DUBLIN, Ga. — After 20 years with the current district attorney, Craig Fraser, people in the Dublin Judicial Circuit elected someone new. That circuit includes Laurens, Johnson, Twiggs and Treutlen counties. Laurens County Republican Harold McLendon beat Fraser by over 900 votes. He's set to take office in January.
He said the current state of the district attorney's office isn't great.
"As it relates to law enforcement, there's a vast disconnect there. Law enforcement officers are asking constantly for advice on what they can do, what they can't do. They get no help in that area. It's a big chasm between the two of them. And it's my job to get them back together as soon as possible," McLendon said.
McLendon said he'll begin that process by speaking with law enforcement leaders starting Friday morning.
His new approach to working with law enforcement includes having his assistant district attorneys keep an office at local law enforcement centers.
"I talked with Chief Moon with the City of Dublin. He said he will provide an office there for my assistant district attorney. And Sheriff Dean said he will provide a place at the Laurens County jail just to have an office out there also," McLendon said.
McLendon said once he takes office, he plans to work cases himself unlike the current district attorney.
"I'm gonna have a caseload where I try cases. I'm not gonna be a supervisory D.A. I'm gonna be a workhorse. So I'm gonna be out there working, trying cases. I would expect to maintain a caseload of somewhere between 300 and 400 myself. And with me going to work, we can relieve the backlog we have," McLendon said.
He said the current backlog at the district attorney's office goes back to about 2019. McLendon said the longer it takes for cases to go to trial, the more people will feel comfortable committing crimes, because they feel they'll get away with it.
"These guys are calculated risk takers. Number one, if I commit the crime, am I gonna get caught? If I get caught, how long is it gonna be before I get prosecuted? And given enough time, witnesses get displaced or dismissed or disinterested. A lot happens in that time. So the immediacy of the prosecution is very, very important — to send out a message that it's just not going to work here," McLendon said.
When McLendon starts trying cases, he said he'll prioritize violent cases along with the oldest cases. He said Dublin's Easter Sunday shooting is high on his priority list. Another case he said sticks out to him that he wants to get tried immediately is the Johnson County double murders from almost four years ago.
"An eyewitness saw the shooting. Surveillance cameras caught the shooting on camera. And there's just no reason for that case not to have been tried. It's going onto the fourth year. And it's been on the calendar many, many times. That case needs to be tried," McLendon said.
He said a reason for the current backlog is because the current administration puts cases off when it's not necessary, like waiting months on a ballistic report.
"There's a murder case pending now, that could've been tried two months after he was arrested. Everything was there, except the ballistics report. He didn't need the ballistics report. He admitted it, people saw him shooting with this gun. We know what caused the death. So why do you need to wait a year and a half to get a ballistics report? It makes no sense," McLendon said.
He also wants to use a grant to start an early intervention program to help rehabilitate people with minor offenses.
"There's hundreds of cases that should never even really be in the court system. They can be worked out outside. It's a method of getting them help, people do what they need to do and then dismissing the case and move on. That's those minor cases; we got a backlog of those," McLendon said.
He said an example of a case that would qualify for the early intervention program is if a person gets into a fight, but nobody gets really hurt.
McLendon started his career as an assistant district attorney and is currently in private practice, with a focus on criminal law. He's been practicing law for 40 years.