Sheriff's office refuses

[astew101]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia
This question is not an easy one to understand without me giving some info, so here goes! Our home has been burglarized twice by the same individuals, (Yes, we know who done it!) the first time was back in 7-23-2007 and the last just occurred 12-6-2011.
Both times the sheriff's office has refused to do their duty to protect and serve. We have had 3 witnesses come forward with information which we have turned over to the sheriff's department detective, (not the same detective as with the first case).
1 of the witnesses has led us to where our jewelry was sold to a gold buyer. We passed this info on to the detective and Nothing has come of it. We ourselves went and spoke to the gold buyer who vividly recalls these people selling my jewelry and recalls my jewelry because it was in such "pristine condition" as he put it.
We had a private investigator call the sheriff about this and he was told basically they was not going to do anything, I think all because the sheriff doesn't like me. I do have some friends that work in the sheriff's office and was told by one deputy (whose name I was told to not say by this deputy) that the sheriff threatened to fire anyone that goes against his commands/rules!
The detective has refused to return our calls since the private investigator got involved and NO LEADS have been followed up upon. 1 of the perps was arrested last Sunday 12-11-2011 on drug charges but was released on bail the very next morning without even being questioned about this crime! What can I do about this?
Do we need to retain a lawyer and seek damages against the sheriff's department or do I need to pass all the info we have to the attorney generals office or what? Please, I don't know what else to do as I have tried all options in my home town and even a family friend judge told us that if we did take out a case against the sheriff's office, him being a judge, he said it would go in front of a judge and NOT a jury and being such the judge would NOT find in our favor no matter what evidence we have!

So, what do I do about this? It is not right that one can abuse the power that we the citizens have put them in! Even if you search the internet, you can not find anything about finding help on this kind of matter. This is not right and I'm sure I'm not the only one to have been through something like this. But, again, What do I do? No justice in Georgia!

 

[Proserpina]

You cannot force a prosecution.

 

[swalsh411]

Contact the State Police with your evidence.

And by the way police have no legal duty to "serve and protect". That's just what they put on their cars.

 

[las365]

You could try contacting your elected representative in the state legislature and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. You may at least be able to get some information that way.

 

[astew101]

So?

Believe me, I know that all to well, (about the saying to protect and serve)!
So, legally there is nothing I can do? If so, God help us all!
But, I will tell the world what I know even if I have to climb the highest mountain to do so!

 

[astew101]

Thank you

You could try contacting your elected representative in the state legislature and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. You may at least be able to get some information that way.

I will definitely be contacting them tomorrow! Thanks again!

 

[st-kitts]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia
This question is not an easy one to understand without me giving some info, so here goes! Our home has been burglarized twice by the same individuals, (Yes, we know who done it!) the first time was back in 7-23-2007 and the last just occurred 12-6-2011.
Both times the sheriff's office has refused to do their duty to protect and serve. We have had 3 witnesses come forward with information which we have turned over to the sheriff's department detective, (not the same detective as with the first case).

What a lay person feels is a strong case versus what a police investigator and the DA know is a strong case are two completely different things. Just because you have circumstantial evidence that leads you to believe certain people committed the crime, understand that this may not be enough to bring a case that could convince a jury beyond a shadow of a doubt. They would be wasting your taxpayer dollars if they pursued a case that could not reasonably result in conviction.

1 of the witnesses has led us to where our jewelry was sold to a gold buyer. We passed this info on to the detective and Nothing has come of it. We ourselves went and spoke to the gold buyer who vividly recalls these people selling my jewelry and recalls my jewelry because it was in such "pristine condition" as he put it.

What you have presented here is people sold gold to a dealer who thinks the gold matches a description you provided of the items stolen from you. Did you recover your jewelry from the dealer or had he sold it when you reached him? If, as it sounds, the dealer no longer has the jewelry then you have nothing.

