Governor appoints panel to recommend whether Worth sheriff should be suspended

ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed a three-member panel to review the indictment that a Superior Court grand jury returned Oct. 3 against Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby.

In an executive order today, the governor appointed Attorney General Christopher Carr, Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston and Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese to form a three-person commission to determine whether the indictment relates to and adversely affects the administration of the office of sheriff by Hobby.

Hobby was indicted by a Worth County grand jury on a count of violation of oath of office, two counts of false imprisonment under the color of law and one count of sexual battery.

The indictment stems from a pat-down search Hobby’s office conducted earlier this year at Worth County High School.

Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney Paul Bowden sent a certified copy of the indictment to the governor, who was required to wait 14 days from receiving it on Oct. 16 before appointing a review panel.

The panel is to report to Deal within 14 days to make a recommendation as to whether Hobby should be suspended from office under the Georgia Code. Deal is not required to follow the recommendation.

Bowden, whose circuit includes Worth County, noted in a letter to Deal accompanying the indictment that Hobby, who continues to work administratively after state officials suspended his police powers, interjected himself into a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent’s interview of Hobby’s 17-year-old son, Zach Hobby, who was arrested Oct. 9 by Poulan police on a drug-related charge. The GBI was handling that investigation at Bowden’s request.

The prosecutor said the GBI ended the interview after the sheriff and his wife, an employee of the sheriff’s office, barged into the interview room, saying they were invoking the teenager’s Fifth Amendment rights for him. Zach Hobby was being held in the jail operated by his father at the time and, until that point, had chosen to speak with the agent after being advised of his rights by the agent, the district attorney said in the letter. He said the interview and the sheriff’s interruption were recorded on audio.

In the letter, Bowden noted that the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council has suspended Hobby’s law enforcement powers.

Bowden said in the letter that the indictment came after the grand jury heard 12 hours of evidence about an April 14 drug search at Worth High School. An investigation was conducted, he said, after a citizen complained on April 17 that the citizen’s daughter had been “inappropriately touched” during the search.

The prosecutor said Hobby asked the GBI to investigate the claim, and GBI agents “quickly discovered the search conducted at the school was not the typical school search.”

Bowden characterized the search as intrusive and without probable cause, saying school video shows students being intrusively searched. The prosecutor said a female deputy expressed concern to Hobby about the manner in which another deputy was searching students and Hobby saw that deputy searching “in a manner that was not consistent with what he claims were his directives; however, he, by his own admission, failed to take any action to address this issue.”

While Bowden said Hobby indicated the reason for the pat-down search was to locate illegal drugs in the school, the district attorney said that “a pat-down, by its very nature, is only appropriate for officer safety or to locate weapons.”

Hobby, a former Georgia State Patrol officer, was re-elected to office in November and began a new four-year term of office in January.