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South Georgia judge pleads guilty, escapes prison

12:30 pm September 11, 2009, by jgalloway

The Associated Press is reporting this:

A former Georgia Superior Court judge has pleaded guilty to a federal corruption charge, in a deal with proseutors that keeps him out of prison.

The plea by Brooks E. Blitch III ends a lengthy investigation by state and federal authorities who toppled him as one of rural Clinch County’s most powerful politicians. The plea Friday morning came before U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson.

Blitch pleaded guilty to a single count of honest service fraud conspiracy for granting favors to defendants outside of court. He admitted to reducing sentences and bonds and terminating probations without hearings or notifying prosecutors.

The 74-year-old Blitch resigned last year to settle misconduct charges by a state agency that investigates judges.

Federal prosecutors indicted him on criminal corruption charges two months later.

WALB-TV in Albany has posted the press release, which includes many of the specifics, issued by acting U.S. Attorney G. F. “Pete” Peterman III.

Here’s an advancer on the topic by my AJC colleague Bill Rankin from this morning.

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26 comments Add your comment

Escapes?

September 11th, 2009
1:50 pm

“ESCAPES”? How about “AVOIDS”! Based on the headline alone, I was expecting to read about the manhunt!

boots

September 11th, 2009
1:50 pm

If the prosecutors had a case, they should have gone to trial and, if found guilty, the Judge should have gone to jail. Sounds like the prosecutors took the easy way out of a very serious case, if true.

Nobody reads long posts

September 11th, 2009
1:54 pm

It’s a blitch, but that’s why they call it the Criminal Justice System. All the justice is for the criminals, and he’s too poorly-named to go to prison.

Connected Wins

September 11th, 2009
1:57 pm

A connected judge, in good with the prosecutors, gets off with a slap on the wrist. Regular people would go to prison for the same offense. Nice to be in the money on the inside!!!

boots

September 11th, 2009
2:05 pm

I don’t care whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you must agree: the United States has the best judicial system money can buy. Under most circumstances, and certainly in this case, position, money and political pull took precedence over justice. A person of lesser statue and less money committing a lesser crime would be in jail — for a long time!

And, we might also add, that the United States has the best healthcare system money can buy. If, however, you don’t have money, your goose is cooked! Hence, the need for healthcare reform.

DES

September 11th, 2009
2:08 pm

This tells me the Government didn’t have a case to begin with. If they had it would have surely gone to trial. Regular people couldn’t be charged with the same offenses.

GetReal

September 11th, 2009
2:10 pm

This cat should be in jail period. What does this say for our judicial system? What year is this?

Leah

September 11th, 2009
2:15 pm

I agree—the headline is misleading. Thought he physically escaped prison.

arlene

September 11th, 2009
2:26 pm

Money and power do talk….and the guilty do walk!!(free)

UGA ALL THE WAY

September 11th, 2009
2:38 pm

yeah the only reason i looked at it and read it was b/c of misleading headline. c’mon y’all are the paper, you should be able to get across to the readers better than that.

the bean

September 11th, 2009
2:53 pm

It was a politically motivated witchhunt to begin with. The prosecution saw its case crumble as the cases against defendant after defendant were dismissed. They saved a little face. Folks talking about money and power playing a role in what is effectively an exoneration are fools. This wasn’t OJ.

the bean

September 11th, 2009
2:59 pm

Oh yeah, and “escapes”? Seriously? I wasn’t aware he was in prison to begin with, ’cause he’d have to be to escape. Unless of course you meant, escaped a “prison sentence” which is still poor wording but at least not incorrect. How pitiful.

Big AL

September 11th, 2009
3:00 pm

Well, I don’t believe this is a case of the Criminal Justice System being bought, but the old saying “It’s not what you know, but who you know”.

buckheaddad

September 11th, 2009
3:01 pm

Anybody interested in “WHO is the prosecuting U.S. Attorney, and TO WHOM must he kiss-ass for his job”?

