Hearing Decides Georgia Man Wrongfully Jailed

ADEL, Ga. (AP) - Cook County authorities have freed a man who had been wrongly jailed for more than a year.

Sheriff Johnny Daughtrey says Frank Hatley was put behind bars in June 2008 for not paying child support. The problem is the boy is not his son, which has been proven by two separate DNA tests in the last nine years and which the judge who ordered the payments acknowledged in court documents.

Southern Center for Human Rights attorney Sarah Geraghty won Hatley’s release at a Superior Court hearing Wednesday.

Documents show Hatley has paid at least $9,500 in child support for the boy, who was born in 1987. Although he was released, Hatley’s paternity case is still unresolved.