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Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

Dodge sheriff vote-buying probe details released

A federal indictment charging that a former Dodge County sheriff paid people for their votes in 2004 was unsealed Thursday.

Michael Lawton Douglas Jr., 37, was indicted in July on two counts of conspiracy and four counts of vote buying, according to U.S. District Court records.

Records in the case were sealed July 9 in accordance with a motion filed by prosecutors in the Southern District of Georgia, which contended that disclosure would impede an ongoing, related investigation.

Douglas and two other people, 43-year-old Olin Norman “Bobo” Gibson of Helena and 43-year-old Thedy Deneen McLeod, conspired to pay voters and paid people for their votes in the July 20, 2004, primary election and the Aug. 10, 2004, primary runoff election for Dodge County sheriff, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Savannah.

Douglas was elected sheriff and served until December 2008.

A woman who answered the phone at Douglas’ Eastman home Thursday evening said he had no comment. Neither Gibson nor McLeod could be reached for comment.

Gibson is named in all six counts of the indictment. McLeod, also known as Deneen Gordon, is charged with two counts of conspiracy.

Douglas is accused of giving money to Gibson, McLeod and others to pay people to vote for him in the elections. Besides cash, the men also gave voters alcohol and drugs, according to the indictment.

To ensure that the paid voters actually voted for Douglas, Douglas’ supporters transported voters to the polls and accompanied them into the voting booth, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The indictment also alleges that Douglas and Gordon purchased and obtained blank absentee ballots from voters, which they then completed with votes for Douglas and then submitted to be counted in the election.

Court records identify at least two voters by their initials who were allegedly paid cash to vote for Douglas.

The men also are accused of knowingly voting or causing other people to vote more than once in the July 20, 2004, primary, according to the indictment.

All three men are scheduled to be arraigned in October.

If convicted, the men face a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release for each count of the indictment.

Anyone with information about the allegations, including voters whose vote or ballot was purchased in 2004, is asked to call GBI agent Eve Rodgers at (912) 374-6988 or FBI agent Ed Sutcliffe at (912) 764-6311.