By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support local journalism. Guest column, Lee Darragh: Victims Rights Week offers chance to honor those rights and those who help victims Lee Darragh, District attorney of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit
By Lee Darragh
District attorney of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit
As a new assistant district attorney in 1979, I started my prosecution career in Savannah, Chatham County. In that office at that time, there was established one of the first victim/witness advocacy programs in the state of Georgia.
Through its auspices, as a prosecutor, I was able to better communicate with victims and witnesses, arrange for their appearances in court and help guide them through the process, giving victims, in particular, a greater voice than they had ever had in the previous 200 years in the American criminal justice system.
As a new assistant district attorney in 1979, I started my prosecution career in Savannah, Chatham County. In that office at that time, there was established one of the first victim/witness advocacy programs in the state of Georgia.
Hall school board member Mark Pettitt s case resolved 2 years after arrest Mark Pettitt
Hall County school board member Mark Pettitt closed out his case concerning reckless driving more than two years after the initial arrest, according to court documents.
Pettitt, 28, entered a guilty plea on reckless driving and failure to maintain lane. The original charge was driving under the influence-less safe but was reduced last year.
The plea paperwork was filed with the court Dec. 18, though it was not scanned into the Comprehensive Justice Information System until Thursday, Jan. 7, according to the Hall County Clerk of Courts’ office.
Pettitt was sentenced to 24 months on probation, which his attorney Graham McKinnon said has already been terminated after fulfilling the requirements of the sentence.