SAVANNAH, Ga. - A federal judge has thrown out two charges against a former Clinch County judge that accused him of using his office to retaliate against a law enforcement officer who helped prosecute his son.

Former Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III, who resigned in May, still faces 14 federal counts charging him with corruption - from fixing cases to making illegal payments to courthouse employees.

U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson dismissed two of the charges against Blitch on Monday, saying prosecutors had wrongly interpreted a federal law protecting witnesses and victims from retaliation in criminal cases.

Prosecutors accused Blitch of trying to influence officials in the Georgia towns of Nashville and Adel not to hire a former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who applied to be police chief in the cities, both in Blitch's judicial circuit, in 2004.

The indictment said Blitch retaliated against the agent, who was not named, because he helped prosecute and convict the judge's son, Brett Blitch, in a 1996 arson at a Ford dealership owned by Brett Blitch and his mother.

Lawson ruled the law used by prosecutors to charge Blitch does not apply to retaliation against law enforcement officers.

"The statute is intended to protect from retaliation the private citizen who comes forward to provide law enforcement with information about a federal crime," Lawson ruled, saying the law does not "protect the law enforcement officer who receives the information."

U.S. Attorney Maxwell Wood declined to comment on the judge's ruling, said his spokeswoman, Sue McKinney.

Blitch's attorney, Robert Willis, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Blitch, 74, served as a judge for nearly 28 years in the Alapaha Judicial Circuit and was one of rural Clinch County's most powerful politicians.

He was indicted alongside his former law partner, Homerville attorney Berrien Sutton, who resigned as a State Court judge shortly before they were indicted.

Blitch and Sutton are charged with ordering more than $73,000 in illegal payments to county employees that came from $10 and $15 fees charged to criminal defendants between 2001 and 2007. The fees were collected in a bank account kept secret from county budget officers, and payments made to employees were never taxed.

Prosecutors say Blitch also appointed Sutton to a juvenile judgeship and hired Sutton's wife as court administrator as repayment for personal legal services and to help them get out of debt.

Sutton's attorney is asking the federal judge to suppress statements Sutton made to FBI agents and prosecutors investigating Blitch, arguing Sutton was misled to believe his cooperation wouldn't be used against him.

In an affidavit filed Monday, Sutton says he agreed to several interviews with prosecutors and investigators between January and June 2007 based on assurances that they wouldn't use Suttons' own words to prosecute him. Sutton said he was repeatedly assured he wasn't a target of the investigation - until authorities said he was a target in June 2007.

Wood, the U.S. attorney, also declined to comment on Sutton's motion. Sutton's attorney, Tom Withers, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.