The Fayette County Commission

is taking Sheriff Randall Johnson to court to force him to accept at the

jail prisoners that have been arrested by county marshals.

The suit was filed in Fayette

Superior Court Dec. 23, two days after jail staffers turned away a prisoner

arrested by a marshal for DUI and other charges. It claims Georgia law

requires the jail to accept prisoners from the marshals office who are

arrested for any indictable offense.

If prisoners from the marshals

office aren't accepted at the jail, "... the certified police

officers working for the Fayette County Marshals Department will be forced

to release those persons arrested for violating the law."

The commission is petitioning

the court for a temporary injunction and permanent order to force Johnson

to accept prisoners arrested by marshals. The county is also seeking a

mandamus, which orders a public agency or government body to perform an

act required by law which it has previously neglected or refused to do.

Sheriff Johnson contends the

marshals office is not a law enforcement agency because a referendum was

not held to establish it as a county police department as required by

Georgia law. Accepting prisoners from the marshals office could create

legal liabilities for the jail if the marshals are making illegal arrests,

Johnson has said.

The county contends the marshals

department became a law enforcement agency in 1989, three years before

the referendum requirement went into effect.

However, the action was so

low-key as to go virtually unnoticed at the time.

The turf battles between county

sheriffs and county commissions have been going on for decades in Georgia.

Until the middle of the last century, the elected sheriff traditionally

was the chief law enforcement officer in each county, and was not answerable

to the elected commissions.

Commissions, seeking more control

over tax expenditures and wary of sheriffs' political clout, began

setting up county police departments, taking over the law enforcement

functions within unincorporated areas of counties and leaving sheriffs

with little to do but run jails and serve court summons.

Still potent politically, sheriffs

fought back with the 1992 law requiring a voter referendum before a county

could set up a separate police department.

Johnson notified county officials

of his decision to no longer accept prisoners in a letter Aug. 21. In

addition to his legal concerns, Johnson cited a state law saying marshals

cannot "exercise any of the powers or authority which are by law

vested in the office of the sheriff or any other peace officer."

Fayette Commission Chairman

Greg Dunn has said the county marshals, despite being called that by the

commission in the enabling ordinance 14 years ago, are not marshals under

Georgia law. Dunn contends the department was so named to distinguish

it from the sheriff's department.

Accepting a prisoner arrested

on charges by the marshals department, "... would place me personally

and the county in a position of tremendous legal liability," Johnson

wrote in his letter to the county commission.

Since that notification, two

other prisoners from the marshals department were taken into custody by

the jail, according to the suit. But both those prisoners were held on

charges from other jurisdictions, which was not the case Sunday, Dec.

21, when a marshal brought a prisoner to the jail whom he had arrested

for DUI and other charges.

The Hampton woman was arrested

after Deputy Marshal Mark Thayer spotted her go through a red light at

the intersection of Grady Avenue and Ga. Highway 85 without attempting

to stop. It was later determined that Deborah M. Parker, 54, was legally

intoxicated, according to an incident report filed by Thayer.

Parker was charged with DUI,

failure to obey a traffic control device and possession of an open container

of alcohol.

According to the suit, jail

officials refused to accept Parker because she was arrested by the marshals

office. According to the county's suit, Georgia law says the only

reason a prisoner can be turned away by a jailer is if the prisoner "has

not received medical treatment for obvious physical injuries or conditions

of an emergency nature."

Failure to accept a prisoner

when warranted could lead to a misdemeanor charge with a fine of up to

$1,000, the suit indicated.

Along with the suit, the county

supplied a copy of a resolution signed by then-County Commission Chairman

George Patton which gave the county marshals police powers, including

the power of arrest "under the direction and control of the Fayette

County Board of Commissioners."

The resolution, dated July

13, 1989, also said, "The County Marshal shall have the power to

make arrests and to execute and return criminal warrants and processes

in Fayette County, and all the powers of the Sheriff as peace officers

in Fayette County."

The county also supplied a

1989 letter from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council

indicating that the marshals department had become a certified state law

enforcement agency.

The marshals department was

actually created by the county commission back in 1983 to enforce county

ordinances.

The suit was filed by Dennis

A. Davenport of Fox, McNally and Grant, the firm which represents the

county.

The case is currently assigned

to Superior Court Judge Tommy Hankinson of Thomaston, but it is likely

that all four judges in the Griffin Judicial Circuit will recuse themselves

from the case, forcing the appointment of a judge from outside the county.

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