Stephens County Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Bridgeman Retiring

Chief Assistant District Attorney for Stephens County Rick Bridgeman is retiring.

Bridgeman confirmed his plans to retire to WNEG News Monday.

“I’ll be retiring at the end of the year, but my last day in the (Stephens County) office will be September 28th,” Bridgeman told WNEG News Monday. “I’ve been in Stephens County since 2004, other than the 18 months I spent as DA in the Piedmont Circuit, and it’s a wonderful community to work in. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

The search is now on to find someone to fill the job of Assistant District Attorney for Stephens County.

However, Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Christian says Bridgeman’s shoes will be tough to fill because of his high level of experience and the quality of his work.

“There was a murder in Toccoa recently where a young man was shot twice in the head. And within a day or two Rick had the relatives in there talking to them, meeting with the Victim Advocate. He’s very pro-active when it comes to victims. He’s so good with victims. He’s so organized and he knows the law,” Christian noted. “I’m glad for him to be able to retire, but I’m sorry to lose him.”

Christian wants to hire someone with experience, but offering a competitive salary, he said, is going to be a problem.

“Rick and I interviewed a current ADA who is experienced and working in another circuit and we were not able to obtain her services,” Christian said. “One of the reasons is a lot of the circuits pay good supplements in addition to the state salary. That’s something I’m going to address with Stephens County to see if they can offer that. What we need in Stephens County is another experienced prosecutor not someone right out of law school. So, it’s gone real slow. I don’t have any prospects on the front burner, so to speak.”

Christian said the starting salary for an entry-level assistant district attorney is around $44,828 a year.

He noted there is an opening for an entry-level ADA in Rabun County, but he is even having a tough time filling that position.

“The economy is good so all the law firms are hiring and they can make a lot more money with a private law firm than they can working for the state as an assistant district attorney,” Christian said. “Most law school grads have student loans and they can’t afford to take an entry-level job with the state at that amount.”

Christian cited the example of a recent law school grad who has $130,000 in student loans who turned down the Rabun County job because it just didn’t pay enough.

He said because of that, he does not expect to have a new ADA in place in Stephens County before the end of the year.

“His (Bridgeman’s) time runs through the end of the year, so from the standpoint of being able to replace him before January 1, 2019 as a state employee is impossible,” Christian said. “The outside chance is if we can find somebody who has experience and is interested in working in that office and the County would agree to step in and pay the salary between the end of September and December. I don’t know if I could find somebody to replace Rick in that timeframe or not.”

Christian said he plans to go before the Stephens County Board of Commissioners in the coming weeks in the hopes they wlll amend the current budget to offer a supplement to the ADA salary.