“Stan Gunter Is Hereby Charged With Gross Dereliction of Fiduciary Duty”
by PV
Rumors have it that current Enotah Circuit District Attorney Stanley Gunter cannot be bothered with doing his job in enforcing the law against former Union County Tax Commission office employee Joy Griggs, who was terminated in June 2010 for (according to current Tax Commissioner JW Payne) borrowing money from the Union County coffers, admitting to it, and then repaying it all back.
The October 27, 2010 edition of North Georgia News reports that it is DA-elect Jeff Langley (who will not be sworn-in to the office until January 2011) who has declared publicly that he intends to pursue an investigation into Griggs when he takes office in January. He told the News that “…we need a completely nonpolitical, unbiased investigation. My intention is to ask the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to conduct that investigation.”
PV Ponders The Situation-Part 1: Why can current DA Stan Gunter, who has taken an oath to uphold the law, and the Georgia Constitution, just ignore this matter? It has been known since September 2010 of the entire incident when it was printed in the News of what is alleged to have happened…so, where is the current DA (i.e., Stan Gunter) on this matter? Is Gunter exempt from carrying-out his sworn duty because he has to run around the state begging for endorsements to run for Court of Appeals?
PV Ponders The Situation-Part 2: You may recall the Alert sent-out 2 nights ago. In that Alert, we described the fact that back in the mid-1990s, Tax Commissioner JW Payne began taking money from the Union County tax office cash bags and writing IOUs to the tax office. And, he continued this for a few years. Well, we now have more details about that, including evidence of the IOUs themselves.
In 2000, an audit of the Union County Tax Commissioner’s office identified the fact that there was missing money in the amount of $30,000. This is described in the letter from the county attorney to the sole county commissioner back then (click here for copy of letter from 2000)
In 2004, a Republican named Chris Bergen qualified to run against Democrat JW Payne. He took out ads in both of the main newspapers describing in detail the taking of money from the Union County tax funds by JW Payne, and in these ads, included a full description of the acts by Payne, and he included copies of Payne’s IOUs (click here for a copy of those ads from 2004).
Stan Gunter was elected District Attorney in 1998, and has served straight through all those years, and will serve through to the end of 2010, and his circuit covered Union County. Still, Gunter completely ignored the allegations against Payne in 2004 and the proof provided of JW Payne’s printed IOUs. Back then, Gunter was a confirmed Democrat, as was Payne. To us, it would appear to have been a clear cover-up by DA Gunter to protect his fellow Democrat JW Payne. Gunter wasn’t the LEAST bit interested in getting-off his duff and looking into the allegations regarding Payne’s IOUs.
AND, since it is now apparent that the incoming DA (Langley) does have an interest in looking into the current matter of the allegations by current Tax Commissioner JW Payne against Joy Griggs, perhaps Mr. Langley will suggest to the GBI that they look into this documented record of Payne’s IOUs (click here for a PDF of those IOUs written by Payne) to the tax commissioner’s office.
After all, Griggs worked in the office when Payne wrote all his IOUs that totaled $30,000 from 1996 to 2000…and HE got protection from being investigated by Gunter. What else was she to think with regards to the law when she saw Payne get away with it?
Stan Gunter clearly has no clue as to the concept of the equal application of the law. And THIS is the guy some people are really pushing to be the next Court of Appeals’ judge? Puh-leeze!
