Oconee County, GA Politics

Authorities arrested a 79-year-old Watkinsville man last week on child pornography charges. Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents with the assistance of Watkinsville police searched the VFW Drive home of John R. Ferry and seized his computers in April 2013, according to Debbie Garner, a GBI special agent with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. During the initial preview of Ferry’s computer at his home, no child pornography was located, she said. However, a more in-depth analysis that took more than a year yielded “hundreds of images of child pornography,” Garner said. Ferry is charged with seven counts of sexual exploitation of children. He was released Sunday from the Oconee County Jail on a $100,000 bond following his Friday arrest on charges that he downloaded hundreds of child porn pictures to his home computer, authorities said. Watkinsville man charged with downloading child pornography

I think any challenging candidates counting on this rather delicate issue as some springboard for them to upset Sheriff Berry in the upcoming Republican primary would be sadly mistaken. In fact, I think voters in Oconee County are just resilient and intelligent enough to think beyond this unfortunate criminal act by the brother of the Sheriff. It would be one thing if it had been covered up, but this is anything but the case here. Kudos to Sheriff Berry for taking charge of this disturbing family member and getting him the help and incarceration he needs. Brother of Oconee sheriff gets 15 years for child porn | Online Athens