CLEVELAND, Ga. – Sentinel Offender Services, the misdemeanor probation company that has been sued more than 25 times and accused of threatening and intimidating at least three White County women, is operating without a valid White County contract.

An open records request to County Manager Michael Melton produced only a contract that was dated 2005 and signed by then County Commission Chairman Chris Nonnemaker and Judge Joy Parks. The contract has an automatic renewal clause, but state law requires that the contract be re-authorized each year.

“As far as I’m concerned that contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” Commission Chairman Travis Turner said during a phone interview. White County does not administer a contract with Sentinel. That would have to be Judge (Murphy) Miller, (Joy) Parks or (Garrison) Baker.”

However, even if a judge does have a contract with Sentinel, state law requires that it be signed by a representative of county government and Turner said he has had no contact with Sentinel during his eight years on the Board.

County Attorney Bill House said the county could stop doing business with Sentinel immediately since, to his knowledge, there is no valid contract, but proper protocol would be to notify Chief Superior Court Judge Murphy C. Miller first. “The problem would be to locating another probation provider to take over all those cases” he said.

Turner said he has heard no complaints about Sentinel. That could be because many low-income people charged with misdemeanor traffic offenses have no idea who to complain to.

Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for Southern Center for Human Rights which has filed a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of plaintiffs, said she has heard many complaints from White County residents about Sentinel.

People like Rita Luse, a 62-year-old grandmother who says probation officer Stacy McDowell Black demanded that she take a drug test that was not ordered by the judge and threatened her with jail if she refused. Luse said she once informed Black that she did not have the money to make her monthly payment to Sentinel but would receive a paycheck in a couple of days. Black, she said, told her to get the money within a few hours or she would be arrested.

“I’m certain the commissioners don’t want something like this happening to the citizens,” House said.

Then it’s time for White County to cut its ties with Sentinel.