Police: Glenn Richardson threatened suicide

• CL File/Joeff Davis

Paulding County Sheriff’s deputies were recently called to the home of former House Speaker Glenn Richardson after he threatened to commit suicide, the AJC reports.

Richardson’s suicide threat followed a domestic dispute in Atlanta the night of Aug. 5, according to an incident report obtained by the AJC through an Open Records request.

After the domestic dispute, Richardson, 50, told an Atlanta police officer over the phone that “he was going to Hiram to end all of his problems and would kill himself,” the report states. The domestic dispute took place in Atlanta, though the Paulding police report did not provide a specific address.

When a Paulding officer arrived at Richardson’s home in Hiram, a person at the home told the officer he took the pistol away after Richardson pressed it to his head. The man, whose identity was not immediately clear, told the officer that Richardson was in the bathroom, threatening to harm himself. When the officer approached Richardson, he responded that he “was not going to hurt himself or anybody else.”

Officers responded to a similar call late last year. Richardson later disclosed he was distraught over the break-up of his marriage and suffered from depression.

The former Paulding County politico, who for years was one of the state’s most powerful men, resigned in disgrace last December after his ex-wife revealed details of his alleged affair with a utility lobbyist. The interview with Fox 5’s Dale Russell caused a shift of power in the lower chamber and led to some — but not nearly enough — ethics reform under the Gold Dome.