MACON, Ga. (AP) - An incoming district attorney in middle Georgia is questioning how the outgoing prosecutor is distributing seized gambling money.
Anita Reynolds Howard, soon to be district attorney in the Macon Judicial Circuit, has filed a court motion to stop outgoing District Attorney David Cooke from sending millions to agencies around the state. Howard beat Cooke in a June Democratic primary and faces no opposition in November.
Howard tells WMAZ-TV that Cooke’s office illegally distributed more than $5 million, some of which she says should have stayed in Bibb, Peach, and Crawford counties, the three counties that make up the circuit.
Howard wants agencies elsewhere to give the money back so it can be “legally and properly disbursed.”
“It’s detrimental to the office, but my main concern is it’s detrimental to Bibb, Crawford, and Peach counties, to the community,” she said.
A Bibb County judge signed an order on Sept. 21, listing money from a July 2019 gambling raid case that would be distributed to a dozen judicial circuits and law enforcement agencies. Howard said the local prosecutor’s office should keep some of the money to pay for work lawyers did.
“We’ve been raised with the idea of you get the fruits of your labor,” Howard said.
The money was taken from businesses and their owners where law enforcement last year found illegal gambling. For years, Cooke has donated money from similar cases to law enforcement agencies and other community programs.
Cooke said he’s already distributed a previous batch of money from this 2019 case. In a February order, the Macon Judicial Circuit received 55 percent of the funds. Cooke said his office got $3 million then.
“Had Ms. Howard bothered to reach out to the attorneys involved in this case before attacking the judge’s order, she would have learned that the order was correct and that the first three million dollars from this case went directly to the DA’s office for the benefit of our community,” Cooke said in a statement. “Unfortunately, she instead chose to play politics and smear the very office she will soon lead.”
Howard claims Cooke ignored Georgia law by distributing the funds in September, citing a law that says a district attorney can’t send any of civil forfeiture proceedings to any other agency after losing an election. She said she believes Cooke retaliated against her for defeating him in June by handing out all that money to other counties.
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