Taking the stage at the FCHS Performing Arts Center last Thursday night, the three district attorney candidates fought for Fannin County votes in the upcoming July 31st election. Former Judge Harry Doss and Blue Ridge Attorney B. Allison Sosebee launched hyper-aggressive assaults against Incumbent District Attorney Joe Hendricks.

Early on, Doss launched a series of deep criticisms of Hendricks and his office, starting with the current case-load.

“There’s somewhere between 1500 and 3000 cases pending, active criminal cases,”

Doss said,

“Yet, in seven in a half years in office the district attorney has managed to try less than five cases, less than five cases in seven in half years,”

he said. Further, Doss explained that the district attorney’s office consists of nine attorneys plus the district attorney himself and that in seven in a half years the DA’s office, including the nine attorneys, has tried less than 100 cases. He also noted the cost of this situation to taxpayers. He went on to accuse Hendricks’ Office of over-indicting cases, which Doss called an obvious attempt to force individuals to plea guilty whether the person is guilty or not guilty.

“People should be indicted for only what the evidence and facts of the situation indicates,”

he said. Doss cited a case where a man was charged with three counts of felony and four counts of misdemeanor. Less than a week before the trial, Doss explained, the charges were reduced to misdemeanor charges, which were equivalent to traffic charges. In another case, Doss said, a Gilmer County man was charged with rape and rather than trying the case, Hendricks’ office reduced the rape charge to one of aggravated assault, with no registration of sex-offender.

For his part, Hendricks defended his record, emphasizing that during the course of his administration he has met all of his campaign promises. First, he said he promised to

“tackle the meth problem,”

and noted that the meth problem has substantially subsided, saying that

“It’s no longer the driving problem it was eight ears ago.”

However, he said other problems have replaced it, including synthetic marijuana and prescription drug abuse. Also, Hendricks defended his record regarding child-sex abuse cases. Addressing the rape case stated previously by Doss, Hendricks said he did not have enough jurors that day to try the case. That defendant, Hendricks explained, eventually pleaded to a 15 year prison sentence.

“We take sex-crimes seriously,”

he said,

“we prosecute them aggressively; we fight for children.”

His third campaign promise was aggressively prosecuting DUIs, in which he noted his office has taken a no-nonsense approach. Later, he also defended his case-load record, returning a swipe at Doss. Holding up a chart, he explained his office has tremendously reduced the number of cases in the DA’s office over the last three or four years.

“The date we started accelerating the reduction of our case-load,”

he said,

“was a month after Judge Doss resigned after the JQC (Judicial Qualification Commission) charged him with ethics charges because he failed to do his job as a judge.”

Following Doss’ lead, Sosebee also lambasted the district attorney during her introduction.

“We can sit here for the entire night,”

she started,

“because we all know the current district attorney is not doing his job.”

Sosebee said she is running for the office because the district attorney’s office

“needs to be fixed.”

As DA, she asserted, she will work with superior court judges to reduce the number of cases, which, she stressed are several years old; she will ensure her staff is prepared when they go to court, and she will work with city, county, and state enforcement, seeking their advice and assistance with criminal investigations, she said. Like Doss, Sosebee cited several cases, which she felt were mishandled, highlighting a recent Pickens County case.

“This particular gentleman had five cases that were dismissed,”

she said, adding,

“there were nine felony charges and three misdemeanors…he got three years probation; the charges that were pending were possession of meth amphetamine, possession of meth amphetamine to distribute and obstruction of an officer.”

In closing, Sosobee displayed two poster-size photos, one of Mr. Hendricks’ office and the other of a back-end of a white car. The car, she said, was a state vehicle utilized by one of Hendricks’ investigators after hours at a private meeting for political purposes. The other picture, she said, was of one of the walls inside Hendricks office. On the wall, she explained, were pictures of her and her co-workers with comments.

“I am personally offended by this,”

she said,

“(and) I am professionally offended by this.”

Despite the bilateral verbal assault, Hendricks seemed unscathed. In the face of repeated accusations, the district attorney kept his calm, answering as many of the claims against him as time allowed. This, in part, was due to the format of the forum. The structure of the event was not a debate, as a Lincoln-Douglas style, but a forum, where candidates were allotted time to answer questions with no opportunity to offer a formal rebuttal.

Through out the evening, each candidate offered a barrage of claims and accusations. In reporting this event, FYN has not submitted any of the above accusations as substantial, but in need of due diligence.

The Clerk of Superior Court, Board of Education and Sheriff Candidates also participated in last Thursday’s event. Clerk of Superior Court Candidates were Tonya Walker-Taylor and Incumbent Dana Chastain. School Board Candidates were Ron Bolin, running against Incumbent Lewis DeWeese and Steve Seabolt, running against Incumbent Sandra Mercier. The Sheriff Candidates were Johnny Scearce running against Incumbent Dane Kirby.

FYN will soon post the video of this event.