Six Bibb County prosecutors, including former DA, leaving for jobs in Houston County
More than a quarter of the assistant district attorneys at the Bibb County DA’s office turned in resignation notices on Wednesday.
The exodus involves six of the county’s 22 prosecutors, some of them seasoned courtroom veterans with experience handling major felony cases.
The six departing prosecutors — including former Bibb DA Greg Winters — are set to leave later this month. Each came to Macon from the DA’s office in neighboring Houston County. They were hired by Anita Reynolds Howard, who took office in January.
Those leaving are hopscotching back to Houston to be prosecutors there in the wake of the recent retirement of that county’s longtime DA George Hartwig, who in a surprise move stepped down at the end of August.
Reynolds Howard on Wednesday told The Telegraph that the leadership change at the Houston DA’s office presented an opportunity for the six prosecutors leaving Macon to return to work there.
She said efforts were underway to fill the vacated positions in her office.
‘We anticipated this’
Wednesday’s pending departures come on the heels of resignations of half a dozen or so other veteran Bibb prosecutors over the past nine months.
Asked whether Wednesday’s resignations could be construed as something wrong in her office, Reynolds Howard said, “That’s not the case. We anticipated this. The fact is (the courts) are shut down (due to COVID) so it really slows nothing down for us. We can only try one case at a time.”
She said that she anticipated the “migration” back to Houston County because the six staffers who are leaving had previously been employed there.
“We always knew that this day was coming,” she said. “It came sooner than we anticipated because of the DA’s resignation. But this was not a shock.”
Reynolds Howard went on to say, “We still have seasoned prosecutors here,” and she added that there are others who will be interviewing for jobs with her office.
She said that with the coronavirus having halted jury trials in Bibb Superior Court — possibly until November — that a temporary staffing shortage in the DA’s office won’t impact the handling of cases.
“We don’t anticipate any delays based on those resignations,” Reynolds Howard said, adding that whenever trials resume “we’re ready and we’re gonna continue to be ready.”
Houston County DA’s office
Hartwig’s resignation went into effect Tuesday, and his former chief deputy ADA William Kendall is now serving as the acting district attorney for the Houston County DA’s office.
Gov. Brian Kemp could appoint a replacement district attorney at some point in the coming months — an application process to formally replace Hartwig wrapped up Wednesday — and voters will vote on a permanent replacement next year.
Hartwig was elected to a third term following a contentious race with his former chief deputy ADA Erikka Williams last November. Williams, who had worked in the office for more than 18 years, resigned after the election.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 4:42 PM.