East Point's new police chief, named after a months-long search, would probably prefer to forget the case for which he's best known.
Woodrow Blue, Milledgeville's police chief during the investigation into sexual assault accusations leveled against Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger in March 2010, will be introduced Wednesday afternoon in a ceremony outside the city's law enforcement center. He was chosen among 34 applicants.
"The local interview panel recognized him an innovator who brings a wealth of experience, as well as state and national perspective through his active affiliations with law enforcement organizations," East Point City Manager Crandall Jones said.
Blue, a finalist earlier this year to be Roswell's top cop, was named president of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police in June 2010. Less than two months earlier his department come under fire for its handling of allegations that Roethlisberger had forced himself upon a 20-year-old Georgia College and State University student.
Charges were never pursued against the All-Pro quarterback due in part to the actions of Milledgeville Police Sgt. Jerry Blash, the first officer to interview the accuser. He admitted to the GBI that he had denigrated the alleged victim and completed a "non-detailed incident report" so as not to alert the news media. Blash later resigned.
The GBI report also revealed the bathroom of the Capital City Club was never sealed off, and 12 hours after the alleged assault occurred, the janitor of the Capital City Club swabbed the crime scene with Clorox and Pine-Sol.
Blue, Milledgeville's police chief since 2002, would later say it was "of no consequence" that the bathroom had not been sealed off. He was never singled out for blame in the GBI report.
East Point's new chief got his start in 1979 as a Hahira police officer. Three years later the 26-year-old was named the south Georgia city's chief of police. Blue was hired as Milledgeville's deputy chief in 2000.
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