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Wingo: My arrest is illegal

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayette County Tax Commissioner George Wingo is charging that county marshals erred when they cited him for carrying a gun at a county building, and he hand-delivered proof to validate that claim to Fayette County Solicitor General Jamie Inagawa on Friday.

“I was sworn in as a deputy sheriff on April 22, 1993, and have been ever since,” Wingo said. “In the state of Georgia, a deputy sheriff is exempt from prosecution under the code section I was charged, i.e. 16-11-127, per 16-11-130.”

Wingo was cited for allegedly bringing an Italian-made skeet gun he won in a raffle to his county government office.

Fayette County Chief Marshal Ed Collins levied the charge after receiving reports Wingo had a weapon in the office. An anonymous caller reported on March 14 a man was waving a gun in a public area at the county’s Stonewall office complex, Collins said.

Collins researched the matter before citing Wingo. He called the incident “unfortunate,” but said he had to take action.

“This is just an unfortunate incident,” Collins said. “I was hoping he was exempt, but he just wasn’t exempt from it. We had an outcry and we had to act on it.”

On April 22, Fayette County Sheriff’s officials charged William Andrew Burks, 38, of Williamsburg Way, Fayetteville, for allegedly filing the false claim that he was the one who saw Wingo waving the weapon.

Burks is the husband of Tracy Burks, an employee of Wingo. He was released the same day after posting a $650 bond.

Fayette County Sheriff Department Criminal Investigation Division Director Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan alleged Burks did not see Wingo wave a weapon at the office. He couldn’t have, because at the time he was in Atlanta at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Jordan said.

“In his 911 call, he had reported he had just left the tag office and he had seen a white-haired man waving a shotgun around and it disturbed him,” Jordan said. “We investigated it and confirmed that Mr. Burks had never been in the tag office. It took about three weeks to track down because the man refused to give his name to the 911 operator.”

Jordan said Burks’ wife allegedly told Wingo who made the call.

“When we called to ask for an interview, he set up an interview,” Jordan said of Burks. “But before he showed up to the interview, his wife went to Mr. Wingo’s office and confessed that her husband made the call.”

Wingo said he is dumbfounded and shocked by the whole ordeal, and he felt the case has been mishandled. He said the marshal’s office should have investigated the 911 call first before moving forward.

He said the shotgun was never in plain view. He merely took the shotgun used for shooting clay pigeons to the office to show it off to a couple of employees.

“What happened was totally innocent and it certainly didn’t warrant any citation,” said Wingo, who has been a tax commissioner for 12 years. “I think if they had taken time to do a thorough investigation, looked at all the facts or tried to determine where the call was made, there probably wouldn’t have been a citation issued.”

Collins disagreed with Wingo’s assertion.

“If I was in his shoes, I believe I would say the say the same thing, but I don’t believe those are quite the facts,” Collins said.

Collins said he would not recommend that Inagawa drop the charges despite Burks’ arrest. He said he still has other evidence including Wingo’s own admission to back up the charge.

“I don’t know the person they charged is the person who called,” Collins said. “There were other people in the office my officer talked to also who saw him with the weapon. In fact, he admitted showing the weapon.”

Collins also denied claims that the charge was politically motivated.

“My response is, no commissioners talked about it to me. No commissioner ordered me to make the case,” Collins said. “I made the decision after talking to my officer and we determined he wasn’t exempt. After researching all the information, we determined he wasn’t exempt from being cited and we made the case.”

Collins said the decision to drop the charges lies in Inagawa’s hands.

Inagawa is researching the case.

“My office is now in receipt of the investigation into the 911 call from the Sheriff’s Department,” Inagawa said. “Now, I will be able to properly evaluate the charges against Mr. Wingo. As with every case I prosecute, I will thoroughly investigate circumstances of the case before proceeding with prosecution.”

Inagawa said he will make his decision soon.