World Courant
The mayor of a small city in Georgia faces felony fees alleging that he illegally stashed a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state jail work crew to entry.
Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, 52, was indicted on Wednesday and arrested by Georgia Bureau of Investigation brokers on felony fees of furnishing prohibited gadgets to inmates and try to commit a felony, WRDW-TV reported.
The indictment, issued in McDuffie County Superior Courtroom, accuses Cranford of driving to a retailer on June 3, buying a bottle of Seagram’s Additional Dry Gin and leaving it in a ditch alongside Cobbham Street in Thomson, Georgia, within the path of a piece crew of state prisoners from the Jefferson County Correctional Establishment.
Thomson Police requested the GBI on June 6 to research allegations that Cranford offered alcohol to inmates.
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Thomson Mayor Benjamin Cary Cranford, 52, faces fees of furnishing prohibited gadgets to inmates and try to commit a felony. (McDuffie County Jail)
Cranford was taken into custody at Thomson Metropolis Corridor by GBI brokers following a metropolis council assembly and booked into the McDuffie County Jail, in line with WRDW-TV. He was launched Wednesday on $5,000 bail.
“As we perceive the costs on this case usually are not associated to Mr. Cranford’s duties as an elected official, we would not have a remark,” metropolis spokesperson Jason Smith stated in an announcement.
Cranford may very well be topic to suspension from workplace till the costs are resolved if a panel recommends to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp that the costs may hinder Cranford’s skill to function mayor. Another officers had beforehand been suspended once they had been slapped with felony fees that weren’t straight associated to their workplace.
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Cranford was taken into custody at Thomson Metropolis Corridor by GBI brokers following a metropolis council assembly. (istock)
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The mayor took workplace earlier this 12 months after defeating incumbent Kenneth Usry within the election final 12 months.
Earlier this month, Cranford, a former paving contractor, settled a lawsuit filed months earlier than he ran for workplace accusing him of trying to cover belongings from a bonding firm that was stepping in to pay a few of Cranford’s firm’s money owed amid monetary troubles to make sure large-scale initiatives undertaken by Cranford’s firm could be accomplished.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
