Speaking to

the Fayette County Bar Association last week, District Attorney Bill McBroom

presented information about the federal government's battle against terrorists.

But local attorneys

were more interested in his viewpoints about possibly making Fayette County

its own judicial circuit, severing it from its current relationship with

Spalding, Upson and Pike counties.

McBroom said

he heard splitting Fayette into its own circuit "from what I've heard

will cost the county some money." At the same time, McBroom said

he thought such a move would cut his budget by $260,000.

McBroom agreed

that prosecuting felonies in Fayette County is far different from doing

the same job in Spalding, Pike and Upson.

There are more

violent crimes in the other counties, while Fayette tends to have more

child molestation and embezzlement/theft cases, McBroom said.

"People

here are also better educated and have a higher income," McBroom

said. "You just don't see people resorting to violence as much."

Creating a

separate judicial circuit for Fayette County would likely leave the county

with just one Superior Court judge for the first year, with another judge

coming on the following year if necessary, McBroom pointed out.

Currently,

the Griffin Judicial Circuit has four judges that rotate through Fayette,

Spalding, Pike and Upson counties.

In October,

a report was presented to the Georgia Judicial Council that recommended

against creating a separate circuit for Fayette County. That report, however,

speculated that growth in the Griffin Judicial Circuit could require the

addition of a fifth judgeship in the coming few years, however.

The topic of

the possible circuit split was brought up after McBroom shared information

he learned from a recent terrorism training conference in Washington,

D.C., that was offered to local district attorneys. McBroom said government

agents are focusing on following the money trail and targeting groups

that fronted as charities or businesses which actually provided funds

to terrorists.

"They

had to have money to take flying lessons," McBroom said, referring

to the terrorists who hijacked the passenger aircraft which were used

as weapons Sept. 11, 2001.

McBroom said

the federal government is trying to deal with immigration problems, as

thousands of illegal aliens evade capture once they receive a letter from

the department of Immigration and Naturalization Services asking them

to turn themselves in so they can be deported to their home country.

"Guess

what? They're not showing up" to be deported, McBroom said.