Well, our pal Ron has a big day ahead of him tomorrow. His extradition hearing was continued until Tuesday. So, what happens next? Here are a few educated guesses.
Will he fight extradition? He could, but why? Given that Georgia has a probation revocation warrant for armed robbery, he’s going to get extradited sooner or later. He’s pretty much at the mercy of Cobb County and should be looking to appear as cooperative as possible.
What awaits him in Cobb County? The records are pretty garbled online (no surprise since they’re from 17 years ago) so we’ll have to see. Best guess is he pleaded guilty to armed robbery under the GA First Offender Act either in September of 2000 or February of 2001. His probation looks to have been revoked on 09-11-2001 (yikes).
If he did plead guilty under the First Offender Act, he can be resentenced to up to life imprisonment (though that’s highly unlikely). His fate will be decided by the Cobb Probation Office, the Cobb DA’s office and ultimately Judge Childs (who inherited his case from Judge Grubbs, who retired in 2016).
If Ron goes back to prison, will this derail the civil case? No. I’ve taken depositions out at County Farm Road (although they’ve been for domestic cases) and in some pretty nasty prisons. The civil case will continue regardless of where Ron ends up.
Will Ron be charged under the Gurley law? That’s unlikely for 2 reasons. First he’s facing potential hard time while the Gurley law violations are misdemeanors punishable by 12 months in prison. Normally, that would be an inefficient use of resources. Also, it is unclear that he violated the law in the first place. Georgia cannot criminalize behavior outside of its borders. If Ron provided benefits in Arizona he cannot be charged under Georgia law. Now, if any of the benefits were provided while our athletes were physically located in Georgia, that would be different.
If Ga. Tech really wants to push the issue to make an example out of Ron, and he did provide benefits that were illegal under the Gurley law, they could definitely get the Fulton County Solicitor’s office to charge him. I’m sure that the Institute would be heartily supported by UGA and others. They are all collectively dying to make an example out of somebody and Ron – being the loathsome individual that he is – would make the perfect person.
So, let’s see how his extradition hearing in Arizona goes tomorrow. Hopefully, he’ll be headed back to Georgia real soon.