The mayor of a small city in Georgia faces felony costs alleging that he illegally stashed a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state jail work crew to entry.
Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, 52, was indicted on Wednesday and arrested by Georgia Bureau of Investigation brokers on felony costs of furnishing prohibited objects to inmates and try to commit a felony, WRDW-TV reported.
The indictment, issued in McDuffie County Superior Court docket, accuses Cranford of driving to a retailer on June 3, buying a bottle of Seagram’s Additional Dry Gin and leaving it in a ditch alongside Cobbham Highway in Thomson, Georgia, within the path of a piece crew of state prisoners from the Jefferson County Correctional Establishment.
Thomson Police requested the GBI on June 6 to analyze allegations that Cranford supplied alcohol to inmates.
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Cranford was taken into custody at Thomson Metropolis Corridor by GBI brokers following a metropolis council assembly and booked into the McDuffie County Jail, in keeping with WRDW-TV. He was launched Wednesday on $5,000 bail.
“As we perceive the fees on this case are usually not associated to Mr. Cranford’s duties as an elected official, we should not have a remark,” metropolis spokesperson Jason Smith mentioned in an announcement.
Cranford might be topic to suspension from workplace till the fees are resolved if a panel recommends to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp that the fees may hinder Cranford’s means to function mayor. Another officers had beforehand been suspended once they have been slapped with felony costs that weren’t instantly associated to their workplace.
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The mayor took workplace earlier this 12 months after defeating incumbent Kenneth Usry within the election final 12 months.
Earlier this month, Cranford, a former paving contractor, settled a lawsuit filed months earlier than he ran for workplace accusing him of making an attempt to cover property from a bonding firm that was stepping in to pay a few of Cranford’s firm’s money owed amid monetary troubles to make sure large-scale initiatives undertaken by Cranford’s firm could be accomplished.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
