Q&A: Assistant County Attorney Andre Pretorius explains why he is running for Chatham County DA

Andre Pretorius, an assistant Chatham County attorney, is kicking it up a notch, so to speak, and running for Chatham County District Attorney.

Pretorius, a Republican, will face the winner of the May 21 Democratic primary race between current DA Shalena Cook Jones, and former Chatham County ADA Jenny Parker, who announced her candidacy for the top job on June 30, 2023.

Initially, Pretorius didn't seem to be the likely Republican candidate. More than two years ago, former Chatham County Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Anthony Burton announced he would run for Chatham County DA, but on March 8 of this year, he made a Facebook post announcing that he was dropping out of the DA race, and instead will run for Chatham County Probate Judge. In the Facebook post, Burton pledged support for Pretorius’ campaign.

More: Former ADA Jenny Parker to run for Chatham County District Attorney

Hailing from South Africa, Pretorius emigrated to the United States at 15 years old. After working in construction for years, Pretorius graduated from Atlanta's John Marshall Law School in 2008. He started his legal career as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Hall County Solicitor's Office in February 2009, also working as the DUI court prosecutor and mental health court prosecutor. He worked as a Chatham County ADA from February 2013 through August 2021, serving as Chief Deputy Assistant of State Court. He has served as an assistant county attorney for the Chatham County Attorney's Office from August 2021 until the present date, but after qualifying for the DA race, he started working on a part-time basis. He is currently the City of Tybee Solicitor and an assistant solicitor in Effingham County State Court.

Pretorius discussed his vision should he be elected as the Chatham County DA, centering his campaign on victim services, hiring and training young prosecutors, and tackling the case backlog using pre-trial diversion programs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are you running for Chatham County District Attorney?

"The reason I'm running for the District Attorney’s office is because I want to get a voice of victims, making sure that the cases are prosecuted for the victims. Then, on top of that, to build a bridge between the DA’s office and the police department so that the cases are thoroughly investigated, and that we are there to support them if they have questions. And then on top of that, to bring in prosecutors who are good prosecutors, hardworking prosecutors are willing to learn and enjoy the job of being the prosecutor.

I’ve always had a passion to work with victims. When I started here, we had a domestic violence docket, and I saw how that was being run. So, what I basically did at that point was make sure that that docket changed so that we had the victims there, we had the treatment provider’s there, and kind of figured out what was going on? Is the treatment working? Put them into a domestic violence program, so if it's a money issue or an employment issue or an alcohol abuse issue, we get them the help and treatment they need for that. [The goal was to] get to the bottom of the struggles that they’re dealing with.

I just don’t know if the current DA’s office is doing those things. But my concern is not really what the current administration does. I feel like I have a passion for that. And I feel like I have a drive for that. I feel like I know how the process works and I’ve prosecuted so many cases dealing with that. I think I'd be a good candidate to work on those."

How would you tackle the case backlog?

"I don't know what [the CCDA's] backlog currently is. I know when we left, the year of COVID, even when there being no court in state court, we closed out more cases than came into the office. We were able to still do that work in working with the judges, to set up dockets or plea dockets, to close out those cases, and that was to kind of make sure that when the cases came up there that it didn't create a huge backlog.

Backlog is not just dismissing cases. You also have to make sure that the case is still prosecutable. Because, you know, as a prosecutor, you have a duty and an ethical obligation to make sure that the case is prosecutable... which means that you can prosecute the case beyond a reasonable doubt. And then... you look to see whether or not it's a case that the community wants you to prosecute. So, there's a lot of those cases that you have to kind of decide, is this something that the community finds important. There's a lot of triage that can be done on that case before it comes to the DA's office and that that prosecutor can work on for you to get a good case when it comes to us. That would probably help some of the municipalities work out those cases.

Violent crime gun cases are the cases that we need to look at, because those are the ones that involve victims. A lot of those cases, you will not be able to resolve down. There are cases that you can resolve down there, like shoplifting cases, theft cases, where a plea offer is more easily done or setting up dockets so you can get rid of those cases.

The pretrial diversion program [at State Court] was hugely successful. We had a 95% success rate for anybody who completed the program. Once people know that they can make money without having to do anything illegal, they want to do it. That's kind of where you need to part of that diversion program is to find your at-risk youth, your underprivileged youth and use your community resources to push those things."

More: Chatham County District Attorney staff shortage puts defendants, victims, prosecutors in jeopardy

How would you increase staffing at the DA’s office?

