In November 2020, Keith Higgins was seen by voters in Glynn and its neighboring Coastal Georgia counties as a welcome relief.
Higgins’ opponent in that year’s elections for Brunswick-area district attorney was Republican incumbent Jackie Johnson, who was mired in controversy over her actions following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Satilla Shores earlier that year. Running as an independent, Higgins defeated Johnson by a little more than 5% of the vote in a historic turnout.
Four years later, Higgins, running as a Republican himself, trounced the more conservative John B. Johnson by 25% of the vote in the GOP primary. He ran unopposed in the general election, winning another four-year term.
That record of electoral success now appears imperiled.
Details of a recently completed forensic audit, first reported last week by The Current GA, show that Higgins busted his office’s budget, running up a nearly $1 million shortfall. His staff members rang up dozens of questionable expenses, according to Virginia-based auditing firm Baker Tilly, as he sought to boost his office’s conviction rate and solidify his tough-on-crime credentials.
The findings of the audit have been referred to “appropriate law enforcement,” said a statement issued Thursday by officials of the five counties that make up the Brunswick judicial circuit — Glynn, Camden, Wayne, Appling and Jeff Davis. The statement did not identify the law enforcement agency.
Under siege by the officials, however, Higgins’ prospects for winning reelection in 2028, should he decide to run, now grow dimmer by the day.
In their statement, the officials called for Higgins to resign, saying they were “appalled” by the findings, which, they claimed, “expose a complete failure of management and oversight in the financial and personnel operations of the District Attorney’s Office.” Higgins has said publicly that he will not step down.
In addition, county officials filed a complaint with the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, a state body created by the GOP-led state legislature in 2023 to investigate and discipline “rogue or incompetent prosecutors… driven by out-of-touch politics who refuse to uphold the law,” Gov. Brian Kemp said, when he signed the measure into law in Savannah in 2023
Under the commission’s procedures, Higgins must be notified about any decision to move forward with an investigation. He told The Current he has received no such notice.
Under state law, the commission has the authority to “discipline, remove, or cause the involuntary retirement of those who meet the conditions for removal,” including “willful misconduct in office,” “willful and persistent failure to carry out statutory duties,” and “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute.”
The measure creating the PAQC was part of a Republican push seeking to punish Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis for her investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
It was also part of a nationwide effort to undermine the authority of reform-minded local prosecutors, including Chatham County’s Shalena Cook Jones and former prosecutor Deborah Gonzalez of Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County.
If Higgins were charged with a crime, Kemp could convene a three-person panel of Higgins’ peers to recommend whether he should be suspended from his duties, pending the outcome of the prosecution.
County officials and other critics and opponents of Higgins could also conduct a petition drive for a recall referendum.
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