Clayton County school board candidate Deverick Williams ran afoul of the law nearly 20 years ago when he was arrested for selling drugs.

Williams, who is among the three candidates seeking the District 4 seat, was a 22-year-old college student when he was busted for selling cocaine to an undercover Clayton County narcotics officer.

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As a first-time offender, Williams was sentenced to 90 days in a state boot camp, ordered to pay a $500 fine and placed on five years' probation, according to Clayton County Superior Court records. As further conditions of his probation, he entered into a mandatory drug and alcohol treatment program.

Williams, now 38 and living in Forest Park, completed the terms of the probation without incident and saw his case adjudicated without guilt in 1998. As such, he's not considered a convicted felon.

Williams has had no troubles with the law since.

"I'm proof that you can change and turn your life around," he said when reached by phone Wednesday afternoon.

Williams is competing with fellow Democrats Michael King and Milton Mack for the seat formerly held by Ericka Davis.

Williams, an airline employee, said he never envisioned his past coming back to haunt him when he opted to run for public office.

"That was a long time ago," he said. "It was a bad situation. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not my character. I never would have thought in a million years this would pop up."

Williams was one of two school board candidates found to have had prior arrests during an examination of the candidates' backgrounds by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

District 7 candidate Denese Sampson also had previous run-in with the law.

The two are among the 32 candidates running for seven school board seats in the July 15 primary.

Sampson, a legislative assistant and mother of five, is one of two Democratic candidates vying for the District 7 seat.

She was charged with two misdemeanor counts of deposit account fraud in March 2006. According to State Court of Clayton County records, Sampson bounced two checks totaling $141. Sampson wrote the checks at the Food Depot in Forest Park despite knowing her bank would not cover them, court records state.

Under a plea agreement, she agreed to pay two $50 fines and $113 in restitution, along with the $141 she owed. She also received 12 months of suspended jail time, according to court records.

"That says there were mistakes brought to my attention, and I fixed it," Sampson said Sunday at a candidates forum.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools gave Clayton until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates or lose accreditation. The first mandate is to establish a board capable of fulfilling its roles and responsibilities.

All of the candidates are running on the platform to save the district's accreditation. Two of the seats are vacant because of resignations and a third has been empty since March 3 when the board removed a member for not living in the county.