"That’s one of the things that I was pretty good at when I came to state court. When I was in the solicitor's office, it was always new kids, new prosecutors coming in straight out of law school, and then you basically train them up and turn them into prosecutors. Then, those prosecutors would leave because they wanted to go do felonies. I trained them by putting them in jury trials and taught them how to try a case. When you do that, you give that person the strength and the ability to say, ‘Hey, I can be a good prosecutor.’

I think the main focus that I would have is to start with brand new prosecutors, brand new attorneys. The thing that kills this office here is we used to have the Savannah law school here that gave you a free feeding ground for that but there are law schools close by Jacksonville, Mercer. So, you can go to some of those campuses.

The main focus is, you know, you're going to be a great litigator, you're going to enjoy what you're doing, you're going to enjoy your working environment,... you're going to go to sleep at night knowing that if you did the right thing, that you put the right people behind bars, and that you prosecute the right people and that you've made a difference, you made a difference in the victim side, you made a difference in the community."

More: Chatham County District Attorney's office closes four officer-involved shooting cases

How would you improve transparency at the DA’s office?

"One thing I learned growing up is you can't run from bad things. You can’t run from trouble. You can't be afraid of, ‘Oh, this is going to hurt my political career.’ And that's the one thing I've never cared about; I'm not a political person.

What’s important is to do the right thing at the right time. So, when you get that case, you're going to present it to the grand jury, you're going to do it as quickly as possible, and you're going to be very transparent about the procedure. And whatever that grand jury decides, that is what you're going to present to the public. And you release everything that was in that case to the public, so they can see this is what the evidence was, this is what they looked at. And that's just it, I don't think that you can run from those things. And the longer you delay that, the worse it makes it on the community, because they are the ones that have to sit and think about it. And why is this not happening? And why is this not here? Why are we doing this? Why not? You just have to be very transparent."

How would you handle officer-involved shootings?

"Once you have the evidence from [the GBI’s investigation of an officer-involved shooting], you should be able to present that case within 30 to 60 days. I mean, I see no reason why it would take you that long to do that. Because you're basically giving it to them and saying, ‘Here's this evidence.’ And then you look at them say, ‘Okay, what do you guys think about this case?’ [A grand jury] will look at that and then they'll decide, is a cop at fault, or was he not at fault?

More: Why is the Chatham County DA taking so long to deliberate inmate death investigations?

How would you handle the prosecution of those involved in jail deaths?

"You'd have to look and make sure this was something that was deliberately done. So, you would have to show some of that. And the thing that I know, we're having a problem with more recently is the fentanyl epidemic. I mean, fentanyl is getting in everything everywhere. And that you would have to start prosecuting people who bring those things into the jail, because those things kill people. And, you know, we have to have strict policies for everybody because of that.

Another thing that I’ve noticed working with the sheriff on a lot of those cases, is that there are lots of people that are very sick who go to jail. And I don't think that the jail is the appropriate place for that. And I think some of those people need to be triaged early on. We need to have coordination with the sheriff to say this, this person should not be in our jail. He's very sick, he needs medical attention. Yes, the jail can give you that medical attention, but why should we take on that expense when we can help him get his Medicare restarted or whatever, and then get him to a hospital if he needs to stay in the hospital?

The jail should be a temporary thing, not a permanent thing. And especially for people with very serious illnesses. There needs to be a process where we can look at those cases and say, there is something that we can do with this case. We don't want this person to die now."

How would you work with the police to make sure that your office would be able to prosecute homicide cases to the fullest extent?

"When I was in the office, one of the things that we worked on the most is that you went out once a month and did training. If you found a specific area that law enforcement had issues with. So, if search warrants weren’t very good, we would do an entire county training on, and you would go to Chatham County, Garden City, and you had that [training]. So, we would go out and train them on domestic violence, we would train them on aggravated assault, we would train them on different kinds of the areas of the law. If it's DUIs, if it was search warrants, if it was how to present cases in court, we would do all those things.

One of the things that I would do as well is to make sure that the agency knows that we have a prosecutor to call about things. And then also hold monthly meetings, whether it's your sexual assault meetings, whether it's your domestic violence meetings, [where the prosecutor] could go to those you talk to you officer, you find out what the issue is issues that they're having. What are they missing? What are their issues with this?

You have to be upfront with [detectives]. And they appreciate that honesty... And they're like, Hey, can I run this search warrant by you? Hey, can I do this? Can I check this with you? And this is at, two, three o'clock in the morning. I just answer the phone. That's what you need."

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and courts reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@Gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Why is Assistant County Attorney Andre Pretorius running for Chatham County DA?