John Pearson, the husband of WSB-TV anchor Monica Pearson and a former DeKalb County assistant police chief, is in the running for the Clayton County police chief’s job.
“I’m proud and humbled to be in consideration,” Pearson said Wednesday. “It’s early in the process and I want to wait and see how it goes.”
The Clayton County Board of Commissioners is expected to decide on the new chief in coming weeks. County spokeswoman Jamie Carlington said the board hasn't decided on finalists and is not releasing names yet. Tim Robinson is the interim police chief.
The last permanent Clayton County chief was Jeff Turner. The county commission fired Turner in December and reassigned him as director of the Clayton County police academy. The future of that job is uncertain because the commission voted Tuesday night to close the academy to cut costs.
Pearson is an assistant police chief in Hogansville, a town of about 2,900 people an hour south of Atlanta off I-85. The department Web page lists 17 employees.
Pearson left the DeKalb department in mid-2007. He married the former Monica Kaufmann in 2005. WSB-TV is owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, which also owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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