A Democratic candidate for Alabama governor says the arrest of a campaign worker accused of violating the state’s sex offender registration and notification act was “politically motivated.”

Sue Bell Cobb tells AL.com she accepted Paul Littlejohn III’s resignation Friday. Littlejohn was her campaign’s Jefferson County field director.

As a registered sex offender, he’s charged with working too close to a school or daycare through his work at a church and failing to update his employment status.

Cobb says the warrant was issued after she publicly defended Littlejohn’s character. She says the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is led by a Republican, indicating Republicans don’t want to face her in the general election.

Chief Deputy Randy Christian said Cobb wanted law enforcement “to just look the other way.”

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)