Ken Hodges

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Kenneth (Ken) B. Hodges III is the state judge and former District Attorney for Dougherty County, Georgia in the United States and was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Georgia in 2010. In 2015, Hodges started his own law firm, Ken Hodges Law, based out of Atlanta and Albany. Hodges won an open seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2018.

Hodges was born and raised in Albany, Georgia and went on to receive his bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Sociology from Emory University in 1988 and his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1991. His wife, Melissa, grew up in Gwinnett County and graduated from The Marist School in Atlanta. She earned her bachelor's degree from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana and worked as a television news anchor and reporter. The couple was married in 2004 and currently live in Albany, GA with their daughter and son.

Video Ken Hodges

Career

After graduating from law school at the University of Georgia, Hodges worked at an Atlanta law firm before returning to his hometown of Albany, Georgia, in 1996 to run a successful campaign for District Attorney. Hodges served as District Attorney for 12 years, gaining re-election in 2000 and 2004.

During his career as attorney and District Attorney for Dougherty County, Hodges has argued in front of the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court. Hodges was instrumental in the 2002 prosecution of Sidney Dorsey, a former DeKalb County Sheriff who ordered the assassination of his successor, Derwin Brown. Ultimately, Dorsey was found guilty on eleven counts, including murder and racketeering.

Ken Hodges also served as President of the Georgia District Attorney's Association and in 2002 was recognized as Georgia's District Attorney of the Year. He has also chaired the Prosecuting Attorney's Council (PAC), and is a Fellow of the Lawyer's Foundation of Georgia.

He is a graduate of Leadership Albany and Leadership Georgia, and was on the Board of Trustees for Leadership Georgia. He has been listed on Georgia Trend Magazine's "40 under 40" and the Fulton County Daily Report's "Attorneys on the Rise."

In 2013, Hodges was honored by the State Bar of Georgia's Committee to Promote Inclusion in the Profession with the Commitment to Equality Award. Hodges was selected for the honor because of "his contributions to the advancement of diversity, including his prior service as District Attorney for the Dougherty Judicial Circuit, hiring as his chief assistant the African American prosecutor who later became his successor. During his three terms, Hodges had one of the most proportionately diverse offices in the state and, in many instances, helped his minority assistants move on to become federal prosecutors or secure positions in private practice. As district attorney, he maintained an internship program with Albany State University, one of Georgia's historical black universities."

In 2013, Hodges was elected by Georgia's attorneys to serve on the Executive Committee of the State Bar of Georgia. Hodges currently serves on the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Georgia, and multiple committees, including the Advisory Committee on Legislation.

Ken Hodges is currently Secretary and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Urban League of Atlanta.

In August 2009, Candidate Hodges received the endorsement of Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter. Young praised Hodges for "his commitment to equal rights and the fair application of justice during his years of service in Albany."

Hodges has also received the endorsements of former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, the first African-American female Chief Justice in the United States, Mark Taylor, former lieutenant governor of Georgia, and Sam Nunn, former United States senator from Georgia.

In January 2011, Hodges joined Atlanta law firm Rafuse Hill & Hodges, LLP as a partner in the litigation division. Rafuse Hill & Hodges has a national litigation practice focusing on employment, civil rights, products liability and commercial disputes.

Maps Ken Hodges

Controversial actions

 Paulk, Rehberg, et al.

As district attorney, he requested a search of a physician's phone records, against the physician--who questioned certain billing practices at the local hospital Phoebe Putney. Hodges was personally sued, successfully, in the same District Court in Albany, but because the case finally impinged on "absolute immunity for grand jurors" the District Court decision went all the way to the SCOTUS where it was then overturned.

 Griffin Stocks III, James Holloway and the matter of the Gardens

In an ongoing action in the Dougherty County Superior Court (where Hodges was DA) (16-cv-1125), the plaintiff claimed that Hodges was appointed improperly as the receiver, and also acted improperly because he had previously served as attorney facilitating the sale of the real estate in question. Subsequently James B. Holloway filed an appeal against Hodges (A18A0867) in the same Court where Hodges won the election to replace the Judge. How the Georgia Judicial Commission will allow a colleague who is a potential defendant remains to be seen.