Warner Robins economic development director arrested on felony charge after probe

A Warner Robins city official has been indicted on a felony charge of making a false statement to a sheriff’s investigator during a criminal investigation.

Gary Lee, the city’s economic development director, was also indicted on two counts of false report of a crime, a misdemeanor. A Houston County grand jury handed up the indictment Tuesday.

Lee was booked into the jail briefly on the charges Wednesday and was released on a $5,000 bond. He could not be reached for comment.

The charges stem from a Houston County Sheriff’s Office investigation in June into Lee’s allegations of criminal misconduct against another city employee, Sheriff’s Capt. Jon Holland confirmed. He declined to name the other employee or comment on the case.

Lee alleged another employee committed fraud or forgery. The employee works in the city’s economic development department, Warner Robins Mayor Randy Toms said. He declined to elaborate.

Lee is accused of making a false statement during a criminal investigation when he told Sheriff’s Cpl. Eric Salter on June 20 that he did not sign his name to a Warner Robins Alcohol and Control Substance Policy form that he did, in fact, sign the indictment alleged.

Lee also allegedly falsely reported a second-degree forgery to Warner Robins police Detective Brett Rozier on June 6, the indictment said.

Lee is also accused of prompting public notary Kimberly Black to execute a false notarial certificate for Salter on June 20, according to the indictment. Black’s Linkedin account lists her as a project manager for the city’s economic development department.

Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig declined comment on the case.

Toms said he’s reviewing city ordinances to determine what steps must be taken when a city employee is indicted.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Toms said. “I hope it gets resolved, and I think I did what I needed to do, what I was requested by an employee to do when an allegation was made, and where it went from there was completely out of my hands.

“But I had to make the request because Mr. Lee had asked me to make the request of an investigation,” Toms said.

Last June, Toms said that Lee asked him to have Warner Robins police investigate the possible misconduct. Police Chief Brett Evans handed the case over to the sheriff’s office due to conflict of interest.

Toms said he asked Sheriff Cullen Talton for his office to investigate. The department assigned Salter as lead investigator, according to a June news release from the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office turned the findings over to the district attorney’s office, which presented the case to the grand jury Tuesday.

The case is not connected to a prior GBI investigation into an alleged threat Lee made against Warner Robins Housing Authority CEO Sheryl Frazier, Holland and Toms said. The district attorney’s office reviewed the investigative findings and did not pursue any charges.

During an Aug. 13 meeting, Lee “essentially said, ‘I’m going to cut her head off,’ ” while talking about Frazier, according an October news release from the district attorney’s office. He was suspended without pay for two weeks.

Telegraph archives were used in this report.

This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 3:19 PM.