BRUNSWICK, Ga.- Kevin Gough, public defender of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, was dismissed Thursday a day after one his former assistants pleaded guilty in Macon to a federal charge of selling methamphetamine and oxycodone, court records show.
After a meeting Thursday morning with Bryan Thompson, executive director of the Public Defender Council, it was agreed that Gough “would no longer serve as Brunswick [Circuit Public Defender],” a release from Thompson’s office said.
The Public Defender Council is investigating two matters in the Brunswick office, the release said.
The council said it has learned within the past week “of allegations concerning the representation of indigent defendants and the treatment of assistant public defenders in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit.”
The Public Defender Council takes the allegations seriously and will conduct a full investigation, the release said.
Area criminal defense lawyers have told the Times-Union privately that Holly Hogue Edwards’ representation of public defender clients while she was under a four-count federal indictment could leave some criminal cases subject to future appeals.
Edwards entered a plea Wednesday in federal court in Macon, court records show. In exchange for her guilty plea, the government will dismiss three counts of distributing the painkiller oxycodone when Edwards is sentenced July 6, the plea agreement says.
In February, Edwards was working for the Public Defenders office in Brunswick and was representing defendants in bail hearings in Glynn County Magistrate Court.
The Macon Telegraph reported that the 36-year-old Edwards accepted full responsibility for what she had done during a Monday morning hearing in U.S. District Court in Macon where she previously had a law practice.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Howard told the court that Edwards met June 4 with an undercover FBI agent and gave him a small amount of methamphetamine, the Telegraph reported.