Trial for Blitch postponed

Malynda Fulton
The Valdosta Daily Times

HOMERVILLE June 30, 2009 11:48 pm

— Due to recent medical problems, the July 6 trial date for former Alapaha Judicial Circuit Judge Brooks E. Blitch III has been postponed.
Blitch’s attorney, Robert Stuart Willis of Willis, Ferebee and Hutton in Jacksonville, Fla., said that a new trial date has not been set.
After Blitch suffered complications from a ruptured appendix in May, U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson entered an order to continue the case for another three months, Willis said.
A new trial date will not be considered before the first of September, Willis added.
Blitch faces 14 federal counts charging him with corruption — from fixing cases to making illegal payments to courthouse employees.
He resigned from his Superior Court seat in May 2008 to avoid judicial misconduct charges by the state after nearly 28 years in office.
Blitch, 74, served as a judge in the Alapaha Judicial Circuit and was one of rural Clinch County’s most powerful politicians.
He was indicted alongside his former law partner, Homerville attorney Berrien Sutton, who resigned as a state court judge shortly before they were indicted.
Sutton pleaded guilty to one count of honest services fraud conspiracy three months ago in federal court.
The charges are the result of an ongoing federal investigation into misconduct in the Alapaha Judicial Circuit. The Alapaha Judicial Circuit consists of Clinch, Lanier, Berrien, Cook and Atkinson counties.

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