Court documents show Bannister made deal with jury

LAWRENCEVILLE - Former Gwinnett County Chairman Charles Bannister agreed to step down earlier this month if a grand jury would not indict him on criminal charges, court documents released Tuesday show.

In a grand jury report, the jurors accepted Bannister's resignation as the ``appropriate solution'' to the situation rather than returning an indictment, which the jurors say would only have prolonged his removal from office.

Bannister was facing a charge of making false statements, which could have carried a sentence of up to a decade in prison.

``The Grand Jury weighed the possible outcomes. If we had returned an indictment then removal from office would have depended upon the outcome of the criminal trial. The Grand Jury decided that assured, permanent removal from office was the appropriate solution to one of the problems we uncovered in our investigation,'' the report states.

The document criticizes the county's land purchasing policies, which allow the board to defer to the commissioner who represents the area in question. The grand jury said the practice is ``at the root of the problems with each land transaction we examined.''

The grand jury began investigating county parkland purchases after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on five purchases that were based on questionable appraisals.

The report had been sealed by the court but was released after it was leaked to the media. Fox 5 Atlanta was the first to report on it.

Bannister resigned Oct. 8 after making the deal with the grand jury.
Bannister did not return a call for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The report does not address the indictment handed down last week for county commissioner Kevin Kennerly, who is charged with accepting a bribe from a developer wanting a favorable deal in a county land purchase. Kennerly has said he won't resign before his term ends in December.