Ga. clerk pleads guilty to illegal payments ordered by judge

<p>The court clerk of Clinch County pleaded guilty in federal court to making $73,286 in illegal payments to himself and other county employees as ordered by the chief judge of Georgia's Alapaha Judicial Circuit.</p><p>Daniel Leccese, who entered the plea and resigned as court clerk Friday, is the first person to be prosecuted in a federal investigation of secret payments ordered by Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III that were kept off the county books and never reported to tax authorities.</p><p>Blitch, chief judge of the five-county Alapaha circuit in southern Georgia, was not named in court documents outlining the charges against Leccese. FBI agents executed a search warrant on the judge's office in Homerville, the county seat, on June 26.</p><p>Also, court documents say Leccese had six unnamed co-conspirators, including one who ordered the illegal payments Sept. 13, 2001. That's the date Blitch signed a court order assessing an additional $10 in court fees on criminal defendants to fund monthly stipends paid to Leccese and other county employees, according to Clinch County records reviewed by The Associated Press.</p><p>"This has just hit us all and we're trying to work through it," said Barry Hart, vice chairman of the Clinch County commission. "Who are the co-conspirators? There are some nervous people around here, I imagine."</p><p>Blitch began ordering the payments a month after Clinch County commissioners voted in August 2001 to stop paying employees extra for supervising misdemeanor probationers in addition to their full-time duties.</p><p>Instead, the commission hired a private contractor to handle probation cases. Blitch's order reinstated the monthly employee stipends of $250 to $300 that the commissioners had voted to discontinue.</p><p>The payments continued for nearly six years until January, when Leccese told Clinch County commissioners about the stipends for the first time. Commissioners alerted authorities after a June 8 audit showed the payments had never been reported for tax purposes.</p><p>The audit showed Leccese and four other county employees were paid from the secret account in which the clerk deposited the court fees.</p><p>Deputy court clerk Melinda Davis, who has taken over Leccese's job since he resigned, was paid $24,655. Sissy Suggs, a deputy sheriff, received $20,845.</p><p>Two other county employees, Libby Brown and Sherry Booth, were paid lesser amounts, according to the audit. Brown received $3,650 and Booth was paid $400.</p><p>A woman who answered the phone at Blitch's office Monday said the judge had no comment. His attorney, Robert Willis, did not immediately return a phone call from the AP.</p><p>Leccese is the only suspect charged in connection with the payments.</p><p>Leccese pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Macon to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Prosecutors say the clerk used the U.S. mail to collect the fees used to illegally pay himself $17,705 and to pay the rest to other co-conspirators.</p><p>"Entering this plea was the appropriate action for me to take," Leccese said in his resignation letter mailed Friday to Gov. Sonny Perdue.</p><p>Under Georgia law, Leccese had to resign from elected office because the charge he pleaded guilty to is a felony.</p><p>Leccese faces up to two years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. He will be sentenced later.</p><p>Maxwell Wood, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, had no comment on Leccese's plea Monday, said his spokeswoman, Sue McKinney. Leccese's attorney, Howard Slocumb, declined comment.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/8/92952