SCBC approve adding ADA position

The Stephens County Board of Commissioners recently approved a motion to fund an Assistant District Attorney position to help with prosecuting crimes in the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office in Stephens County.

According to Chairman Dennis Bell, Stephens County District Attorney is in dire need of an ADA to help with the current caseload.

Bell says the Commission needed to approve the position immediately because of several major cases coming up for prosecution in Stephens County.

“Before we approve the agenda, I would like to add an assistant district attorney position. This is something that needs to be done immediately,” Bell said.  “They need help down there. We gave money to the Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement, and the public defenders section, but we haven’t gave money to the DA. The DA is being overrun by a lot of cases right now—serious cases—not small cases, but serious cases. We’ve talked about this last year, but this is something that I’d like to put on our agenda to get passed immediately, so we can go ahead and let him start searching for a new ADA.”

Vice Chair Debbie Whitlock said she felt that it was important for the county to fund the ADA position.

“I’ve said this a lot, and we’ve done a lot of funding to our justice system,” Whitlock said. “And right now we’ve got a DA office trying to keep up and they can’t.”

Commissioner Michelle Ivester said she would prefer to wait to make a decision.

“I’d like to make a comment, I’m not against this position, I would just rather wait until our planning retreat to make the decision on this,” Ivester said. “I’m not prepared to make a decision today, to vote for it. Just because I would like to wait to see what our finances look like.”

The motion was approved 3-1 with Ivester voting against the motion, and Commissioner Dean Scarborough being absent.

According to County Administrator Phyllis Ayers it will take roughly three months to hire an ADA.

WNEG News will continue to follow this story and bring you additional details once they become available.