Judge Harvey Wasserman added a new condition to Ricky Carter’s bond in an amended consent bond order on March 30, not allowing Carter to take action as a Hart County commissioner.
The new order reads: “The Defendant consents to not take any action in his capacity as a county commissioner with the Hart County BOC during the pendency of this case.”
Hart County commissioner Ricky Carter and his son Jake Carter were each granted bond at $30,000 on March 24 in a case in which they’re accused of assault, battery and cruelty to children among other charges.
On March 24, Northern Judicial Circuit judge Harvey Wasserman set the bond at $30,000 after district attorney Parks White and the Carters’ attorneys agreed on the bond price and conditions.
On March 22, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations charged Ricky with three counts of cruelty to children in the third degree, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and possession of firearm during commission of a crime, mirroring his son’s initial charges.
Jake is accused of violently beating his father’s brother-in-law Jack Williford in front of children during an altercation that allegedly stemmed from Williford ordering Jake’s children to leave his property. Ricky is accused of being party to the escalation and a hinderance to de-escalation. Both Carters were allegedly armed at the scene.
Hart County sheriff Mike Cleveland said Williford sustained life threatening injuries: brain bleed, multiple broken ribs and fluid in the lungs, among other injuries.
While the county commissioners are not permitted to remove Carter from the board, the bond condition is allowed because it was consented to by both parties, according to county attorney Walter Gordon.
“Defendants can consent to any number of conditions and then they become effective or legal because of consent,” Gordon said.
Gordon said removing an official from office against their will is a tricky task.
“You’ve got to be careful with political figures because they derive their franchise from the governed,” Gordon said. “Meaning they were elected by a majority of the people in their district and you can’t just un-elect them.”
Gordon said if an elected official is indicted, the governor takes over and sets up a panel of the attorney general, a sheriff and a commissioner from somewhere else in Georgia to make a recommendation on whether the official should be suspended.
“Even when that is done, when there is a suspension, they continue to hold the office in title, but they are not able participate in any vote of the government or any other things in the government and they do continue to get their pay,” Gordon said.
Multiple calls made by The Hartwell Sun to Carter regarding his standing on the board and candidacy were not returned.
Gordon said there will be problems if Carter is reelected.
“Right now he is still on the ballot,” Gordon said. “That’s going to be the next issue because I think the way the bond is worded, it is structured that way until his case is dismissed, found guilty or found not guilty. In other words, the case has to come to a conclusion now before he can go back to a commissioner in anything other than name and that’s going to pose a bit of a problem for him should he stay in that race and win because then you have a situation of he still can’t go into office and basically it will deprive the 4th District of representation until his criminal case is over.”
If he pulls out of the race or if he loses the election, it will leave Carter in office in name only until the rest of the year, according to Gordon.
Challenger Jeff Brown is running in opposition to Carter during the May 24 Republican primary for the District 4 board of commissioners seat.