COVINGTON, Ga. (AP) - A newly elected district attorney says he intends to examine a failed plan to build a lake southeast of Atlanta for possible criminal wrongdoing.
Newton County District Attorney Randy McGinley told WAGA-TV that he will review the Bear Creek reservoir project. A financial analysis found the county spent $25 million on the project before commissioners killed it in 2015. No construction ever started, and the county gave some of the land it bought back to the previous owners at no charge. Earlier criminal probes have led to no charges.
Critics blame Tommy Craig, the county commission’s former attorney and water consultant, for the failed venture. Craig’s attorney, Ed Tolley, denied that his client broke any laws.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “In fact, that’s a ridiculous allegation. Every piece of property that was purchased was done with the approval of the sitting county commission.”
Local resident Larry McSwain and other critics repeatedly spoke against the project before commissioners. McSwain said he never believed population projections that justified a second reservoir for the suburbanizing county.
“Every county commissioner basically bought the idea that the reservoir was absolutely necessary no matter what the cost,” McSwain remembered.
After the project was killed, commissioners hired David Sawyer to conduct a forensic analysis of the project. Sawyer said the project was never on track.
“There was no way it was ever going to be approved and to this day it still hasn’t,” Sawyer said.
The report criticizes several of the land deals. Craig suggested the county pay $1.4 million for 200 acres (80 hectares), agreeing to give the land back to the original owner for free if the lake was never built. The county gave back the land, in a transaction Sawyer calls “pretty troubling.”
Sawyer found that the effort was “financially beneficial for Tommy Craig, but certainly not for Newton County,” finding Craig reaped more than $2 million from the effort.
The financial analyst testified before a grand jury and spoke to the FBI, but no charges were filed. McGinley said he may try again.
“I intend on doing a full review of what was turned over to the DA’s office before making my own independent determination of what should happen going forward,” he said.
Tolley said the 71-year-old Craig is recovering from cancer and unable to defend himself publicly. He said Craig won government approval for other reservoirs across the state and was a leading expert in the field.
“I don’t think it was a conflict of interest,” said Tolley. “I understand the argument. Somebody needed to do it. He knew how to do it.”
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