George Hulsey, of Milledgeville, a recent graduate of the Parental Accountability Court (PAC) program, served as guest speaker during last month’s graduation ceremony in Eatonton.

EATONTON, Ga. — Eight more dads who reside in the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit are now graduates of the state’s Parental Accountability Court (PAC).

A special graduation ceremony recently was held in the Putnam County Superior Courtroom in Eatonton to honor them and present them with certificates, and other gifts.

An estimated 80 people, including family members and friends, attended the ceremony, as did three of the Superior Court judges within the circuit. They included Chief Judge Brenda H. Trammell, Judge Alison T. Burleson, and Judge Stephen A. Bradley. Several other officials and representatives of the local PAC also attended the ceremony.

The eight graduates included: James Brock, Gregory Burke, Bashum Carter, Clarence Hill, George Hulsey, Mel-Juwan Lewis, Marcus Mathis, and Michael Peek. Brock was the only graduate who was unable to attend because of a work conflict.

“This is the part of the program that we love the most and that people who support this program love the most because we celebrate the accomplishments of those who have been successful,” Burleson said immediately after she welcomed everyone.

Trammell followed her and introduced the guest speaker, George Hulsey.

“When I first met him, instead of thinking about him giving a speech today, and speaking that I was going to put him under the jailhouse,” Trammell recalled.

The chief judge said she came very close to doing such when it came to George Hulsey, of Milledgeville.

“His attitude at that particular time, for those of you who know me know how well I like attitudes, did not go very well,” Trammell said. “But we were able to get past that.”

The chief judge said Holsey was one of the most willing to do anything he was asked to do.

Instead of spending life in jail, Hulsey completely turned his life around.

Hulsey began his comments about his personal journey through the PAC program with a prayer.

“From a young age, I was an out-of-control drug addict,” Hulsey said. “I was hateful, and I was miserable. And I was going to try to do my best to make everybody feel a little worse that I did.”

He said if someone had told him he was going to standing there in front of a lot of people and sharing things about his life with them he would not have been the only one needing a drug test.

“At the age of 17, I had a daughter on the way,” Hulsey said. “And in my mind if I worked to help her and her mama financially, I could do just as I pleased.”

He discovered early on that it only created what he described was a rocky relationship between him and his mother.

Hulsey said he and his daughter’s mother eventually separated but his drug use continued.

He said even though he was working to pay child support, he wasn’t taking care of other responsibilities – like spending time with his daughter and establishing a quality father-daughter relationship.

By simply pay child support, Hulsey said he thought he was a good daddy.

“I paid my child support, but I was in denial about a lot of things back then,” Hulsey said.

As time went by, he became deeper and deeper involved with his drug addiction.

And weekends with his daughter became less and less.

It eventually led to him not getting visits with her at all.

Hulsey said when he lost his good paying job, his child support payments stopped.

“And pretty much all of my contact with my daughter was gone,” he said. “And that just led to more drug use and put me somewhere I wouldn’t wish on anybody.”

Warrants for his arrest and jail time eventually came his way.

Hulsey said he was hopeless and his life was completely out of control at the time, and he didn’t see a way out.

While sitting in jail, Hulsey said he was offered an opportunity to go into a rehabilitation program.

He said it ended up changing his life forever.

“I started having a relationship with the Lord and forever reasons he saw fit that I didn’t have to live like that anymore,” Hulsey said.

He immediately began learning about Jesus Christ.

“I couldn’t understand why he thought someone like me needed love,” Hulsey said. “I don’t think I was deserving of it. I thought I had gotten just what I deserved.”

Jesus Christ saw differently, though.

“I gave my life to Jesus Christ,” Hulsey said.

Before long, he was baptized.

He said pointed out that time was itched in his memory forever.

“I had this peace about me that I had never had,” he said. “I had spent so much time being this hateful person that wouldn’t nobody going to mess with. And I knew I had finally made it when my daughter told me she was scared of me.”

During the course of rehab, Hulsey said he did as he was supposed to do.

He also started going to church.

“I also began trying to dig myself out of this deep hole that I had made with child support,” Hulsey said, noting he had been his own worse enemy many times in his life.

“Amen,” Trammell was overheard saying in the courtroom.

The judge offered him an opportunity to become a participant in the PAC program.

“I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t care as long as I didn’t have to go back to jail,” Hulsey said.

Again, he said he found himself being a selfish individual, and believing he knew everything.

He said he became determined to jump through whatever hoops he had to in order to keep the judge and others off his back.

“But I was wrong,” Hulsey said. “What I didn’t expect to find was people who cared about me.”

He learned those people were willing to help him in any way they could.

“I can honestly say that this program has made me a better man, and a better father,” Hulsey said. “Everyone needs people like Dr. (James) Marlowe, and Ms. (Zaccino) Holmes to encourage and teach them how to live and how to love. They have been such an inspiration and driving force to live a life with integrity and to help other folks.”

Marlowe has worked closely with PAC officials for several years,, while Holmes serve as PAC coordinator.

He expressed his gratitude to both of them during his public comments.

Hulsey said even though he had a rough time of it sometimes in PAC that Dr. Marlowe never once gave up on him.

“I know that the books and the lessons that you teach are important,” Hulsey told Marlow. “But it wasn’t the books that helped me. I learned most from the ways that you cared about people, Dr. Marlowe. “Your patience is like no one I’ve ever met.”

Hulsey described Marlowe as a man of God with a heart to serve.

During the graduation exercise that followed, each one of the judges mentioned something special about the eight most recently graduated members of the PAC program.

Trammell, meanwhile, was honored for her years of service to the PAC program by the Georgia Department of Human Services.

DCSS Assistant Deputy Commissioner John Hurst presented Trammell with a token of appreciation for her dedication to the program since becoming judge.

Hurst praised the PAC program within the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.

Since the program’s inception in 2015, the program has served 278 participants and a total of 675 children had received more than $1.1 million in child support payments.

“That’s outstanding,” Hurst told those who attended the PAC graduation ceremony.

He noted that only a handful of judicial circuits involved with the PAC program had actually surpassed the million dollar mark.

Since 2009, more than $25 million has been collected across the state in child support payments for more than 15,350 children.

PAC is a joint project of the Georgia Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) and Superior Court judges that offers an alternative to incarceration and help for those not paying child support.