Sex Offender's GPS Removed: Paulding Complies With New Ruling

PAULDING COUNTY, GA — A Paulding County sex offender has had his electronic monitor removed to comply with a new Georgia Supreme Court ruling.

The Georgia Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously that OCGA 42-1-14(e) was unconstitutional. This code section previously allowed Georgia Sheriffs to electronically monitor, or ankle monitor, sexually dangerous predators once they completed their probation and/or parole for the rest of their lives.

The recent decision held that this code section was unconstitutional and that all Georgia Sheriffs were to remove their electronic monitoring systems immediately from these individuals. Paulding County only has one individual that the Supreme Court ruling impacted and his electronic monitor has been removed per the decision.

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Sheriff Gary Gulledge said, “We will comply with the ruling that the Georgia Supreme Court has handed down. We would like to encourage everyone to reach out to their local State Representative or State Senator to look at reevaluating and creating a constitutional solution to this statue. We are committed to keeping our community safe and will do everything in our power to continue to make that a reality.”

The ruling does not impact any other aspects of the Georgia Sex Offender Registry and Paulding County still closely monitors all 229 of the registered sex offenders in the county, they said. Currently, Paulding County has eight sexual predators that are still monitored daily, police reported.

Here is the full Supreme Court decision.