The trial court granted the State’s motion to disqualify former assistant district attorney ADA Stacey S. Jackson from representing the defendant, Michael Jason Registe in a murder case in which Jackson had signed search warrant applications to secure evidence against Registe, as well as in two other criminal cases against Registe the facts of which the State intends to introduce as similar transaction evidence in the murder trial. We granted Registe’s application for interlocutory appeal of the three cases. As explained below, the record is not clear on the extent of the confidential information about the murder case to which Jackson was exposed while he was an ADA, which might require disqualification even if Jackson took no court-related action in the case. In any event, however, disqualification was clearly appropriate based on the ethical rules that prohibit an attorney from participating on both sides of the same case. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in disqualifying Jackson from representing Registe in these cases. 1. In August 2000, Jackson was hired as an ADA by the District Attorney for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit. He worked in the Muscogee County office. On September 5, 2005, Registe allegedly committed a car theft and seven related crimes the car theft case. On November 23, 2005, Registe allegedly committed aggravated assault by shooting a man several times, as well as other crimes involving illegal drugs and firearms the aggravated assault case. Three months later, on February 27, 2006, the State charged Registe by accusation in the car theft case.
By 2007, Jackson had been promoted to Senior ADA and was in charge of the six or so attorneys on the DA’s Division I trial team. On July 20, 2007, two people were shot and killed in connection with an armed robbery and an attempted armed robbery. Registe was suspected to be the perpetrator. The Columbus police were unable to locate him, and it was eventually determined that he had fled the country on the day after the murders, possibly with his sister’s assistance.
