Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Robert Busbee recently sat down for an interview with TheGeorgiaVirtue to discuss his first 100 days in office to discuss accomplishments, changes, and things to come for the four-county circuit that serves Bulloch, Effingham, Jenkins, and Screven counties.
Out of the gate, Busbee offered nothing but praise for the employees with the office, crediting them for his transition as the chief prosecutor. One of the things Busbee campaigned on was leading by example and being first to arrive and last to leave, but he’s been impressed by the employees’ work ethic and commitment to their cases – staying late, working on weekends, and demonstrating an overall zeal for the job.
As he’s worked to make operations more efficient by reassigning ADAs and alleviating some of the pressure of overwhelming caseloads, he’s also prioritized promises made to voters on the campaign trail last year.
Office Budget & Staffing
Busbee took office mid-way through the fiscal year for all four counties, meaning he’s had little leeway to make budgeting decisions related to FY 2025. In the short term, he and his Chief of Staff, Lindsay Gribble, have worked to cut duplicative expenses, like overlapping IT support and ongoing storage unit costs billed monthly to hold a few file boxes and old office decor. They’ve also worked on eliminating inefficient paper processes and utilizing servers to streamline access for employees along with implementing secure recordkeeping.
In preparation of budget workshops with county commissioners across the circuit, Busbee said he conducted a full analysis of how the OJC compares to other circuits – evaluating everything from overall budgets and salaries to attorney count to staff support positions.
“Everyone that responded had a bigger staff than I did. Had more attorneys, more investigators, more paralegals, admins, and more victim advocate people,” Busbee said, noting that he would attribute at least some of the results under the previous administration to staffing and workload.
It’s one of the reasons he created the Major Crimes Division – appointing Assistant District Attorneys Matt Breedon and Jillian Gibson to oversee the unit. The goal is to pull serious felony cases aside and ensure they get more attention from attorneys whose sole responsibility is prosecution of these types of cases.
The Major Crimes Division also gives law enforcement a ‘point of contact’ when they’re investigating. Busbee said in the past, agencies haven’t always known who to call, but this will ensure someone is available around the clock in hopes of building cases that can be prosecuted to conviction.
When he was sworn in, there were three open positions for Assistant District Attorney – all of which have been filled. Still, Busbee has asked county commissioners across the circuit to appropriate additional funds.
“It pains me to do this, but this is an essential service for the public,” he said, noting that the office isn’t even competing with other government agencies. “What the state gives us is a number of positions that they partially pay. The rest is paid for by the counties.”
Busbee shared how the budget matches up to other agencies and departments. Notably, there are full-time positions in the office that are earning less than $40,000 annually with no benefits. And in Bulloch County, the district attorney’s office receives less money annually than Animal Control and Magistrate Court.
“We try death penalty cases and we’re receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars less,” he said. “When it comes to felonies, we’re the only game in town.”
The Ogeechee Circuit’s budget for the District Attorney’s Office currently comes in at $1,457,074.44 while the other circuits in the state average $2,538,923.96.
Busbee also cited data from sixteen counties in similar population ranges of Bulloch and Effingham, which provide the bulk of the funding for the circuit. Both counties ranked at the bottom compared to the others for budgeting, even when considering those with smaller populations. He broke the data down on a per-resident spending basis as well and Bulloch came in last with $8.48 per resident and $9.84 per resident in Effingham. All of the other counties appropriated at least $10 per resident to the district attorney’s office with the average coming in at $18.02 per resident.
All in all, Busbee asked Bulloch and Effingham to increase spending to $15 per resident.
| FY 2025 Budget | FY 2026 Budget Request | |
| Bulloch | $688,058 | $1,216,485 |
| Effingham | $637,510 | $1,216,485 |
“If they give me what I’m asking for, it doesn’t move them to the top, it doesn’t move them to the middle, it puts them in the bottom half, just not at the bottom,” Busbee said. But commissioners have, thus far, been open minded about the needs as Busbee has offered a strategic plan about what he can deliver with additional funding.
Gang Prosecution
Busbee said his office is committed to holding participants of gang activity accountable. “When I took office, one of the things I was told was how prevalent gang activity is not just in Bulloch, but Screven county of all places,” Busbee said.
The office recently sent one of the ADAs to training but on by the Prosecuting Attorneys Council (PAC). Impressed by the content, Busbee said he reached out to the PAC about the availability of a recording from the seminar to share with others in the office, resulting in PAC offering to hold a training session for both attorneys and law enforcement in Statesboro. Busbee’s office extended the invitation to agencies in the circuit and upwards of 50 people attended the all-day training last week.
“This will help law enforcement in how they put the cases together and us with how we prosecute them,” he said.
Pre-Trial Diversion Program
Another component of Busbee’s campaign was the creation of a Pre-Trial Diversion program – a promise made by the previous administration that was never implemented. Essentially, a pre-trial diversion program allows certain offenders who meet certain criteria to avoid a conviction by completing a diversion program, typically involving community service, counseling, or other rehabilitative services.
While the program is not yet instituted, hiring is underway for the position of Program Coordinator. The hope is to have the program running by Summer 2025.
Busbee noted that he didn’t want to outsource the program to a third party, at least on the onset, in an effort to control the process and ensure its working like it’s supposed to work. Another obvious reason is to ensure the fees for participation are returned to the county as opposed to a private company.
Results
“I’ve tried to encourage the ADAs to use common sense and prioritize their cases. When you’re talking about a child molester versus a college kid who made a bad decision, yes, the college kid needs to learn a lesson, but you don’t need to ruin their life and expend God knows how many thousands of dollars on a jury trial.”
The circuit has only seen three trials since Busbee was sworn into office, three of which resulted in Guilty verdicts and one Mistrial due to witness testimony. That case will be tried again in the coming months. Busbee was in the courtroom for those events, a trend he plans to continue throughout his tenure.
In fact, he’s no stranger to the courtroom at all. Just a few weeks ago, he was helping take pleas in the courtroom, a task not usually taken on by the elected DA.
“If we need to move cases and get cases resolved for people, then I’m going to take pleas. I think I took 15-20 pleas that day,” Busbee said. “I try to be where I’m most needed. I mean, I’m a lawyer, too.”
Busbee’s also closed out a number of officer-involved shooting cases that were lingering in limbo during the transition, some of which had been open for months. He reviewed the case files, read the reports, watched the body cam and dash cams, and ultimately, made determinations to bring closure to the cases for all of the involved parties.
On Transparency
The office has created a Facebook page to share information with the public and Busbee has welcomed interviews with the media in addition to the routine press releases issued by the office. Gribble shared that the office has a goal of educating the public on how the judicial system works in addition to just sharing results.
He’s also moved his office from the corner upstairs, to the downstairs floor at the DA’s office because ‘that’s where the public comes in.”
For defense attorneys, the office has prioritized the discovery process – the point at which defense attorneys receive all the evidence pertaining to a respective case. Busbee credited Chief Investigator Andrae Wright for the streamline process for that. While the ultimate goal is to provide discovery earlier in the process, as other circuits do, Busbee said the current benchmark has simply been to ensure all of the evidence is provided as required by law.
On Looking Ahead
All in all, Busbee is optimistic about the progress so far.
“You know, when I got here, I was hearing from law enforcement about major crimes and I knew that had to happen. It was important to get that started. I wasn’t expecting the budget to be the issue that it is, but it quickly became a priority – fix the budget, major crimes, and pre-trial diversion.
I want the office to work. I want to win cases. There are so many other smaller things we’re trying to fix as we go along, but I’m pleased with how far we’ve come.”
