<p>DeKalb County police chief Louis Graham resigned Wednesday, a day after the state's top lawyer appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Graham's department.</p><p>Attorney General Thurbert Baker asked for a special investigation on allegations of misconduct on Tuesday. The attorney general's office provided no further details.</p><p>The probe came at the request of DeKalb County District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming, whose office turned over its files to the attorney general's office.</p><p>Deputy chief Nick Marinelli will assume the chief role, while chief deputy R.P. Flemister is on paid administrative leave.</p><p>The resignation ends a controversial tenure for Graham.</p><p>At a news conference announcing Graham's resignation, DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones declined to discuss comments allegedly made by Graham and Flemister and recorded by an officer who was later fired.</p><p>"The police chief is not an issue. He has resigned," Jones said. "He did not want the police department to be distracted, and we are moving forward."</p><p>Last year, Graham reopened the case of Wayne Williams, who was convicted of two killings in the early 1980s.</p><p>Most of the series of killings known as the Atlanta child murders were considered cleared as a result of the Williams trial because of evidence used in the case, although the victims he was convicted of killing were adults.</p><p>Authorities listed 29 victims of the child murders _ all black, mostly boys.</p><p>Graham, who knew Williams before the killings, was an assistant police chief in neighboring Fulton County and worked on the task force that investigated the string of murders. Graham never accepted that Williams was responsible for the child killings.</p>
