Former economic development director Gary Lee's lawsuit claims that in 2019, Mayor Randy Toms and DA George Hartwig fabricated criminal charges against him.
MACON, Ga. — A federal lawsuit filed by former Warner Robins Economic Development Director Gary Lee argues that criminal charges against him were manufactured by ex-Mayor Randy Toms and former District Attorney George Hartwig.
The lawsuit, which was filed in court on Friday, claims that Lee's report of a false entry in his personnel file lead to something much larger: criminal charges for allegedly falsely reporting a crime.
But Lee's lawsuit reports that charge was dropped in 2023.
The lawsuit says that Lee saw an entry in his file, falsely showing he attended a program for employees dealing with substance abuse. He says that was completely untrue, so it reported it to Toms.
Instead of addressing the entry, Lee says that Toms used his compalint "as a pretext to suspend Mr. Lee, have Mr. Lee indicted, and to have Mr. Lee prosecuted," the lawsuit says.
But the lawsuit says that Toms and former DA Hartwig worked together to bring charges against Lee.
It also says a law clerk working for Hartwig told him there were no grounds for charges — and charging him would likely violate Lee's constitutional rights.
Despite this, the lawsuit says, Hartwig filed charges anyway.
An affidavit filed by the law student said that Hartwig decided to "selective prosecute" Lee.
Lee was later suspended as economic-development director due to...
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