ATHENS, Ga. — People elect a district attorney to uphold the law and fight for victims. How DAs do this has recently become a political debate, with lawmakers trying to create a committee that could penalize prosecutors it didn’t feel were properly doing the job.
In the meantime, lawsuits, recall petitions, and elections are the tools communities can use. DA Deborah Gonzalez faces two of those. Gonzalez serves the Western Judicial Circuit, which covers Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties.
Gonzalez is running for reelection while still facing a lawsuit that has in part, traveled all the way to the state supreme court.
11Alive Investigates caught up with Gonzalez as she prepared to canvas neighborhoods with other Democrat candidates.
“We’re so thrilled that everything is really running smoothly right now,” said Gonzalez as she reflected on how her office has evolved during the past four years.
Gonzalez has some very loud critics who have a very different definition of smooth.
They point to cases like child molestation charges dismissed by a judge in October 2024 because the DA’s office showed ‘indifference’ and lack of preparation.
Last September, a judge ordered all the attorneys in the DA's office to get training on victim’s rights because they kept violating them.
There was a mistrial in June 2024 because a judge ruled the prosecutor mishandled evidence in an ‘incompetent moment.’
When asked about frustration by some to these outcomes, Gonzalez said, “As everyone knows, when it comes to change, sometimes it’s a little messy. But it always takes time, especially when you are trying to do that change from the inside. So, what we need is four more years so that we can finish what we started.”
But two UGA students say time is up. They lost faith in the DA’s office after they saw how it handled a series of cases involving a man accused of breaking into apartments, including theirs.
They were especially shaken when they say the suspect called them from jail.
“I answered it, just really confused. And it said that you're receiving a collect call from Rashad Blackshear. And then I immediately hung up,” said Pearson, who has asked only to be identified by her first name.
Rashard Blackshear already had 16 felony convictions before he was accused of breaking into the student apartments – stealing Airpods and a UGA ID. Prison records show he’d only been on probation for about a month when one woman told police she woke up to find him masturbating by her bed. Victims wanted him to be treated as a repeat offender, but the DA’s office didn’t file the paperwork.
11Alive Investigates reached out to Gonzalez to ask why, but to date have received no response.
The students said they were also frustrated the DA’s plea deal didn’t add any more time to his sentence than he would have served for violating his probation on a previous offense.
“If we don't put the bad guys in jail, then they will be bad guys again,” said Emma, another one of the students impacted by the break-ins.
“And his previous crimes were worse,” added Pearson.
According to court records, Blackshear invited what he believed to be a 12-year-old girl to his house after sending her pornographic pictures. Another police report accuses him of pulling a little girl’s covers down after breaking into her home because he wanted “to see something.”
After hearing from the UGA students the judge refused the deal. The case is now going to trial. These girls worry about that as well. Last year, the DA’s office lost half of its cases at trial. As of September 2024, the outcomes have been about the same this year.
“We’ve just hired eight new attorneys within the last three months,” Gonzalez told said.
Indeed, the Western Judicial Circuit has more attorneys on staff than in most of Gonzalez’s administration, more than doubling the prosecutors available to manage the caseload. Four of those attorneys still need to pass the bar before they can independently work cases, however.
Still, Gonzalez says increased staffing will allow for more training and better case management. While there are specific cases that raise concerns, Gonzalez says the community as a whole is better off.
“I think that she has been a great district attorney for the last four years,” said Eric Gisler, who is running as a Democrat in State House District 121, which covers the same area as Gonzalez. “She’s introduced a lot of diversion programs.”
Gonzalez is a believer in diversion – the opportunity to address the root cause of why someone committed the crime – sending them to mental health or drug counseling instead of prison. She knows her critics thought that would make crime swell, but says the data doesn’t support it.
“We are now looking at stats that show we have had a 2% reduction of crime in our circuit,” said Gonzalez.
According to data released by the state, crime rates in almost every category have decreased in her jurisdiction since she took office in 2021.