Eric Loggins went to the far reaches of Richmond County to attempt to garner the minimum number of sponsors – 100 – needed to trigger the petition process to recall Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree.
But he fell far short. A copy of the application, obtained from the county board of elections, shows about 40 names and addresses.
All sponsors had to be registered and eligible voters at the time the sheriff was last elected and included their signature, which the elections board compared with those on file.
The board determined only 26 of the signatures were valid, Elections Director Travis Doss said.
Roundtree, who faces a May Democratic primary challenge from Marshal’s Office Sgt. Eugene Brantley, commented publicly about the effort for the first time Thursday.
“The recall attempt was merely a distraction from an individual with a documented history of threats and family violence and death,” Roundtree said. “The fact that he could only garner 26 signatures is an example of how seriously people take him.”
In the application, Loggins said Roundtree “failed to protect the innocent and uphold the law with the failure of his administration to appropriately charge individuals when crimes have been committed and witnesses are present.”
Loggins had told area media he filed the application out of frustration with the office’s handling of the driver who crashed her car into his wife’s car in their Wheeler Road driveway.
Driver Connie Burnett had been sentenced to five years’ probation for methamphetamine possession, with a meth DUI charge dropped, four days before the Aug. 27 wreck.
Burnett was taken to the hospital for treatment and cited for failing to maintain her lane. Her name has not appeared on a sheriff’s office booking report.
If voters had grown dissatisfied enough to sponsor the petition, they lived largely in the area of the crash.
The bulk of signers had addresses on streets such as Wheeler, Aumond, Oxford and Oberlin roads and Ingleside Drive.
Beyond those, Loggins picked up a scattering of support from remote areas.
Six of the signers had addresses at Great Lakes Mobile Park off Willis Foreman Road in Hephzibah.
One was Daniel Martin, the Blythe city councilman accused of buying votes for his friend, the former Blythe mayor. That case has not been adjudicated.
Loggins, the husband of Solicitor General Omeeka Loggins, has a history of erratic behavior.
In 2011 the Augusta Personnel Board upheld his termination for workplace violence and insubordination, according to a report in the Augusta Chronicle.
Loggins accused former Engineering Director Abie Ladson of striking him in the incident, but Engineering employees testified it was Loggins they feared.
Loggins has also been accused, but was never charged, in an unrelated domestic violence incident.
