The Macon Police Department announced Wednesday night it has formally taken over the criminal investigation of an alleged rape at Northeast High School on January 19.
In another development, Bibb County District Attorney Greg Winters said he would seek to indict three juveniles charged in the case as adults. Seven suspects are charged in all.
Winters said one suspect will have a court hearing today at the Bibb County jail.
Arrest warrants identify the adult suspects as Greg L. Watkins, 17; Antonio Deaundry Jackson, 18; Jimmie Lee McKnight, 17, and Ashley J. Clark, 17.
The unidentified juveniles are two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-old.
Until now, the Bibb school district's campus police had controlled the investigation. On Tuesday, superintendent Romain Dallemand said he had been unaware until Monday that campus police -- not Macon police -- were investigating the case.
A Macon police news release says the police department's Criminal Investigations division will carry out the investigation.
Dallemand said Tuesday that interim campus police chief Stephanie Prater had made the decision not to turn the case over to Macon police.
On Wednesday we learned that Prater has been replaced as interim chief.
A dispatcher with the department said Prater was not on the job Wednesday.
In response to our questions, Bibb County Schools spokeswoman Alisha Allen-Carter said in an email later Wednesday, "Sgt. Ulric Bellaire is the Interim Chief. Chief Prater was placed on leave yesterday pending the completion of an investigation."
She would not specify whether Prater's leave is related to the rape case, or whether Prater is being paid while on leave,
"I will comment no further. This is a personnel matter," wrote Allen-Carter.
On Tuesday, Dallemand acknowledged "gaps" in the investigation and apologized because the school system had not informed parents about the alleged rape.