YAMAMA

September 11th, 2009
3:07 pm

Prime example of why we need SMALLER GOVERNMENT!! Government people ARE regular people who: A) Can’t find a normal job B) Are ‘Power-Hungry/ Control Freaks’ or C) BOTH. OK, some may actually like to help people, but I’d say a very small percentage. People, white or black, Republican or Democrat, Smaller Government is better!! US Post office = BROKE. While they lose Billions every year, UPS & Fed-Ex make Billions every year. IRS= crooks. Government isn’t a money making entity. They tax people who make money. When people get tired of giving their money to the Government to redistribute, they will leave & go somewhere else, like the USA. Oh, wait: Can’t do that anymore! I’m sure they will find/make a smarter, newer start somewhere. WAKE UP PEOPLE!! It’s hard to understand why people get so caught up in which party they vote for. Who cares if they are Republican or Democrat. I don’t agree with everything on either party, but I do believe in smaller Government! You know, I believe the 9/11 Terrorists were smart people –I believe they were engineers –who were BLINDED by their hatred & ideology. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

sad brotha

September 11th, 2009
3:50 pm

That no good rascal sentenced my cousin to ten years! Get real. Who is watching the hen house(s)?

boots

September 11th, 2009
3:58 pm

Well, YAMAHA, if you like smaller government then you couldn’t be a Republican since government grew geometrically during the eight years of the Bush administration.

ldp

September 11th, 2009
4:01 pm

Love the comments from folks unencumbered by any knowledge of the situation. This was a bunch of Junior G Men wannabes led by Max Woods the US attorney who is a fool sure they had some giant corruption case on their hands and who indicted and hounded a number of basically good people and lost almost every case they tried and had a number thrown out. As Judge Lawson (whom I’ve known for 20 years) kept asking the US Attorney, “what is the crime here?” and there was no answer. There is a story here but it is a US Attorney run amock not “Judge gets off”

Coastal Cavalier

September 11th, 2009
4:16 pm

It begs the question why send a 74 year old man to jail. What would it have accomplished? Just like sending Bernie Madoff to jail for 175 years is going to get any of the money back to the naive and gullible folks.

Reality

September 11th, 2009
4:33 pm

If he had escaped it would have made for some awesome tv.

YAMAMA

September 11th, 2009
4:34 pm

boots, YOU, my friend, aeem to be one of the ‘Blinded’ ones. Why don’t you stop worring about whether someone is Democrat or Republican and vote smart. Lesser of the two evils would be a good start.

YAMAMA

September 11th, 2009
4:45 pm

Oh, almost forgot. Yes, we need healthcare reform. Having confidence in the Government running it or ANYTHING is just plain stupid. There are ways to correct & deal with the issues rather than being lazy & having someone else provide & do everything for you. What do you think will happen when the government makes a bad (another) bad decision and spends more money than they have coming in (like Gwinnett county building the Braves stadium and are now cutting off lights on I85 & closing libraries because they are broke)?? Yeah, a few years from now you will be asking why you can’t get that operation you need, or you can only make so many trips to the Doctors office per year & are then placed on a waiting list. Social Security is a prime example. If you truly want to change something, do something about it yourself.

cheap lick

September 11th, 2009
4:59 pm

this is obviously a professional courtesy. anyone else would be behind bars.

cola

September 11th, 2009
5:16 pm

The headlines on AJC online are always misleading–anything for a click.

tim

September 11th, 2009
5:30 pm

you do the crime……..just plead guilty and you won’t do the time! The DA is a coward who needs a hard kick in the ass.

Jim Callihan

September 12th, 2009
10:30 am

And the greatest injustice of all? The “corruption” so glaring, so blatant, so magnificent a coup that few even know it occurred?

“Lawyers” creating for themselves a “special class” of citizenry – in DIRECT VIOLATION of the very thing that THEY have deemed themselves soley qualified to defend and…(here’s the funny part) INTERPRET!…THE US CONSTITUTION.

“Now that’s funny right there…I don’t care who you are!” – Larry The Cable Guy

When you turn the blood bank over to the vampires?