Official says convict helped by lawmaker must join sex crime registry

AUGUSTA - State authorities say an Evans man who pleaded guilty last month to sexual battery of a child must register as a sex offender, regardless of how his sentencing document reads. <br> <br> Forty-two-year-old Bobby Clark Brassell Junior pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge January tenth in Columbia County Superior Court. On his sentencing document, the judge ordered Brassell to register as a sex offender as a condition of his one-year probation sentence. <br> <br> But after state Senator Don Cheeks, a Republican from Augusta, called Brassell&#39;s probation officer and spoke with District Attorney Danny Craig, the DA asked the judge to rescind the condition. <br> <br> A new sentencing document was presented to Judge Carl Brown Junior on January 17. The only change was that the requirement to register as a sex offender was not on the document. Craig said that condition is inserted on sentencing documents as a matter of course in sex crimes cases. <br> <br> Craig said Wednesday it was his understanding that the court has the discretion to excuse the responsibility to register and that Brown&#39;s order did not require registration. <br> <br> According to lawyers at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the attorney general&#39;s office, though, state law, not the sentencing document, determines who has to register as a sex offender. <br> <br> GBI spokeswoman Vicki Meetz said the law requires registration of anyone convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery when the victim is a child, unless the person was sentenced as a first offender. <br> <br> Brassell was not sentenced as a first offender.

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