By Joe Johnson
A Clarke County Superior Court judge recently quashed an indictment that charged an Athens man with sexually assaulting two young girls in 2018.
Judge H. Patrick Haggard agreed with a defense motion that argued the motion was defective because it did not sufficiently narrow the timeframe in which 29-year-old Noketchee Creek Road resident Mishel Brent Chamblee allegedly assaulted the victims, aged eight and 10.
"...the State has failed to meet its burden of showing that it could not have narrowed the date ranges set forth in the indictment," Haggard stated in his order that was filed Dec. 12 in Superior Court.
Chamblee was indicted by a grand jury Sept. 3 on two counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of aggravated sodomy.
In the redacted public version of the indictment, Chamblee allegedly committed “immoral and indecent acts” against one child between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1, 2018, and similar alleged acts were committed against the other child between July 1 and Sept. 27, 2018.
Chamblee was arrested on warrants on Oct. 1, 2018 and released from the Clarke County Jail four months later, upon posting a $22,000 property bond.
Though the indictment was quashed, Chamblee still faces possible prosecution, according to Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin
“The case is still pending,” Mauldin said this week. “We are looking at whether to appeal the court’s order and to what extent we can re-indict.”
Haggard scheduled an attorney’s status conference hearing for Feb. 25.