Georgia · Towns County · Courts

Towns County Sheriff Kenneth Henderson Resigns, Takes Plea Deal in Officer José Carvajal Case

Kenneth Henderson gave up the Towns County sheriff’s office Monday morning and took a negotiated plea that keeps him out of jail. He pleaded no contest to battery against a law enforcement officer and guilty to buying or selling an item of value by a public official. He was sentenced under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which withholds an adjudication of guilt while the sentence runs.

By Kate Thompson Published Aug. 24, 11:45 a.m. ET 9 min read Resigned · pleaded · sentenced as a first offender

What happened to Kenneth Henderson on Monday?

Towns County Sheriff Kenneth Henderson resigned the office Monday morning and entered a negotiated plea deal that lets him avoid jail time, Atlanta News First reported.

He pleaded no contest to battery against a law enforcement officer. On a second count, buying or selling an item of value by a public official, he pleaded guilty.

The sentence is 10 years on probation, eligible for termination after five years, and a $1,000 fine. Henderson also gave up any run for the office while the probation runs.

A final condition names a person: no contact with Hiawassee police officer José Carvajal. Carvajal is the officer at the center of the December 2024 confrontation.

The sentence was imposed under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which is the reason this is not a conviction on his record today. Henderson made no statement to the court.

Towns County sits in the far north of the state, pressed against the North Carolina line. Its county seat is Hiawassee, a small city on Lake Chatuge.

What are the terms of the plea and the sentence?

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What does Georgia’s First Offender Act actually do?

The Act is what separates Monday’s pleas from a conviction on the record.

The Act runs from O.C.G.A. § 42-8-60. Subsection (a) says that where a defendant has not previously been convicted of a felony, the court may take a guilty verdict or a plea of guilty or nolo contendere and then, before an adjudication of guilt and without entering a judgment of guilt, defer further proceedings and place the defendant on probation. The defendant has to consent.

So the plea goes in, the sentence is served, and the finding of guilt is held back rather than entered. Subsection (b) requires the court to review the defendant’s criminal record with the Georgia Crime Information Center before it can use the Act at all.

Subsection (c) makes the sentencing order state, up front, the prospective date on which the defendant will be exonerated of guilt and discharged as a matter of law, assuming the order is complied with.

Subsection (e) is the payoff. The defendant is exonerated of guilt and stands discharged as a matter of law as soon as the terms of probation are completed, or as soon as the court releases the defendant early under § 42-8-37 or the related early-release provisions.

Subsection (d) is the trapdoor. The court may enter an adjudication of guilt and sentence the defendant as otherwise provided by law if the defendant violates the terms of first offender probation, is convicted of another crime during the first offender sentence, or turns out not to have been eligible for the treatment in the first place.

What is a no contest plea?

A no contest plea is a plea of nolo contendere. The defendant does not admit guilt and does not contest the charge, and the court may go ahead and sentence on it.

Georgia’s first offender statute treats it as equivalent for its own purposes: § 42-8-60(a) lists a nolo contendere plea beside a guilty plea and a guilty verdict as a basis on which the court may defer proceedings and impose a first offender sentence.

Other Georgia statutes are less forgiving. The sheriff qualification statute, § 15-16-1, says at subsection (c)(1)(F) that a nolo contendere plea to a felony or to an offense involving moral turpitude has the same effect as a plea of guilty for the purpose of disqualifying a person from holding the office of sheriff.

What did Officer José Carvajal say in court?

Carvajal recounted the confrontation publicly for the first time since it happened.

Speaking to Henderson, he said “you disparaged me” and called him “a disgrace to the badge,” Atlanta News First reported.

Henderson did not address the court.

What started the case against the Towns County sheriff?

It begins with body-camera recordings from a night in December 2024, when a Towns County deputy had been shot. The recordings reached Atlanta News First on an exclusive basis, through chief investigator Brendan Keefe.

On the video, the sheriff shoves and then arrests Hiawassee police officer José Carvajal in the middle of that scene. Carvajal had accidentally picked up the wounded deputy’s gun, and Henderson accused him of tampering with evidence.

Deputies standing at the scene can be heard criticizing the sheriff’s conduct out loud.

How did the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association get involved?

After the first report aired, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association called for an investigation and sent the Governor a link to it.

Gov. Brian Kemp suspended Henderson from the office later in 2025. The suspension held right up to Monday, when the resignation emptied the seat.

Why did the first indictment fall apart?

His defense attorney established that one of the grand jurors who returned it was living across the state line, in North Carolina.

A Georgia grand jury is a county body, seated from that county’s own pool. The defect went to who sat on the panel, not to the allegations, and the charging document was withdrawn earlier this year.

A new Towns County grand jury returned identical charges in May.

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What is the timeline of the case?

How does Georgia suspend a sitting sheriff?

Two separate machines exist, and the case ran through both.

The sheriff-specific one is O.C.G.A. § 15-16-26. When the Governor decides a sheriff should be investigated over criminal charges, alleged misconduct in office or alleged incapacity, he appoints two sheriffs who belong to the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association; together with the Attorney General they form a committee. It reports back within 30 days. If it recommends suspension, the Governor may suspend the sheriff for up to 60 days, with one 30-day extension available.

Subsection (c) also lets the Governor ask the district attorney of the sheriff’s home county to bring a removal petition under § 15-16-10(b), on the evidence the committee reported.

The second machine takes over on a felony indictment. Subsection (e) of § 15-16-26 says so in one line: upon indictment for a felony, § 45-5-6 applies.

Under § 45-5-6, the prosecutor sends a certified copy of the indictment to the Governor, who appoints a review commission of the Attorney General and two officials holding the same office. The commission reports in writing within 14 days. Only if it recommends suspension may the Governor suspend, and that suspension runs until the final disposition of the case or the end of the term, whichever comes first. A suspended official draws no compensation from the office, and gets it back on reinstatement.

