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Marshals ticket tax commissioner for shotgun in his office

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

George Wingo, Fayette County’s elected tax commissioner, has been issued a citation by county marshals for carrying a weapon at a public gathering after he brought a shotgun he won at a raffle to his government complex office March 14.

If convicted, Wingo could face a fine of up to $1,000 and up to one year in jail.

Wingo heads the office where you get your automobile tags renewed and pay your property taxes.

Wingo insists the weapon, which was unloaded at all times, was never in a public area nor even in view of the public. To show it off to several employees, he brought it in the back door of the office, encased in a fabric “sock” covering, he said.

The covering was taken off to show the weapon, Wingo said, and afterwards he propped the gun on the floor against a wall and briefly left the office. When Wingo returned, he greeted a county marshal, who had been called to the scene.

Wingo said he offered to put the weapon, a Beretta Model 391 12-gauge shotgun, in his car, and he did so, with the marshal indicating a report would be filed.

Three days later, Jack Krakeel, the county’s public safety director, told Wingo that “he intended to cite me for having a weapon on government property because a county commissioner had received an e-mail from the husband of a female employee of my office demanding to know what action had been taken,” Wingo said in a prepared statement.

The delay in writing the citation was due to research into the code section, which includes an exemption for “public officials,” Chief Marshal Ed Collins said.

But it was ultimately determined that the law was applicable in this case, and so Wingo was cited, Collins noted.

The first alert to county officials was from an anonymous caller on March 14 who said an unknown man was waving a gun in a public area at the county’s Stonewall office complex, Collins said.

The office is on the ground floor of the complex on Stonewall Avenue in Fayetteville.

Wingo challenges the accuracy of that initial complaint, saying the weapon was never in view of anyone in the public area of the tax office.

“The called report to the 911 center alleging that I was in the public area around the tag line waving the gun was totally and deliberately inaccurate,” Wingo said Tuesday. “That fraudulent report is now under investigation by local law enforcement officials.”

Collins said the matter was “unfortunate” and the case was being turned over to the solicitor-general’s office for possible prosecution.

Wingo said he is not a firearms collector, but he won the rifle in a raffle offered by a local Rotary Club in exchange for a $20 donation.

Noting that his attorney has advised him not to make any further statements because of the pending citation, Wingo vigorously defended his actions.

“Every citizen of Fayette County can be assured there was no intent to do anything except show the gun to friends and employees,” Wingo said.

Wingo said he initially brought the gun to Melear’s Barbecue restaurant in Fayetteville at the request of a friend, former County Commission Chairman Dr. George Patton, and he brought the gun to his office afterward.

Gary Oritz, the husband of a tax office employee, has complained about Wingo’s actions in writing to Gov. Sonny Perdue and County Commissioner Linda Wells, according to an e-mail Oritz sent to The Citizen.

“It seems he brought a weapon to the office to show off and the fact that a Fayette County resident called 911 and nothing happened to him because of his position in the county is totally absurd,” Oritz wrote, suggesting Wingo should be suspended from office and “investigated as to his mental stability.”

“The fact that he owns a weapon does not offend me. The fact that he brought it into a work place, especially the Monday after the Brian Nichols killings, offends me,” Oritz wrote.

Oritz also alleged that Wingo was harassing tax office employees about who placed the 911 call.