Sheriff Henderson reindicted on all counts

Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney Pro Tempore Frank Wood spent upwards of four hours presenting the case before the Towns County Grand Jury last week, and Sheriff Henderson also provided testimony to grand jurors prior to their deliberations and charging decision.

Wood was seeking the superseding indictment to ward off potentially lengthy legal challenges against the original indictment.

That’s because Henderson’s defense team discovered that the original indictment process included an empaneled grand juror whose physical residence is in Clay County, North Carolina, and therefore outside the legal jurisdiction for Towns County.

The superseding indictment includes all seven criminal counts from the original indictment regarding the previously reported Dec. 13, 2024, roadside altercation in which the sheriff briefly arrested Hiawassee Police Officer José Carvajal.

Those charges include five felonies: three counts of violation of oath by a public officer, false imprisonment, and false imprisonment under color of law, per court documents.

He is also facing misdemeanor simple battery, as well as simple battery on a police officer, which is considered a “misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature” in Georgia law.

Henderson has already pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the case was awaiting trial scheduling at press time.

The new indictment is another twist in the ongoing legal saga, which has seen Henderson investigated by both the GBI and a special committee appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp at the request of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association; suspended from office by the governor; indicted in a prosecution led by a district attorney specially appointed by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia; arrested and booked into his own jail; and now indicted for a second time after the first indictment came under question.

Hiawassee-based Attorney Larry Sorgen, speaking as a member of Henderson’s defense team, has called the ordeal a “political persecution” in open court.

As noted above, the charged offenses pertain to Henderson’s December 2024 arrest of Carvajal, which occurred at the officer-involved shooting scene of former TCSO Deputy Austin Bradburn, who was shot twice in the leg with his own handgun while working on Plottown Road in Young Harris.

At the time of the shooting, law enforcement was working under the assumption that a suspect in a traffic stop had shot Bradburn in a struggle over the deputy’s handgun, and that a dangerous cop shooter was on the loose, leading to increased tensions at the scene.

Also contributing to heightened tensions was the fact that Carvajal had driven out of his city jurisdiction to render aid to Bradburn; for years at that point, Sheriff Henderson and Hiawassee PD had been at odds over jurisdictional issues.

Apparent in body cam footage obtained and first reported by Atlanta News First, a heated interaction ensued when Carvajal declined to follow the sheriff’s instructions regarding the gun used in the shooting.

Carvajal ended up tucking Bradburn’s gun into his waistband after realizing he had inadvertently picked it up instead of his own as EMS worked to transport the injured deputy to an ambulance, and Carvajal told the sheriff he did not want to touch the gun again until GBI arrived.

The situation escalated into an argument that Carvajal walked away from, and an angry Henderson followed Carvajal, physically turning him to continue speaking. The interaction continued to spiral, culminating when Henderson placed Carvajal briefly under arrest before letting him go without charges a short time later.

As for Bradburn, he was taken for medical treatment and subsequently interviewed about the situation by the GBI. TCSO fired Bradburn roughly a week after the shooting, and GBI later arrested him for allegedly making false statements about the incident.

GBI told the newspaper there was “no information to support the presence of another party,” implying Bradburn shot himself and lied about what actually happened that early December morning.

Bradburn is facing charges in Union, Towns and Hall counties. His case in Towns County was part of the same grand jury session that prompted District Attorney Wood to seek a new indictment against Henderson, so the state will be seeking to re-indict Bradburn in Towns.

The former deputy could be going to trial in Hall County during the first week of June, and his trial in Union County has yet to be scheduled.

All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.