THOMASVILLE, Ga. (AP) - The governor has chosen a veteran Georgia prosecutor to replace a retiring Superior Court judge in the state’s southern region.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced he has picked James L. Prine of Thomasville to fill the vacancy created when Judge Harry Jay Altman II retired at the beginning of the year.
Prine has served as the senior assistant district attorney for Georgia’s Southern Judicial Circuit since 2002. Now he’ll serve as a judge in the same five-county circuit that covers Brooks, Colquitt, Echols, Lowndes and Thomas counties.
Altman announced last September that he was stepping down after 25 years on the bench. He had been the Southern Circuit’s chief judge since 2009.
Prine earned his law degree from Georgia State University, the governor’s office said in a news release. The FBI recognized him in 2006 for his outstanding prosecution record, and the Georgia State Arson Control Board named Prine its prosecutor of the year in 2014.
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