Former Decatur County sheriff’s investigator Robert Humphrey has pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of an officer following his Thursday, June 2, arrest by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The felony charge of violation of oath by a public officer was dropped.

Joe Mulholland, District Attorney for the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, said Humphrey could not be charged in superior court after pleading guilty in state court.

According to a GBI release following the arrest, on May 3, 2016, the South Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office requested that the Thomasville GBI office investigate Humphrey for obstructing a case being investigated by a separate GBI office.

Bainbridge City Manager Chris Hobby earlier confirmed that the charges stemmed from comments Humphrey made to Bainbridge Public Safety investigator Chris Jordan about and active GBI investigation into a member of Jordan’s family.

“What my understanding is, that this began with a tip from an informant…that involved one of our investigators, Chris Jordan, and a family member,” Hobby said at the time. “Deputy Director [Frank] Green passed that information on to Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which would be standard course in this type of situation, and the GBI began an investigation.

Before that investigation was able to really begin, its alleged that Robert Humphrey passed information to [Jordan] that their family member was being investigated. That’s really the crux of the case here.”

Humphrey turned himself in to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, June 2 after a warrant was taken out for his arrest.

He was initially charged with a felony count of violation of oath by public officer and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of an officer and terminated from his position at DCSO by Sheriff Wiley Griffin.

As part of the agreement, Humphrey pled guilty to the charge of obstruction of an officer. He was required to pay a $500 fine and given a suspended 12 month jail sentence in the Decatur County Correctional Institute.

According to Mulholland, Humphrey will not have to serve jail time as long as he pays the $500 fine and the court fees for a total of $677.00.