J. Tom Morgan leaving DeKalb DAs office at end of month

<p>DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan will leave office Jan. 31, nearly a year early, to take a position with a Birmingham, Ala.-based law firm.</p><p>Morgans announcement Monday means Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue will have the chance to appoint a successor in the states most Democratic county.</p><p>Morgan said he would tender his resignation to Perdue this week. The three-term Democrat will join former state Attorney General Michael Bowers in the firm of Balch & Bingham, which has an office in Atlanta, where he will handle civil litigation and white-collar crime cases.</p><p>He announced in July that he would not seek re-election. His term ends Dec. 31. No Republicans have signed on to run for the post in November.</p><p>Two Democrats running, DeKalb Solicitor Gwendolyn Keyes and former DeKalb prosecutor Keith Adams, said Monday they would be interested in the appointment. A third candidate, former Fulton County prosecutor Antje Kingma, could not be reached for comment.</p><p>Morgan has been district attorney since 1992. He successfully prosecuted former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, who is serving a life sentence for masterminding the December 2000 murder of his elected successor, Derwin Brown.</p><p>As a special prosecutor, Morgan tried former state parole board member Bobby Whitworth, who was convicted last month for accepting money in exchange for influencing legislation.</p>

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