ATLANTA - A special prosecutor told the governor Friday he found no evidence to support charges that Attorney General Thurbert Baker destroyed parole board records or took money for helping a prisoner, as the lawyer for an indicted legislator charged. <br>
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Pete Skandalakis, the district attorney for the Coweta Judicial Circuit, said a former employee of Baker's, Sam Tillman, will be charged with destroying state records, a felony. But Tillman acted alone and without instructions from anyone, the prosecutor said. <br>
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While Baker was a state legislator, he advised the father of a client to have his attorney contact the Board of Pardons and Paroles about an educational reprieve for his son, Skandalakis said. <br>
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However, the prosecutor said he found no link between that and a contribution to Baker from the father's business because the money came two years after the clemency board rejected the father's request. <br>
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``In conclusion, there is no evidence to indicate that Thurbert Baker acted improperly, interceded on behalf of, solicited or accepted contributions to intercede on behalf of the inmate in question,'' he said. <br>
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Gov. Roy Barnes appointed the special prosecutor in June amid a broadening ethics investigation of the parole board, which resulted in the resignations of two members who were under investigation over allegations they accepted money to lobby legislators for a company that supervises probationers. <br>
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Baker had been handling the investigation, but recused himself after being accused of helping prisoners for money. <br>
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The charges were raised by the attorney for Sen. Van Streat, who faces charges he took a campaign contribution in exchange for helping a convicted murderer get moved to a less secure prison. <br>
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When the attorney claimed Baker had done the same thing, the attorney general recused himself and Skandalakis was named both to prosecute Streat and to investigate the charges against Baker.
