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The north Georgia sheriff accused of lying to state investigators and hiding evidence to protect two of his deputies charged with a drive-by shooting resigned Tuesday after pleading guilty to four charges related to hindering a state investigation of the shooting.

Towns County Sheriff Rudy Eller, wearing a civilian blazer, pleaded guilty to making false statements in a matter within a political subdivision, tampering with evidence, hindering the apprehension or punishment of a criminal and violation of oath by a public official or officer.

Eller had been charged with lying to state investigators and hiding evidence to protect his employees after a July 9 drive-by shooting by two of his deputies at the home of a Hiawassee resident.

"I knew what happened … and I didn’t tell them what happened," Eller said. "I made a serious mistake, there’s no doubt about it."

Nearly 50 people filled the courtroom’s wooden pews to witness the plea.

"Today is a sad and shameful day for me personally," Eller said later. "It was never my intent to deceive John Cagle and other officers of the GBI who were investigating the case — but I did. It was never my intent to tamper with evidence — but I did."

Outside the courthouse, Eller apologized to the residents of Towns County.

Eller wore an oxygen tube in his nose as he walked from the courtroom but removed it prior to his news conference. Mike Weaver, his attorney, said Eller was suffering from diabetes and other health problems and could not answer other questions.

Weaver said Eller’s sentencing is pending but declined to answer other questions.

Deputy Jessie Gibson, 56, and Chief Deputy Eddie Osborn, 41, faced aggravated assault and obstruction charges in the July 9 shooting at the home of Gary Dean of Hiawassee.

Dean, who was not injured in the shootings, was "involved in an ongoing intimate relationship with Osborn’s wife, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation affidavit.

Eller was later charged with lying to state investigators and hiding evidence to protect his employees.

Gibson was found dead on Aug. 8 of a self-inflicted gunshot in what authorities called an apparent suicide. He left a tape-recorded message for his family. That message has been turned over to state officials, the GBI said.

Hours before Eller’s plea, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office released a report from a state panel recommending that Eller be suspended from office.

Earlier this month, Perdue named a three-person panel including Attorney General Thurbert Baker to investigate the charges and recommend whether the sheriff should be suspended. Sheriff Roger Garrison of Cherokee County and Sheriff Steve Wilson of Walker County made up the rest of the panel.

If Eller had changed his mind and chosen not to resign, Perdue would have made a decision whether to suspend him based on the panel’s recommendation, said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley.

In the report, the panel cited Eller’s admissions that he lied to the GBI and his own staff and said he had expressed little remorse for the cover-up.

It also noted reports that Eller told multiple people that if he had to do it all over again he would do the same thing.

"His comments on doing it again and his lack of remorse are reflective of disdain and contempt for the law and those who seek to enforce it," the report reads.

It says decisions by Eller to fire Gibson but continue to pay Osborn, the admitted shooter, "simply defy reason and common sense."

One resident thought there were better things for authorities to do.

"It’s ironic we get myopically focused into because of a shooting that didn’t hurt anybody," said Stan Raymond, a local real estate agent who attended the courthouse hearing. "I think there’s far too many problems in this country and this state that need to be dealt with. I’m more worried about Iran and the atom bomb than this sheriff."

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