Savannah — FBI agents arrested a former Superior Court judge Friday on federal corruption charges that he illegally paid employees with court fees, gave high-paying jobs to friends and fixed cases.

Brooks E. Blitch III served as a judge for nearly 28 years in the Alapaha Judicial Circuit and was one of rural Clinch County's most powerful politicians. Blitch, 74, resigned in May to avoid judicial misconduct charges by a Georgia agency.

The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Macon charges Blitch with honest-services fraud, mail fraud, retaliation against witnesses, making false statements to investigators and extortion. Arresting agents drove Blitch to Macon, where he was freed after posting $50,000 bond.

"Whether the guy's on the bench or not is not a factor in whether a crime occurred in 2006 or 2007," said U.S. Attorney Maxwell Wood. "We're always concerned about corruption of public officials and proper functioning of government."

The charges stem from a lengthy federal investigation that became public when FBI agents searched Blitch's Homerville office in June 2007.

The 19-count indictment also charges Homerville attorney Berrien Sutton, who recently resigned from his position as a State Court judge, and his wife, Lisa Sutton, who worked under Blitch as the Clinch County court administrator. Attorney George Bessonette and Blitch's friend Hayward Collier were also charged.

The indictment says Blitch and Sutton ordered more than $73,000 in illegal payments to county employees that came from $15 and $10 fees charged to criminal defendants between 2001 and 2007. The fees were collected into a bank account kept secret from county budget officers, and payments made to employees were never taxed.

Blitch also appointed Sutton, his former law partner, to a juvenile judgeship and hired his wife as court administrator to pay for personal legal services and to help them get out of debt, the indictment says.

Federal prosecutors say the Suttons did little work, but together earned more than $500,000 in the positions.

Bessonette worked as Blitch's law clerk from 1997 to 2001, when he earned $30,000 a year and "performed few duties," the indictment says. Prosecutors say Bessonette, who also served part-time as a juvenile judge, also received unreported kickbacks from Berrien Sutton for handling much of Sutton's caseload.

Blitch's attorney, Robert Willis, said Friday morning he hadn't seen the indictment and didn't know details of the charges.

"What I know about, I would not consider any of it to be a federal crime," Willis said.

Berrien Sutton's attorney, Tom Withers, was out of town and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Bessonette could not be reached at his office, and it was unclear if he had an attorney.

The indictment also lists dozens of cases in which attorneys and friends of criminal defendants sought favors from Blitch outside of court. In many cases, prosecutors say, Blitch granted them by reducing sentences, terminating probation sentences and ordering defendants' early release from jail or prison — often without hearings or notifying prosecutors.

In 2003, Blitch held a pretrial hearing for a drug defendant that the judge referred to as "my best friend's son." The indictment says he told the prosecutor, "I'm not sending him to prison, period." The same man was convicted of burglary and forgery in 2005, and Blitch ordered his probation terminated the next year.

In April 2007, Blitch asked a fellow judge to keep a man charged with drunken driving out of prison. The indictment says Blitch told the judge: "These are important people who you would want to help who are asking the favor."

In July 2007, Blitch signed an order reducing the sentence of a convicted child molester, prompting his immediate release from prison, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors say at least two people who knew the judge, and were not attorneys, would take money from representatives of criminal defendants in exchange for asking Blitch for favorable treatment. Collier, the only one named in the indictment, was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud for taking payments of $300 and $350 to ask favors of Blitch.

The Associated Press could not find a listed phone number for Collier. It was unclear if he had a lawyer.

The Alapaha Judicial Circuit includes Clinch, Lanier, Berrien, Cook and Atkinson Counties in southern Georgia.