Photo by John Disney/Daily Report
Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brian Rickman says his office will work with the GBI to pursue criminal charges in connection with the theft of more than $600,000 from the City of Demorest.
“We will follow the law,” Rickman says. “There’s no question that both the GBI and my office want to see accountabiity but those decisions will be based on what we can prove, not what we suspect.”
Strong suspicions of insider theft have circulated for two years since money was first discovered missing from the city’s water fund. Those suspicions were bolstered Tuesday night when the city released the results of its 6-month long internal investigation into the missing funds.
VIDEO: Demorest releases investigation results
The report, issued by Eason Investigations of Cumming, Georgia, rules out the possibility of human or computer error. It cites former Mayor Malcom Hunnicutt and former City Manager Juanita Crumley for poor management practices and lax financial controls and states, “The apparent disregard for their fiduciary responsibility contributed to an atmosphere ripe for theft and corruption.”
The report offers several examples of this, including overloaded cash drawers and city leaders’ failure to act on repeated audit recommendations:
“Employees described having to request the City Manager to make a deposit because they could stuff no more money into the file cabinet drawer where it was maintained. Deposits would sometimes exceed $100,000.00 at a time and much of this was in cash.”
“The lack of the City of Demorest management response to their own annual audits and the failure to follow the recommendations of the audits, as well as poor business practices, contributed to the loss of funds.”
The report also states that, of the city officials interviewed by the GBI, Hunnicutt was the only one who declined to take a polygraph.
While Eason’s report offers some explanations as to how the money was apparently stolen, it does not offer definitive evidence as to who stole it. That, says Rickman, is what his office needs to move the case forward. “Nobody’s been charged. Nobody’s been arrested,” he stresses. “I’ve prosecuted public corruption cases before. We’re bound by evidence, the rules of evidence and what we can walk into a courtroom and prove.”
As for current Demorest Mayor Rick Austin’s call for a special grand jury to consider evidence in the case, it appears that’s unlikely to happen. Still, Rickman insists, “The case is certainly still open. Anything in the private investigative report they (GBI) can follow up on, they will.” He adds, “I want to see the case resolved. We want to see accountability for what’s happened.”
