Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson is taking fire from lawmen this election: He is dueling with a former deputy, a current deputy and a retired police chief. But his best-armed opponent is a former sheriff who was found guilty of a felony.
Former Fulton Sheriff Richard Bruce Lankford has raised at least $62,360, compared to $182,900 reported by Jackson, to regain the office Lankford lost more than two decades ago after becoming an FBI target in an extortion case. His 1990 conviction was overturned on appeal.
Lankford, like other rivals, disagree with Jackson's use of the FBI to prosecute deputies and jailers accused of corruption and brutality. The 62-year-old minister, whose campaign signs appear to vastly outnumber Jackson's in Atlanta, said state or sheriff investigators — not the feds — should check wrongdoing.
He is doubly critical of Jackson, the former chief FBI agent in Atlanta, for the crackdown on deputies' use of force.
"The officers right now feel they they can't defend themselves," Lankford said. "I don't think brutality is a problem — I think it is an issue. There has to be a balance so you don't lose control of the jail."
A dozen deputies and jailers have been indicted in federal court on charges of smuggling contraband into the jail, excessive force, aiding drug dealers and obstructing an FBI investigation of an inmate's death. "A bunch" more have been dismissed for performance, Jackson said.
"There are some people who are against me because I'm trying to do what is right and they don't agree with it," he said.
Candidate Charles Shelton, a 58-year-old former deputy, said the sheriff practiced his own form of cronyism by handing out two top posts to former FBI agents and one to a former assistant Atlanta police chief, instead of promoting from within the department. "We have a lot of loyal employees but there is no support for people on the team," he said."We can't continue to bring our buddies in and allow them to draw six-figure salaries when they are unproductive. We can't allow the sheriff office to be a retirement center."
Jackson, 65, said he brought in his own team to remake a department beset by scandal and a federal lawsuit over jail conditions. He said when he arrived four years ago inmates complained of "beat downs" by jailers and deputies stonewalled an FBI investigation into corruption and civil-rights violations. "That is not the culture anymore," he said. "We had to send a message that you can't break the law."
His competitors in the July Democratic Primary contend Jackson's background as an FBI agent doesn't dovetail with running a jail, protecting the courts and assisting law enforcement.
"Ted has been a person of integrity but he has been a poor manager," said Frank Brown, who retired in 2006 as East Point's police chief, where he ran the city jail. "Ted is a white collar crime investigator with a degree in physics and he doesn't know what to do with street criminals."
Brown, too, is troubled by the FBI presence. When he oversaw East Point police he initiated investigations that convicted more than a dozen officers. "You have to clean your own house," he said. "The people I prosecuted got hard time. I think you are sending a weak message if you don't do it yourself."
Curtis Farmer, a sheriff's deputy who like Brown ran for sheriff in 2008, said not only should the FBI stay out of the jail but so should internal-affairs investigators from Jackson's office downtown. Let the jail administrators investigate cases in the jail, he said.
"The jail is dangerous because people are afraid to do their job," said Farmer, 51. "Inmates aren't scared of staff anymore because they got the message from Ted Jackson."
Chief Jailer Mark Adger said no prisoners are being coddled — only protected.
"We regularly put hands on inmates," he said dryly. "Now we hold our" commanders "accountable for what their staff is doing. There is no more, 'I didn't see anything.' There is no more ignoring what somebody else did."
Farmer, a 20-year veteran, sued Jackson last year. He contended he had been unfairly suspended after he argued with a Georgia State Police officer over a parking violation while off duty. "He probably thought I was impersonating an officer," he said. "I got 10 days for a parking ticket."
Farmer said many disgruntled deputies — and some who were fired for falsifying timecards and other issues— have gravitated toward Lankford's campaign, but in his view Jackson would be preferable to Lankford.
Jackson would not comment on Lankford's past. Lankford was convicted in 1990 of extorting payoffs from Jack LeCroy, who testified he paid Lankford more than $20,000 to keep a jail contract.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, saying the trial judge erred in excluding evidence that LeCroy may have testified to protect his sons from a federal investigation into their marijuana arrest.
To avoid a retrial, Lankford cut a deal with the U.S. attorney not to work in law enforcement again. He promptly tried to renege — losing a race for sheriff again in 1996. He called the agreement illegal and unenforceable.
"It was a life sentence," he said. "It was unfair the day I signed it."
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