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ALMA, Ga. (AP) — The booking photo of a rural Georgia sheriff has been released five days after his arrest in response to an open records request.
Prosecutors on May 29 charged Bacon County Sheriff Mark Cothren with elder abuse, battery and violating his oath of office after a 75-year-old man reported the sheriff to Alma police a week earlier.
A corporal and a sergeant who answered the phone at the jail May 30 refused to provide The Associated Press with Cothren's booking photo, which is considered a public record under Georgia law.
The Bacon County Sheriff's regularly publicizes booking photos of other people. In May alone, it shared 47 mug shots on its Facebook page.
A county attorney provided Cothren's booking photo Monday in response to an open records request from the AP.
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