QUITMAN —
Nearly two years after a bench trial, a federal judge has found a former Brooks County sheriff guilty of embezzlement and obstruction charges.
U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands found former Brooks Sheriff Richard Chafin guilty of embezzlement from programs receiving federal funds and misleading conduct/obstruction, according to federal court records which were released Friday.
Chafin served for more than two decades as Brooks County’s sheriff, from 1987-2008.
A sentencing date has not been scheduled for Chafin, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case.
Sands’ verdict is a result of a bench trial heard in his court on May 26-27, 2010.
A bench trial means there is no jury. The judge alone must reach a decision of guilty or not guilty. A defendant can request a bench trial.
This case began a few years ago when the GBI’s Thomasville Field office initiated an investigation into “irregularities and expenditures, which occurred with several accounts at the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office and monies received as part of a federal grant, while Chafin was serving as the Brooks County sheriff,” according to a release Friday from GBI Special Agent Steven Turner.
The judge’s ruling found that Chafin, as sheriff, “personally wrote at least 225 checks on the jail commissary account totaling more than $65,000,” according to court documents. The dates are noted as between 2007-08.
Chafin told sheriff’s office employees that the checks were for an informant in a drug investigation; however, he cashed each check at various convenience stores and “used portions of the proceeds to buy lottery tickets which he then scratched off on-site in his vehicle.”
Investigators found no indication that any of the money went to an informant. No other law officers were aware of an informant, according to court documents.
Though Chafin claimed the money was used for a drug informant, the judge found that Chafin’s explanation lacked credibility and proved contrary to other evidence provided at court.
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