DeKalb Commissioner Has Warrant For Arrest, But Isn’t Arrested
Decatur Metro | January 21, 2010UPDATE III: The only new piece of info I can find in this morning’s hard-copy iteration of this story is this…
Other DeKalb County commissioners said they were unaware of the warrants and could not comment.
UPDATE II: Weirder still! The AJC updates the article for a third time and NOW the lawyer’s claim of identity fraud is gone. Instead we have this statement from Sutton…
Sutton said she paid Costco the outstanding money late Thursday and her attorney had the warrants dropped.
“We paid them all the money that is due,” Sutton said. “This is just very unfortunate and embarrassing. This is a reminder that we all need to pay very close attention to your banking transactions because this could happen to anyone.”
Uh yeah, thanks for the tip. Still no explanation as to why the Gwinnett judge recalled the warrants. Hopefully the AJC won’t let this drop.
UPDATE: The story just got a lot weirder. Sutton’s lawyer is now claiming identity fraud is to blame for 4 bounced checks to CostCo and the charges were cleared by a Gwinnett judge this afternoon. How Sutton was able to prove identity fraud so quickly, we don’t know. Also, Sutton has a bit of a history and I’m a bit unclear how she wouldn’t be aware of this issue.
After the warrants were issued last year, the Gwinnett deputies contacted Sutton via mail. They then forwarded the information to DeKalb law enforcement, which is the normal procedure when a warrant is for a suspect outside Gwinnett, Powell said.
Court records show Sutton also had previous problems with bad checks. In 1996, she pleaded no contest in Gwinnett to writing bad checks to West Building Supply in Stone Mountain.
Sutton said the 1996 charges happened after she “accidentally” overdrew her account.
For my intro blurb to this AJC story, just imagine me throwing my hands up in the air along with a lot of head-shaking and eye-rolling.
A DeKalb County commissioner has four outstanding warrants for writing bad checks in Gwinnett County.
DeKalb Police learned about the warrants for Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton’s arrest on Wednesday night when she was involved in a crash on LaVista Road, according to police report.
However, she was not arrested.
Let me be the first to say “WHHAAAA??”
Ms. Sutton better start determining how she will counter her opponent’s “Vote For Me! I’ve Never Been Arrested!” tactics during her next re-election cycle.
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Not a warrant, but four of them! For writing bad checks? Really? Not only that it happened in ’96 as well. Sketchy all the way around.
Good point Andrew!
“Ms. Sutton, we could arrest you four times, but instead I think we’ll just let you go.”
I wonder if there was a “Do you know who I am?” moment…
Dekalb is pretty big as public safety force goes, I think there would HAVE to be a “Do you know who I am?” moment since I am sure 75% of the police wouldn’t recognize anyone on the commission…
Can’t say i’m surprised they didn’t arrest her.
It pays to Discover.
Oh, but her lawyer says it may be identity theft. I guess she stole the identity of a County Commissioner.
Oh man. This story just got weirder. If you read it earlier, when it had few details, I encourage you to read it again.
awesome. in every sense
The warrants were cleared by a Gwinnett magistrate judge, which is where they were issued. No explanation as to why.
Steve, the evolution of this article is just as interesting as the story itself! Claims of identity fraud are now suspiciously absent from the article.
Funny, she is a business teacher in the DeKalb County School System.
Geez. Eyes rolling.
DM, shouldn’t the AJC note the article changes when they change it? I notice AP and other sources do that.
I was wondering the same thing Nellie. I’ll shoot the AJC reporter a note and see what she says. Worth a shot.
Sorry, but my favorite part of this is that she’s on the Budget Committee.
That is too funny because as you can tell from the article, she’s so great with money and budgeting.
“We paid them all the money that is due,” Sutton said.
The royal ‘we’!!!! LOL
I’ve added another small update to the original post. The only new piece of info provided in this morning’s hard copy version of the story is…
“Other DeKalb County commissioners said they were unaware of the warrants and could not comment.”
Since when did ignoring a court’s arrest warrant fall under an officer’s discretion?
Since a supervisor signed off on the officer’s release of her (i.e., agreed to take the heat if it came back on them).
The supervisor is a police official. An arrest warrant is a court order to police. Where did the authority to defy a court order come from? I am more concerned about this aspect than the commissioner’s behavior.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/gbi-official-questions-dekalb-281346.html
“DeKalb court records show she also has had her wages as a DeKalb school teacher garnished for an outstanding debt to a car financing company.”
So in addition to the Costco four warrants, and bad checks in ’96, she also had to have her wages garnished. And she is one of seven people who votes on the DeKalb operating budget of close to $600 million per year. And she teaches business for the DeKalb School System. This story keeps getting better.
At this point I must refer viewers to the posts at:
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2010/01/22/the-evolving-42nd-district-ga-senate-race/#comments
Really!?