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Former county workers indicted in ticket racketeering scam
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
A DeKalb County grand jury indicted a group of former county Recorder’s Court employees and their associates in a racketeering scheme.
Three former employees and five other non-employees were named in the indictment. It claims the former employees canceled traffic tickets in exchange for cash and retail credit – a scheme that lasted about eight years, DeKalb County District Attorney Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming said at a June 25 press conference.
Investigators are unsure how much money the county lost in the scheme, Fleming said, and the statute of limitations – five years – has already expired on some tickets that were found.
The three employees – deputy clerks – would erase or get rid of traffic tickets for half the cost of the fine, according to the indictment. They also worked with two businesses to find more people who wanted tickets axed and paid a 25 percent “finder’s fee” to those who brought additional tickets too them, Fleming said.
The three employees in the indictment are Charlene Nettles Johnson, Stephen Bruce Roberts and Adrian “Tony” Andrews. The suit also named Andrea Arlean Sinclair, Marlene Findley, Reshonda Counts, Sonia Williams and Tameka Shrone Johnson.
Findley and Counts worked at Fidel’s Salon on Memorial Drive, solicited tickets from customers and turned them over to Johnson, who was also a salon customer, the indictment said. Williams owns a clothing store, Glitzy Dazzle in Stone Mountain, where people dropped off tickets they wanted erased. Williams also gave Johnson store credit for voided her tickets or those of her customers.
All have been arrested and released on bond, Fleming said. Each person named in the indictment could face up to 40 years in jail, she said.
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