Former US Attorney Convicted of Aggravated Stalking
Richard S. Thompson, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia from 2001-2004, has been in jail since July.
February 01, 2019 at 02:19 PM
4 minute read
A former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia was convicted of two counts of aggravated stalking following a daylong bench trial Thursday, the attorney for the victim confirmed Friday.
Richard S. Thompson, who served as U.S. attorney of the Southern District of Georgia in Savannah from 2001-2004, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 15 by Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett, who presided over Thompson's trial, said attorney Donna Crossland, a partner with Taylor Odachowski Schmidt & Crossland in St. Simons Island.
A spokesman for Brunswick Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, whose office prosecuted Thompson, said a formal statement will be released Friday afternoon.
Brunswick attorney Robert Crowe, who represented Thompson on the felony warrant last year, was in court Friday and unavailable for comment.
Thompson has been in jail since July following his second arrest on charges of stalking a former girlfriend. When he was arrested, Thompson was free on a $10,000 bond on a pending aggravated stalking charge his ex-girlfriend filed in 2017.
The woman swore out the second warrant against Thompson on July 26, 2018, just hours before the former federal prosecutor put a gun to his head after fleeing a sheriff's deputy. The deputy recovered several suicide letters in Thompson's car after Thompson surrendered, according to the incident report.
A Glynn County magistrate judge revoked Thompson's bond after his second arrest.
Crossland would not identify her client because of Thompson's lengthy, documented history of harassment and his continued violation of a multiple protective orders warning him to stay away from the woman and her family.
Crossland said both she and her client testified against Thompson at Thursday's trial. Thompson did not testify, she said.
Thompson's conviction was the culmination of multiple instances over two years where he surveilled his former girlfriend by repeatedly parking outside her house, following her in his car while she was walking her dog or driving, and occasionally pounding on her door, according to records associated with restraining orders issued against him.
Thompson also sent a steady string of emails disparaging her and threatening legal action to her friends, members of her family and Crossland. He also hinted he would initiate investigations by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the FBI or the news media—referencing prosecutions he launched while U.S. attorney, Crossland told The Daily Report shortly after Thompson's 2017 arrest.
Appointed by President George W. Bush, Thompson resigned in 2004 after the Justice Department's office of Professional Responsibility determined he abused his authority to benefit political allies
In 2002, Atlanta attorney Craig Gillen of Gillen Withers & Lake filed a formal complaint against Thompson with the Justice Department after Gillen's client, former Georgia state Sen. Donnie Lavan Streat Sr., D-Nicholls, was cleared of state influence-peddling charges. Thompson announced after the acquittal that he was opening his own investigation of Streat. Gillen claimed Thompson's actions were intended to help a friend and Republican political ally who was running for Streat's seat.
In 2009, then Gov. Sonny Perdue—now U.S. secretary of agriculture—appointed Thompson to the State Board of Workers' Compensation, which Thompson eventually chaired before stepping down in 2013.
Thompson resigned from his southeast Georgia law firm on Aug. 1, 2017. Formerly known as Thompson, Sibley & Hand, the firm changed its name the same day to Levy, Sibley, Foreman & Speir. Thompson's Georgia bar license remains in good standing, according to the State Bar of Georgia website.
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