District 4 Augusta Commissioner Sammy Sias did not respond to phone calls Wednesday regarding the two-count indictment handed down Wednesday by a federal grand jury, but several of his colleagues said they were disappointed in him.
Sammie Sias Indictment by augustapress on Scribd
District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett said in a statement released by text, “I am disappointed in my colleague for the alleged charges of covering up documentation related to his investigation.”
MORE: Sias Investigation Continues
District 3 Commissioner Catherine Smith-McKnight was quick to call for Sias to step down immediately and said this latest turn of events only strengthens her case calling for a city wide audit including the financial inconsistencies in the Mayor’s Office and other departments.
“I did not get elected to make friends, and I refuse to go along with the majority who want to sweep this stuff under the rug. Now that there is an actual indictment, I think all of the commissioners should agree to a real forensic audit from top to bottom,” McKnight said.
[adrotate banner=”54″]
District 6 Commissioner Ben Hasan declined to comment for the moment.
“With all due respect, I just can’t comment on this right now,” Hasan said in a Wednesday afternoon phone call.
The commissioners were responding to the Wednesday release of a two-count federal grand jury indictment of Sias on charges of destroying records and lying to federal investigators researching the case, according to a press release from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
The charges stem from an FBI and GBI raid conducted in August 2019 at Sias’ home. Investigators seized computers and boxes of documents.
Augusta/Richmond County commissioners requested the investigation in July 2019 after receiving a letter from Sias’ former lover and employee who accused him of sexual misconduct, mistreating children at the Jamestown Community Center and taking $10,000 of SPLOST funds. The woman, Willa Hilton, worked for Sias at the city-owned Jamestown community center.
Hilton also alleged that Sias drank alcohol, packed a firearm, verbally-abused summer campers and watched porn on the job.
According to Hilton’s letter, Sias submitted forged invoices for repair work at the center that were paid out of SPLOST funds. He is also alleged to have written himself checks payable to “cash” out of those same tax funds.
While the indictments were filed by the federal court on Wednesday, Sias has not been arrested or arraigned on the charges. That will come at a future date.
[adrotate banner=”29″]
The indictment alleges that on or about Aug. 5, 2019, Sias “did knowingly alter, destroy, mutilate, conceal, and coverup records, documents and other objects, to wit, digital files belonging to Sandridge Community Association (SCA), which included invoices, spreadsheets, work orders, payments, agendas, minutes, financial reports and other documentation of Jamestown Community Center (Jamestown), Jamestown Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), SCA Board of Directors, SCA Summer Camp, with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation and proper administration of a federal criminal grand jury investigation.”
Opinion: Dragging Out Investigation Is Not Fair to Sammy Sias or to Augusta
The second count of the indictment alleges that on or about Aug. 9, 2019, Sias “did willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement and representation in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, an agency of the United States,” when Sias told an FBI special agent that he had provided all electronic and paper files in his possession related to the investigation.
According to Barry Paschal, spokesman for the Acting U.S. Attorney David Estes for the Southern District of Georgia, the charges against Sias carry a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Possible Penalty of Sammie Sias Indictment by augustapress on Scribd
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
