Official Misconduct
Georgia County Officials
Plead Guilty to Fraud, Firearms Charges
Aug-21-07
On Monday August 6, Daniel V. Leccese Sr. resigned as clerk of
the Clinch County superior and state courts entered a guilty plea on
one count of felony mail fraud on Friday. Berrien County
Sheriff Gerald W. “Jerry” Brogdon pleaded guilty to the illegal
sale of firearms the same day. Brogdon's attorney thinks the cases
could be related.
Both pleas come just one month after FBI agents raided the chambers of
Judge Brooks Blitch in South Georgia.
Leccese was one of several Clinch County employees who had been paid,
at the direction of Alapaha Chief Judge Brooks E. Blitch III,
more than $60,000 without the county commission’s knowledge, according
to Clinch County Commission Vice Chairman Barry Hart. Leccese was also
involved in setting up a secret bank account used to hold money
collected by the imposition of fees on criminal defendants throughout
the Alapaha Judicial Circuit.
Hart told the Daily Report that money from the secret bank account was
used to pay county workers and to purchase a computer—all at the
behest of Blitch and without the knowledge of the county commission,.
The Clinch County Commission became aware of the secret bank account
in January.
Blitch is not named in court filings in Leccese’s case. The filings
refer to six co-conspirators who participated with Leccese in
collecting the illegal fees. But Hart told the Daily Report last month
that Blitch issued a Sept. 13, 2001 judicial
order to impose a $10 fee on criminal defendants.
This isn’t the first time that Clinch County officials have faced
legal challenges over imposing illegal fees. A group of former inmates
sued the county and Sheriff Winston Peterson in November 2004 for
imposing a “room and board” fee of $18 per day on pre-trial detainees.
The group reached a settlement with the county, which agreed to repay
$27,000 to inmates who had paid the fees between 2000 and 2004.
Peterson remains the sheriff of Clinch.
Berrien Sheriff Brogdon on Friday pleaded guilty to in U.S. District
Court of the Middle District of Georgia to one felony count of selling
firearms to addicts, felons and fugitives. Brogdon resigned the same
day.
Brogdon’s Court filings do not indicate a link to the Leccese case,
but Brogdon’s attorney, Charles E. Cox Jr. of Macon told the Daily
Report. “I’d be surprised if it was a coincidence”. “I suspect
they were filed at the same time for a reason,” Cox Said.
Leccese was released on his own recognizance and faces up to two years
in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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