Local & State Headlines

Baker Sheriff plans to retire

• A successor for the Baker County sheriff may not be named until after a replacement is found for him in November.

J.D.Sumner

NEWTON — Isaac Anderson, the South Georgia Sheriff who fought the state to stay in office after he was rocked by scandal, will retire from law enforcement and not seek reelection, authorities said Wednesday.

Anderson’s attorney, Phil Cannon, wrote a letter to Baker County Attorney Tommy Coleman Monday expressing the sheriff’s intent to withdraw from the upcoming November general election and retire from public service.

“I write to inform you that Sheriff Anderson has elected to seek retirement from office. As a result, I will be dismissing the pending legal actions I started on his behalf and filing the appropriate paperwork to have his retirement issued,” Cannon wrote.

Anderson, who was removed from office after the agency that maintains police certification — the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council or POST — declared the office vacant after more than five years of legal wrangling, is reportedly in poor health, Cannon writes.

Despite his removal from office, Anderson, who was the only Democratic candidate to qualify for the office earlier this spring, was still the party’s nominee and had vowed to fight to stay on the November ballot.

If Anderson and Cannon file the necessary paperwork with the Baker County Probate’s office to withdraw from the ballot, state Democratic leaders have 24 hours to name a new nominee, Probate Judge Angela Hendricks’ attorney, Kenneth Musgrove, said.