Correction: 5:38 p.m. June 5: This story and headline was corrected to clarify that the election will not go to a June runoff. The candidates will meet on the November ballot.
With all 12 precincts reporting, Sheriff Will Bowman and Gary Eason will battle for the county’s top law enforcement office in the Nov. 5 sheriff’s race.
Unofficial results show Bowman with 3,344 or 63.63% of the Democratic vote. Keith Jenkins was a distant second with 901 votes or 17.15%, followed by Gary Richardson with 751 votes oe 14.29%, and Kevin Hofkin with 259 or 4.93%.
Bowman has generated controversy for spending school zone camera revenues on school equipment and uniforms. The Board of Commissioners took over control of the account but has yet to issue an agreement with Bowman over the matter. He also took national heat after his deputies pulled over a bus carrying the Delaware State University‘s women’s college lacrosse team. The resulting K-9 drug search and federal civil rights suit led to a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department to “review its bias-free policing policies, make necessary updates to its policies on traffic enforcement and searches, and develop and implement data collection procedures, among other provisions.”
Jenkins, a longtime lawman and former Hinesville city councilman who came back from a severe aneurysm, is well-known for his second career as a karate instructor. A years-long dispute over the property owner where his school once stood on E.G. Miles has bounced between courtrooms and mediations, and at last check had been settled out of court. Jenkins has had his own run-ins with the law related to domestic matters.
Hofkin, a former LCSO deputy who co-owns the Halfmoon Marina, has taken Bowman to task over the department’s K-9 unit and the school zone revenue spending issue. He said he wanted to institute a safe driving course for teenagers and offer more community policing.
Richardson, who settled a federal civil rights suit with a Liberty County special needs student whom he slammed and Tased after the student repeatedly had disrupted class, has served with LCSO, Hinesville Police, the GBI’s Tri Circuit Drug Task Force, the Department of Defense Police, and now the Georgia Ports Authority Police two weeks later. He said LCSO needs to “reduce turnover and quit policing for profit, add more deputies, and change its leadership philosophy. Richardson also says he wants to improve jail conditions.
As the sole Republican candidate in the primary, Eason has said little about his platform for sheriff. Like Bowman’s Democratic opponents, he did take issue with Bowman’s spending choices for school zone camera revenues. He did not reply to The Current’s e-mail request for more information about his proposed platform but did say that he wanted an investigation of the school zone revenue fund. Eason accused the Board of Commissioners of slow-walking the matter until after the election.
All results are unofficial until certified by the Georgia Secretary of State.