A Burke County man accused of using a missing woman’s credit cards was granted bond Tuesday, May 31.
Judge Amanda Heath said Tuesday that based on what Chadwick H. Washington, 43, is charged with – financial transaction card fraud – and the length of time he has been held in jail since his arrest last September, she believed he was entitled to bond, which she set it at $15,000.
A condition of the bond is for Washington to cooperate with law enforcement in the disappearance of 35-year-old Portia L. Nesbitt last summer. She was reported missing July 26, 2021.
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Two of Nesbitt’s sisters pleaded with the judge not to grant bond. Their sister is still missing, and they fear the worse. She wouldn’t have left home without her personal financial cards, her only source of cash, or her medication.
According to court documents, Washington allegedly used Nesbitt’s financial cards several times on June 1, 2021 and several more times on July 1. He was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with the financial crimes and with possession of cocaine and marijuana. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Washington has a long history of arrests and convictions for domestic violence against the women in his life, beginning in 2003 when he was sentenced to probation in the beating his girlfriend. Months later his probation officer filed a warrant seeking revocation of his probation following new arrests for family violence battery involving another victim in February and again in March 2004.
Although the judge did not revoke Washington’s probation then, the judge did in 2005 when Washington was arrested again for family violence battery. Washington was sent to prison. He was paroled in November 2009.
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In December 2010, he beat up another woman, and, for two days in March 2011, he held her against her will and beat her. One of her eye sockets was broken, both eyes were swollen shut and both ears were torn in March 2011, according to court documents. He was sentenced to a year and half in custody followed by 18½ years of probation for that in June 2012, according to court records.
He was arrested for allegedly beating another woman in 2013, but the case was dropped by the prosecutor. He was arrested in 2016 – for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon – and he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Washington was paroled in February 2019.
After his arrest on the financial crime charges last September, his probation officer filed a petition to revoke his probation sentence. A hearing on that is set for Aug. 9 in Burke County Superior Court.
Anyone with information about Nesbitt’s disappearance is asked to call the Burke County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 554-2133.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
