In the wake of last year's indictment and guilty plea of former Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby for violating his oath of office and invasion of privacy related to the placement of a recording device in the county jail's interview room, an attorney is asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to allow his client to withdraw his guilty plea and void a 25-year sentence for aggravated child molestation.

Hobby—who was first suspended from office and then indicted in 2017 over a mass search of Worth County High School school students that ultimately led to a $3 million settlement with the county—pleaded guilty to three oath of office violations last July and served six months to resolve the charges in both the search and recording cases.

But a Hawaii-based lawyer said Hobby's clandestine recording of dozens of interviews between inmates and their lawyers—including at least 10 involving his client—raises the question of whether prosecutors accessed the recordings and used them to leverage increased sentences against his client.

Bentley Adams III, who lives in Lihu'e, Hawaii, and is licensed to practice there and in Georgia, said he took up the cause of Thomas Bradshaw after reading about the snowballing scandals that led to Hobby's arrest and convictions.

Adams' appellate brief asks the appeals court to reverse a trial judge's refusal to allow Bradshaw to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that prosecutors with the office of Tifton Circuit District Attorney Paul Bowden knew about the recordings before pushing Bradshaw to take the plea and seemed to have information that could have come only from the private conversations.

“Were the state's attorneys listening to the recordings or being briefed by the officers who did the bugging?” asked his brief. “Is that why every time his lawyer talked to them the plea offer went up? Did knowledge of appellant's meetings with his lawyer give them an unfair advantage in plea negotiations and trial preparation? Is this why they didn't disclose?”

Bradshaw's appointed lawyers should have asked those questions, he wrote.

“They most certainly will be asked if this case is reversed and remanded as it must be,” the brief said.

Bowden, whose indictment against Hobby included 90 counts of invasion of privacy related to the recording, said he was not aware of any other appeals related to the surreptitious surveillance and didn't think Bradshaw's appeal was likely to impact his case.

“Bradshaw is the only appeal that … has raised that issue to my knowledge,” Bowden said in an email. “Due to the circumstances of the guilty plea and complete disclosure prior to the plea, I do not believe there is any error in the court accepting Mr. Bradshaw's plea or in denying his subsequent motion to withdraw the plea.”

Hobby has already served his sentence and is free, Bowden said.

The sheriff's troubles started in April 2017 when his deputies swooped into Worth High and performed a mass search of hundreds of students that many said included invasive and inappropriate touching, sometimes beneath the students' clothing.

No illegal drugs were found.

In October 2017, Hobby was indicted for violation of oath of office, false imprisonment and sexual battery and suspended from office by order of Gov. Nathan Deal. Two months later, additional charges of influencing witnesses and obstruction were filed after he told sheriff's department employees not to cooperate with the investigation.

Early last year, the interim sheriff discovered that the attorney interview room had been outfitted with audio and video recordings since the previous year. In May, Hobby was indicted on one count of violation of oath of office and 89 counts of invasion of privacy.

Last summer, the county agreed to pay $3 million to settle the civil suit with nearly 800 students subjected to the searches.

Hobby's plea was entered in July. Among those recorded were Bradshaw and his lawyer, assistant Tifton Circuit public defender Chauntilia Adaway.   

According to Adams' filings, Bradshaw had been indicted in January 2017 for aggravated child molestation, child molestation and possession of drug-related objects.

He was initially offered a plea deal of 20 years with 15 to serve in prison but rejected it.

Bradshaw subsequently entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant does not confess guilt but agrees to be sentenced, and Worth County Superior Court Judge William Reinhardt sentenced him to 25 years with no parole.

In April, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, but Reinhardt denied the motion.

Adams' motion said Bradshaw's lawyer should have made “specific inquiries as to whether the sheriff's wiretapping activities extended to [Bradshaw's] meetings with his attorney.”

Even if Bradshaw's lawyer “didn't know anything about the sheriff's shenanigans at the jail, she should have,” it said. “She should have argued this misconduct required the guilty plea be set aside and appellant re-tried in a fair process which did not involve the police listening in on his conversations with his lawyer.”

Adaway said she could not discuss her clients' cases in detail.

“I was not aware at the time that there were cameras in the room; I was made aware some months later,” she said.

Adaway said she has not filed any appeals but is keeping her options open.

“All of my cases that involved [the recording] are still pending, so I have filed motions to preserve the evidence,” she said.

Adaway noted that some of the inmates who were subjected to the secret recording have filed civil actions in Worth County Superior Court.

Last year, the local chapter of the NAACP announced that it was helping dozens of current and former inmates file suit over the recordings.