HOMERVILLE — Sentencing for former Alapaha Circuit Judge Brooks E. Blitch III is set for next month in federal court in Valdosta.
Blitch is scheduled to be sentenced 9:30 a.m., Dec. 1, before United States District Judge for the Middle District of Georgia Hugh Lawson, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Blitch is not expected to serve any jail time.
Blitch pleaded to a count of fraud on Friday, Sept. 11. A federal honest services fraud conspiracy conviction has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years supervised release, and a mandatory assessment of $100.
Having entered a plea agreement, Blitch is expected to receive probation and a fine, according to a previous report from the U.S. Attorney’s office. A pre-sentence review will determine the length of probation and the fine amount.
Blitch pleaded to count No. 9 from a list of federal indictments issued last year against the 74-year-old former judge. This count alleged that people paid a Berrien County man money and gave him other considerations in exchange for introducing them to Blitch; these people were reportedly seeking inappropriate judicial assistance in ex parte meetings with the judge, according to past court records.
For Blitch’s plea, the U.S. Attorney’s office is expected to drop the other indictments. These
indictments included charges ranging from fixing cases to making illegal payments to courthouse employees, according to court documents.
The Blitch investigation has affected the lives of numerous Alapaha Circuit officials and residents during the past several years. The probe into Blitch indirectly led to a sheriff, a court clerk, and a Clinch County state/juvenile court judge pleading guilty to federal charges. Yet, it also led to indictments against other officials and individuals who were eventually acquitted or had their charges dismissed.
Blitch served as a judge for nearly three decades in the Alapaha Judicial Circuit of Clinch, Lanier, Berrien, Cook and Atkinson counties.
He is part of a South Georgia political dynasty stretching back decades. His mother, Iris Faircloth Blitch, served as a Georgia legislator in both the General Assembly’s House and Senate in the 1940s and ’50s. She also served as a Georgia representative in Congress from the mid 1950s through early 1960s.
Blitch’s wife, Peg Blitch, served as a state senator throughout the 1990s until 2004. Earlier this week, she defeated Carol Chambers in the race for the City of Homerville mayor and is expected to take office next year.
The federal investigation led to the Judicial Qualifications Commission filing ethics complaints against Blitch. The ethics complaints were dropped in 2008 when Blitch resigned after 28 years as judge.
Blitch was then indicted alongside his former law partner, Homerville attorney Berrien Sutton, who resigned as a state court judge shortly before the indictments. Sutton pleaded guilty to one count of honest services fraud conspiracy earlier this year.
Blitch had been scheduled for trial this summer, but the courts postponed the trial after Blitch suffered a burst appendix in the spring.
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Blitch sentence date set
Former judge to find out his fate Dec. 1
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