Former Augusta Judicial Circuit Senior Superior Court Judge Carl Brown resigned amid a Judicial Qualifying Committee investigation that included allegations of nepotism involving his daughter, Dacara Brown, according to recent media reports.
Dacara Brown is an attorney and grant writer for the Augusta Juvenile Court. She has denied receiving any payments over and above her Augusta Commission-approved annual salary of $59,000.
Payroll records obtained from the Augusta Finance Department show nine additional payments labeled as “retro dollars” or “additional-pay” between April 12, 2019 and June 5, 2020.
After Dacara Brown was confronted with the payroll records, she stated that she was misquoted and that when she was previously referring to her regular salary, she meant that supplements were included as her regular pay.
In February 2019, Judge Carl Brown, at the request of Juvenile Court Chief Judge Doug Flanagan, asked the Augusta Commission to approve raises totaling $41,000, for all Juvenile Court employees, including Dacara Brown, who received roughly a $10,000 annual raise.
She stated that the payments were to increase her regular salary because Judge Flanagan was not happy with the raises.
MORE: Analysis: Questions Remain About Judge’s Daughter’s Pay
“I get paid one-third of what I should. But that’s not news. Quite clearly, even with the supplements I am underpaid,” Dacara Brown said.
The Augusta Commission never approved supplemental payments for Juvenile Court personnel, however, and Georgia law requires the vote of a governing body for employee raises. State law does not allow public employees to receive non-merit-based raises or bonuses.
According to Augusta Finance Director Donna Williams, the payments were requested and approved by Judge Flanagan. The last supplemental payment of $18,700 was made just a month after Flanagan died in May of 2020, Williams confirmed.
“I am not the only other person that receives supplements” Dacara Brown said, “but the others increase their salaries.”
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Dacara Brown went on to state that the only person who could explain all of what happened with the payments was Judge Flanagan.
Williams said Flanagan might not have personally signed his signature on the supplemental payments to Dacara Brown, but he authorized the payments. When Flanagan died, the supplemental payments stopped.
Judge Flanagan, who authorized the supplemental pay, was battling cancer during the time, and sources in the court system who wish to not be named say that Flanagan was in no state to be signing off on expenditures, legal or otherwise.
The last payment to Dacara Brown was apparently authorized by Flanagan nearly a month after he died.
Dacara Brown also explained further that local attorney Church Evans temporarily replaced Judge Flaganan, but the post was later filled by Judge Johnson.
“That’s when all of the hoopla started with the witch hunt, and they scared poor Judge Johnson,” Dacara Brown said. “They beat up on him so bad that I don’t blame him. They threatened him and his practice about me. He didn’t even know about the supplements. They dared him to sign another one. My gag order is up so I can pretty much say it. I don’t blame him.”
According to the city paycheck registry, the extra payments were not entered as regular pay.
“My salary did not change, I only got seven supplements seven times,” she said.
Payroll records show nine payments which range from $3,000 to $18,700.
According to the city check registry, the payments to Dacara Brown were logged in as “additional pay” or “retro dollars.”
“No one, no one cared about these supplements until they were coming after my dad,” Dacara Brown said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
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