Discipline Warranted
The Georgia Supreme Court accepted as “tantamount to disbarment” a petition for voluntary license surrender
The record shows the following. Hawbaker has been a member of the State Bar since 2013 and has been a member of the Texas Bar since 1979. He is currently incarcerated following his July 2, 2021 guilty pleas in the Superior Court of Spalding County to five felony counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer; he was sentenced on each count to a term of 20 years, serve 10, with the counts to run concurrently. The factual basis for the guilty pleas is that deputies went to Hawbaker’s home on February 4, 2020, to serve an arrest warrant on him for simple assault and disorderly conduct, but Hawbaker refused to leave his home and opened fire on the deputies. Pursuant to the State Bar’s request, this Court appointed a Special Master, see Bar Rule 4-106, and thereafter, Hawbaker submitted his petition for voluntary surrender, admitting that by his convictions he violated GRPC Rule 8.4 (a) (2).
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on the criminal case
A former Spalding County commissioner who opened fire on deputies during a SWAT standoff at his senior living community was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, officials said.
Donald Hawbaker, who represented District 5 on the County Commission, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer in connection with the February 2020 incident.
He was arrested Feb. 4, 2020, after deputies went to the Sun City Peachtree community in Griffin to serve an arrest warrant for simple assault and disorderly conduct, Sheriff Darrell Dix said previously. Hawbaker, now 66, was initially accused of pointing a gun at his wife and telling her to leave their home.
(Mike Frisch)