A former Georgia Police Academy instructor was sentenced to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole this week after pleading guilty to molesting a 14-year-old girl in Walton County, officials said.
Samuel Ray Ham, 59, pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation, three counts of aggravated sexual battery and grooming of a minor, according to the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. After his prison time, he will be on probation for the rest of his life.
Ham was arrested in April at a Waffle House in Walton County. He was accused of sexually abusing the teenager between April 2023 and March 2025 and fired from the Georgia Police Academy a day after his arrest.
A grand jury heard the case in June and Ham was arraigned shortly after.
“It cannot be ignored that the defendant was a former, longtime law enforcement officer, including in high level positions,” DA Randy McGinley said in a statement. “And those in law enforcement are in a position of trust in our communities, especially when it comes to protecting children.”
The GPA is part of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, which teaches specialized advanced law enforcement courses to officers in the field. Ham worked as the agency’s division director.
He was hired in July 2024 after spending more than a year as director of the state Department of Juvenile Justice’s Office of School Safety. He had previously served more than six years as an investigator with DJJ, which oversees the state’s secure facilities for troubled youth.
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