UPDATE: Another interesting development.  The DeKalb Officers blog calls out the AJC and GBI and defends their department.

Everybody starts jumping on the bandwagon accusing Whittington and others of making the wrong decisions and showing favoritism toward Commissioner Sutton. Un-informed buffoons from the GBI and the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office (click here for AJC article “GBI, sheriff question DeKalb handling of wanted commissioner”) jump in and give their two cents worth.

Small problem though. See, the warrants were issued on January 8, 2008. According to O.C.G.A. 17-3-1 (2009), there’s this little ole sentence that reads: “Prosecution for misdemeanors must be commenced within two years after the commission of the crime.” So, if Commissioner Sutton had been arrested, then that could have caused big problems for all involved. (Also see Pickens v Hollowell and Opinion of Thurbet E Baker, Georgia Attorney General).

This story continues to develop in truly odd ways, so it felt appropriate to give it a new post.

The AJC reports the story of the DeKalb Commissioner with four outstanding warrants NOT being arrested by DeKalb Police after a traffic accident has now attracted the attention of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who says they might want “to look at [DeKalb's] procedures and process to see if there were extenuating circumstances or retraining was needed for the officer.”

And that’s the latest piece of the “Why didn’t the police arrest DeKalb Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton?” puzzle.

But what about the “Why did the judge recall warrants?” question?  In this latest article, Gwinnett majistrate judge Gene Cantrell told the AJC that the merchant [Costco] asked for the charges to be dropped and that they didn’t know “who is person was.”  So why was Costco so eager to recall warrants that sat open for years?  Still no answer on that front.

Onto Sutton’s increasingly suspicious background.The article this interesting tidbit, pointed out by “Hmm” in a previous comment.

Gwinnett court records show Sutton pleaded no contest in 1996 to writing bad checks. DeKalb court records show she also has had her wages as a DeKalb school teacher garnished for an outstanding debt to a car financing company.

A link in PeachPundit’s post discussing the story shows the full extent of Sutton’s time in (or out) of the Gwinnett County courts.  Additionally Sally wrote in and pointed us to Sutton’s history in the DeKalb court system, which can be seen here.

As for that comment made by her lawyer early on in the story’s evolution about the warrants being the result of “identity theft” and since stripped from the AJC’s original article, I have not received a reply to my question from the AJC’s Megan Matteucci.