We had a private investigator call the sheriff about this and he was told basically they was not going to do anything, I think all because the sheriff doesn't like me. I do have some friends that work in the sheriff's office and was told by one deputy (whose name I was told to not say by this deputy) that the sheriff threatened to fire anyone that goes against his commands/rules!
The detective has refused to return our calls since the private investigator got involved and NO LEADS have been followed up upon. 1 of the perps was arrested last Sunday 12-11-2011 on drug charges but was released on bail the very next morning without even being questioned about this crime! What can I do about this?

How do you know the person wasn’t questioned about this crime? Even if they were investigating your case actively, do you expect that charges would be filed in 7 days? Investigations can last YEARS… But in this case, it sounds like your evidence isn’t solid enough to build a case for prosecution. The police may actually believe you when you tell them "who done it" but if they don't believe they can prove it to a jury of your peers, then it isn't going anywhere.

Do we need to retain a lawyer and seek damages against the sheriff's department or do I need to pass all the info we have to the attorney generals office or what? Please, I don't know what else to do as I have tried all options in my home town and even a family friend judge told us that if we did take out a case against the sheriff's office, him being a judge, he said it would go in front of a judge and NOT a jury and being such the judge would NOT find in our favor no matter what evidence we have!

Retaining a lawyer, if you could actually find one that would touch this “case” even on retainer would be a waste of your money. There is no case for damages against the sheriff’s department.

So, what do I do about this?

File a claim with your insurance company and be done with it. Get an alarm system. And a dog.
Good luck.

 

[astew101]

Good questions

Here is my replies, please feel free to comment as all comments are welcome, good or bad.

What a lay person feels is a strong case versus what a police investigator and the DA know is a strong case are two completely different things. Just because you have circumstantial evidence that leads you to believe certain people committed the crime, understand that this may not be enough to bring a case that could convince a jury beyond a shadow of a doubt. They would be wasting your taxpayer dollars if they pursued a case that could not reasonably result in conviction.

True, but they have NOT followed up on anything! How do we know this? The witnesses came to us, we are still waiting on the sheriff's office to contact us to even get most of the info we/they have. The only info we have been able to give the detective was about the jewelry & gold buyer.
The detective we was told by him that he was going to post/contact ALL gold buyers, pawn shops in our area to see if he can recover anything....he has NOT done so! Why do we know this? We ourselves have went around our area checking, so unless all these buyers are lying to us (which we happen to know several of them personally) you tell me?


What you have presented here is people sold gold to a dealer who thinks the gold matches a description you provided of the items stolen from you. Did you recover your jewelry from the dealer or had he sold it when you reached him? If, as it sounds, the dealer no longer has the jewelry then you have nothing.


We was told by the gold buyer that he by law has to hold onto all jewelry but he thought for only 7 days! This gold buyer recalled everything about these people as well as my jewelry but, he himself was NOT the owner of this business he just ran it. So, without the law stepping in do you think he is going to just hand anything over to us? That's why we are in such a hurry to get the law to do something! If they let this evidence slip away as well as everything else, your right! What else do we have?


How do you know the person wasn’t questioned about this crime? Even if they were investigating your case actively, do you expect that charges would be filed in 7 days? Investigations can last YEARS… But in this case, it sounds like your evidence isn’t solid enough to build a case for prosecution. The police may actually believe you when you tell them "who done it" but if they don't believe they can prove it to a jury of your peers, then it isn't going anywhere.


How do we know this person......here's the kicker! They are family members! My nephews! My sister, (their mother) has told us 1 of them has done told/admitted it to her, even told her he had some of the money stolen out our home hidden.
Didn't tell her where but, that is how we know so much info!
Most all the witnesses that have come forward is either family members or his family members! Plus as I said before, he was locked up last Sunday afternoon around 4-5:00pm and was released early the next morning! Why wasn't he held for at least 72 hours for questioning?
Upon him being released, he told his mother that he done it, has some of the money hidden and he has not been questioned about it!
The longer all this goes on, the least they are going to recover! It's as simple as that!

Plus, there is NO SUCH THING AS LUCK, everything is what we make of it!
Good day