You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#142 in a series)

Information about this one has been hard to find. Mike the Musicologist sent me a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the stories I turned up in Internet searches seem to be lightly rewritten from that.

Pearson, Georgia is a small town, with a population of 1,821 per the 2020 census. Robert “Buster” Johnson is the mayor.

“Buster” was busted yesterday.

I’m just going to quote the list of charges here:

  • Criminal Attempt to Commit Hindering or Apprehension or Punishment of Criminal
  • 3 counts of Influencing Witnesses
  • Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Statements and Writings
  • Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Official Certificates or Writings by Officers or Employees of a State and Political Subdivision
  • 2 counts of False Statements and Writings
  • Criminal Attempt to Commit Theft by Taking
  • Conspiracy in Restraint of Free and Open Competition
  • 4 counts of Conspiracy to Defraud State and Political Subdivision
  • Theft by Deception
  • 3 counts of Bribery
  • 2 counts of Theft by Taking
  • Fraud, Forgery, and Theft in Connection with Registration of Title to Land
  • Filing False Documents
  • 4 counts of Violation of Oath of Office by Public Officer

Go big or go home, you know? Also, “Violation of Oath of Office by Public Officer”? Didn’t know that was a crime in Georgia, or anywhere else, but I fully support the existence of this as a criminal charge.

Any public officer who willfully and intentionally violates the terms of his oath as prescribed by law shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

So what the heck happened? As I said previously, details are hard to come by, but the GBI press release says:

The investigation began when the Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office received complaints of Mayor Johnson participating in fraudulent activities. The District Attorney subsequently requested the GBI to look into these allegations. During the investigation, agents uncovered a scheme to have an incarcerated person released from jail through fraudulent documentation, obtaining kickbacks from city contracts, theft of municipal land, and bribery of city employees.

Here’s a story from WALB, which doesn’t add much, except that some folks don’t like Buster.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 7th, 2025 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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