Probes must go on

With his health apparently deteriorating - and his county smarting from allegations of corruption against him - Jenkins County Sheriff Bobby Womack's sudden resignation this week was a merciful end indeed.

Womack has reportedly suffered from lung cancer, having had part of a lung removed, and was said to have suffered a heart attack and significant weight loss more recently.

Despite the allegations against him, Womack has been a popular public official in Jenkins County. Yet, that popularity, and the justifiable sympathy for his health challenges, must be tinged with great sadness as his career ends under the blackest of clouds.

As catalogued May 23 by The Augusta Chronicle's Johnny Edwards and Mike Wynn, two former deputies and all of 31 former jail inmates have alleged Womack converted inmate labor to his personal benefit over the years at his rental home and logging business. Womack is now being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI - and, further, was facing possible suspension by Gov. Sonny Perdue before this week's resignation.

Oddly, Womack wasn't even certified to make arrests: His certification had been revoked by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council in 1985. And his nearly 20-year tenure was marked with controversy long before these latest charges: He was once shot in the leg by his now-deceased wife, and later briefly investigated for allegedly spying on his current wife - a probe dropped when they reconciled.

He wasn't seeking re-election anyway, but the current allegations nonetheless overshadow even a stormy past. The charge of using inmates as indentured servants or worse is among the most serious you can level at a sheriff. Exploiting a captive audience, and converting an otherwise public asset - inmate labor - to personal use is unconscionable and illegal.

Neither the sheriff's health battle nor his welcome resignation should be allowed to derail investigations into the allegations.