Who runs the sheriff’s office now?

Until Monday the answer came from the suspension statutes. Under § 15-16-26(d), during a suspension the chief judge of the superior court of the sheriff’s home county appoints a person who meets the § 15-16-1 qualifications to carry out the duties. Under § 45-5-6(d)(1), during a felony-indictment suspension a replacement is appointed as provided by whatever general or local law covers a temporary vacancy, and if none applies, the Governor appoints one.

A resignation is a different thing from a suspension. O.C.G.A. § 45-5-1 lists the ways an office in Georgia is vacated, and subsection (a)(2) is resignation, when accepted. That empties the seat rather than freezing it.

Subsection (b) then says the officer or body authorized to fill the vacancy, or to call an election to fill it, acts without needing a court to declare the vacancy first. The ten days’ notice that provision normally requires is not required where the vacancy came from a written resignation.

There is a third route the resignation heads off. Under § 45-5-6(d)(2), upon a final conviction the office of a public official is vacated immediately, without further action, and filled in the manner provided by law.

Can Kenneth Henderson be sheriff again?

He gave up any run for the office for the length of the probation, written for 10 years with an early termination possible at five.

Independent of the agreement, § 15-16-1(c) sets the standing bar for the office. A candidate must be a United States citizen, a resident of the county for at least two years before qualifying, a registered voter, at least 25 years old, and the holder of a high school diploma or an equivalent recognized by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. Fingerprints go to local, state and national files.

Paragraph (F) of that subsection bars anyone convicted of a felony or of an offense involving moral turpitude, and it makes a nolo contendere plea to such an offense carry the same disqualifying effect as a guilty plea.

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Why is the body-camera video still not a public record?

Criminal cases are pending, and Georgia’s open records law carves those out.

Georgia’s O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(4) exempts records of law enforcement, prosecution or regulatory agencies in any pending investigation or prosecution of criminal or unlawful activity, other than initial police arrest reports and initial incident reports.

The same paragraph puts two limits on that exemption. An investigation or prosecution is no longer pending once all direct litigation involving it has become final or otherwise terminated. And the exemption does not reach records held by an agency that is itself the subject of the pending investigation or prosecution.

Henderson was also arrested by the GBI on July 2, 2026 over a separate set of misconduct allegations, Atlanta News First reported.

Where is the case record, and how does a reader get it?

Felony cases in Georgia are filed in superior court, and the clerk of that court is the custodian of the file. Which court took Monday’s pleas has not been stated.

The sentencing order is the document that matters most here. Under § 42-8-60(c)(1) it has to state the prospective date on which Henderson would be exonerated of guilt and discharged as a matter of law.

First offender files are not fully open by default. Section 42-8-60(c)(2) lets the sentencing court limit access to certain information as provided in § 42-8-62.1(b).

Records held by the sheriff’s office and by the prosecutor go through the Open Records Act, subject to the pending-prosecution exemption above.

What don’t we know yet?

What are readers asking about this case?

Did Kenneth Henderson get convicted?
He was sentenced under Georgia’s First Offender Act. Under O.C.G.A. Section 42-8-60, subsection (a), a court takes a plea of guilty or nolo contendere and then defers further proceedings before an adjudication of guilt, without entering a judgment of guilt. Subsection (e) says the defendant is exonerated of guilt and stands discharged as a matter of law once the terms of probation are complete. Subsection (d) says the court may enter an adjudication of guilt if the defendant violates probation, is convicted of another crime during the first offender sentence, or was not eligible for the treatment.

What did Kenneth Henderson plead to?
He pleaded no contest to battery against a law enforcement officer and guilty to buying or selling an item of value by a public official, Atlanta News First reported.

What was the sentence?
Ten years on probation, with early termination possible at the five-year mark. A $1,000 fine. He agreed not to seek the Towns County sheriff’s office while the probation runs, and to have no contact with Hiawassee police officer José Carvajal. He serves no jail time.

What is a no contest plea?
A plea of nolo contendere. The defendant does not admit guilt and does not contest the charge, and the court may sentence on it. O.C.G.A. Section 42-8-60, subsection (a), lists a nolo contendere plea alongside a guilty plea and a guilty verdict as a basis on which a court may impose a first offender sentence.

Is Kenneth Henderson still the sheriff of Towns County?
No. He resigned the office Monday morning, Aug. 24, 2026. O.C.G.A. Section 45-5-1, subsection (a), paragraph (2), says all offices in the state are vacated by resignation, when accepted.

Why did the first indictment against him get withdrawn?
His defense attorney established that one of the grand jurors who returned it was living across the state line in North Carolina. The charging document was pulled earlier this year, and a new Towns County grand jury returned identical charges in May 2026.

Why is the body-camera video still not a public record?
Criminal cases are pending. O.C.G.A. Section 50-18-72, paragraph (a)(4), says disclosure is not required for records of law enforcement, prosecution or regulatory agencies in any pending investigation or prosecution, other than initial police arrest reports and initial incident reports. The same paragraph says a prosecution is no longer pending once all direct litigation involving it has become final or otherwise terminated, and that the exemption does not apply to records held by an agency that is itself the subject of the pending investigation or prosecution.

Can he run for sheriff again?
He gave up any run for the office while the probation runs. Separately, O.C.G.A. Section 15-16-1, subsection (c), sets the qualifications for the office: United States citizenship, two years’ residency in the county before qualifying, registered voter status, an age of at least 25, a high school diploma or a recognized equivalent, and fingerprinting. Paragraph (F) of that subsection bars anyone convicted of a felony or an offense involving moral turpitude, and says a nolo contendere plea to such an offense has the same effect as a plea of guilty.