will make a traffic stop to protect the public, said Krakeel, who now

heads the newly created umbrella department that includes the marshals.

Those traffic stops worry the sheriff, who said marshals

have no authority to stop drivers for traffic violations, although at

least nine such arrests were made in the past month, an examination of

state court records by The Citizen revealed.

"Any traffic stop may necessitate an arrest, and

thus a marshal would have placed himself as well as the county in a position

of tremendous liability," Johnson wrote.

"In addition any investigation of violations of

any other state law, whether having been committed on county property

or not, might also necessitate an arrest and again would place the marshal

and the county in a position of significant liability," the sheriff

wrote.

"The only duties marshals/constables have are the

ones conferred on them by statute," Johnson wrote. "Marshals

do not have general police powers and are not charged with any duty to

enforce criminal laws of the state."

Johnson also said he was concerned that the marshals'

new badges identifying them as public safety deputies "will mislead

the public as to the authority of these marshals."

That's one of the things Dunn finds most amusing. The

marshals' new badges have Public Safety Deputy on the top portion of the

badge, and marshal underneath.

"All of the people in the public safety division

will have those badges, including the 911 personnel and animal control,"

Dunn added.

The commission chairman said Thursday he is just flabbergasted

"We've put the county's departments under six different

divisions to make things more workable. It hasn't cost the taxpayers anything,

except for small salary increases for the division directors. It's not

like we're Peachtree City and going out and hiring an assistant city administrator,"

he said.

Dunn said the marshals are not patrolling the county's

roads, but said if they see something happening, they will investigate

the incident.

"I'm sure the sheriff doesn't want to see a drunk

driver get away," he said.

The commission chairman also pointed to the recently

passed county budget as proof that there is not a "secret" plot

to start a county police department.

"Why is it that the only increase in the budget

was for the Sheriff's Department and not the marshals?"

Dunn dismissed the whole situation as "paranoia"

and thinks the county's time can best be spent worrying about other issues.

The controversy also is likely to affect pending cases

in Fayette State Court, which has jurisdiction in some cases involving

marshals' citations, but just what impact the police powers dispute might

have long-term is still unknown.

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