Pam Brown, Robert Smith could be disqualified from sheriff’s race

Two of the three Democratic qualifiers for Muscogee County sheriff could be disqualified from the race after missing the state-mandated fingerprinting deadline for a background check.

State law requires that qualified candidates submit fingerprints for Georgia Bureau of Investigation and FBI background checks within three business days of the close of qualifying. Qualifying closed Friday at noon, so the deadline would be Wednesday at close of business.

Democratic candidates Pam Brown and Robert Keith Smith came into Probate Court on Thursday, the day after the deadline, to request authorization for fingerprinting, Probate Court Judge Marc D’Antonio said.

Candidates Donna Tompkins and Mark LaJoye came in, were fingerprinted and had clean reports returned to D’Antonio, who informed Elections and Registration Director Nancy Boren. D’Antonio also received a clean report on Brown and notified Boren. He said he has not any report on Smith and has no way of confirming whether he has been fingerprinted.

Brown has not returned calls requesting comment. Smith was contacted but declined to comment.

Boren said the county’s election board will meet March 30 to make a decision on the candidates. City Attorney Clifton Fay said that while he advises the board from time to time, a lawyer from Page Scrantom will represent the board at the meeting.

If the candidates are disqualified, that would leave Donna Tompkins, a 31-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, as the lone Democrat remaining in the primary race. That would set up a three-way race for the office in November, pitting Tompkins and the lone Republican in the race, Mark LaJoye, against incumbent Sheriff John Darr, who is running as an independent.

Four years ago, Brown came close to taking out Darr in the Democratic primary. The final tally was 8,618 votes, or 50.21 percent, for Darr, to Brown's 8,547, or 49.79 percent.

In the 2012 General Election, Darr soundly defeated LaJoye with 76 percent, or 51,311 votes, to 24 percent, or 16,201.

The Georgia law requiring fingerprinting states: “No person shall be eligible to hold the office of sheriff unless such person … is fingerprinted and a search made of local, state, and national fingerprint files to disclose any criminal record, which fingerprints are to be taken under the direction of the judge of the probate court of the county in which such person is qualifying and must be taken on or before, but no later than, the close of business on the third business day following the close of such qualification for election to the office of sheriff period.”

In 1980, Paul Grogan, a candidate for sheriff in Paulding County, was disqualified for missing the fingerprinting deadline and appealed the decision. The Paulding County Superior Court upheld the disqualification and then the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.

Reporter Tim Chitwood contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Pam Brown, Robert Smith could be disqualified from sheriff’s race."