Did the current sheriff break the law by pulling an item from a public auction and selling it without bids? Did the previous sheriff break the law by putting three sheriff’s department guns up for a sale at public auction and then buying them himself as he left office?
Actions by both the current and former sheriff of Madison County have been called in to question during the contentious county sheriff’s race.
Sheriff Kip Thomas does not deny that he withdrew a stump grinder from a February public auction and sold it to an Oconee County resident for $5,500. He provided The Journal with a receipt for the Feb. 10 transaction and says that the law affords him the right to sell items outside of auctions. Likewise, former sheriff Clayton Lowe does not deny that he put three Madison County Sheriff’s Department guns up for sale, then purchased them at a public auction. He said the purchases were in public and that there was nothing underhanded about his action.
“I bought the guns in a public auction; this wasn’t anything behind closed doors,” said Lowe.
Sale of stump grinder, guns at issue in heated sheriff’s race
According to public records submitted anonymously to The Journal, the stump grinder pulled from the February auction has a rather tangled story. The Calhoun Police Department in Gordon County in northwest Georgia received a report of a stolen, yellow Vermeer stump grinder on June 4, 2008. The report lists the value of the grinder at $42,280.
The grinder was later seized by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in another county after a confidential drug informant told the GBI that the equipment was stolen. The GBI dropped off the grinder for storage in Madison County where it sat for nearly two years. Thomas said his department tried to track down the owner of the grinder and also attempted to find out if an insurance claim had been paid for the equipment. He said there was nothing in law enforcement databases related to the grinder.
“We ran it every which way,” said Thomas, who is facing challenges from Lowe and Brenan Baird in the July 31 Republican primary. “The GBI ran it and it didn’t show up anywhere.”
After no owner was found for the equipment, an “unclaimed property sale order” was approved in Madison County Superior Court, allowing the sheriff to sell the grinder, as well as several other seized or abandoned items. The court order stipulated that the sheriff should place an ad in the county’s legal organ, specifying a date, time and place for a public sale.
The sheriff’s department placed a legal ad in The Journal for a month to advertise a Feb. 25 public auction. The stump grinder was included in the list of items to be sold.
Local auctioneer Phil Piche handled the sale. He said that on the day of the sale, Thomas told him that the grinder was gone.
“Folks came to buy that machine and there were some folks who were upset when it wasn’t there,” said Piche.
The auctioneer said items are sometimes pulled from an auction when the original owner of stolen or abandoned property is determined. But he said he had never seen an item pulled from an auction in his approximately 15 years of handling county sales when no prior owner had been determined.
On May 31, the grinder resurfaced in South Carolina at Martin and Martin Auctions. According to a report from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Tommy Saxon of Statham, Georgia, dropped off the stump grinder at Martin and Martin to be sold. The report noted that Kevin Waters, a broker interested in purchasing the stump grinder, contacted Vermeer Southeast in Marietta to confirm that the equipment wasn’t stolen. He was informed that the grinder had, in fact, been stolen and that Caterpillar Financial Loan had paid a claim on the stolen stump grinder.
The Anderson County report also states that an employee of Martin and Martin checked the equipment’s serial number with NERUSA.com (the National Equipment Register) and confirmed that the grinder was stolen. The reporting deputy then contacted the Anderson County dispatch, who ran the serial number through the NCIC (National Crime Information Center), which confirmed that the grinder was stolen and was still an active case with the Calhoun Police Department. The deputy contacted the Calhoun department and learned that the investigator who worked the case in 2008 was no longer assigned to property crimes, didn’t have access to the report and was unsure of any details related to the investigation.
Sheriff Thomas said state law under Georgia Code Title 16, Section 16-13-49 gives the sheriff the authority to handle judicial sales or sheriff’s sales through “any commercial means feasible.”
Thomas also said he spoke with Superior Court Judge John Bailey and was told that he could handle the sale of abandoned and seized property as he sees fit.
“Judge Bailey said we can sell however we want — on Ebay on Craig’s List,” said Thomas. “We were going off what a judge told us and were acting in good faith. It (the grinder) was sold and the money was put back into seized funds.”
Madison County Chief Deputy Shawn Burns noted that the department sold a Ford Explorer on Craig’s List, adding that a number of other departments also sell items in such a manner. He added that Thomas acted in the best interest of the department.
“He didn’t do anything for personal gain or anything of that nature,” said Burns.
Judge Bailey said that he did not tell the sheriff that pulling items from a public auction was allowable under the law.
“I know better than that,” said Bailey. “As far as auctions are concerned, you can’t do it outside of that process. If something is advertised to be auctioned, then it should be sold at auction.”
The Journal contacted the Georgia Sheriff’s Association for clarification on what sheriffs are allowed to do with seized and abandoned items. The association put the paper in contact with Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who is considered an authority on auction matters among the law enforcement community.
Sills said that state law includes code section 16.13.49 that allows for disposal of drug seizure items outside of auctions, but he said the stump grinder wouldn’t fall under that code. He offered a different code that he felt was more pertinent.
“Official Code of Georgia 17.5.54 prescribes in minute detail how property that is abandoned or no longer needed is to be disposed of and it clearly says that if it is to be sold, it is to be sold at auction and it provides for no deviation from that,” said Sills.
Thomas said that the questioning of the stump grinder sale was politically motivated. And he believes the anonymous submission of public documents related to the grinder came from Lowe.
Thomas said Lowe has his own questions to answer. He said the former sheriff’s purchase of three sheriff’s department guns was a misdemeanor at the time of the purchase. He noted that the law has been amended to allow law officers to purchase guns at their own department’s sales, but he said that wasn’t the case when Lowe bought the guns.
He pointed out that the Georgia code at the time of the purchase read: “No sheriff or deputy or other officer discharging a similar duty shall be permitted to purchase any other property whatever at his own sale, either upon his own bid or upon the bid of any other person for him, directly or indirectly,” stated O.C.G.A. 15-16-18.
“He (Lowe) broke state law doing that,” said Thomas.
Thomas presented receipts for the sale of the county guns to Lowe at public auction: two 30-caliber M1 carbines and a 223 caliber Remington 700. The current sheriff noted that one of the guns purchased by Lowe had been used by the Special Response Team (SRT).
Lowe acknowledged that one gun was from the SRT, but “they (Thomas and his administration) were disbanding that (SRT) anyway.”
Lowe said he purchased a gun for a person to use at a handicapped dove shoot. The former sheriff said Thomas is trying to “compare apples and oranges.” He said the intent of the law prohibiting the sale of inter-department guns was to keep officers from making deals in secret among their own department.
“It was a public auction; it wasn’t a private sale,” said Lowe. “Had it been a private, back room deal, that would have been different. What I did made the county money, what he (Thomas) did cost the county money.”
The grinder was later seized by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in another county after a confidential drug informant told the GBI that the equipment was stolen. The GBI dropped off the grinder for storage in Madison County where it sat for nearly two years. Thomas said his department tried to track down the owner of the grinder and also attempted to find out if an insurance claim had been paid for the equipment. He said there was nothing in law enforcement databases related to the grinder.
“We ran it every which way,” said Thomas, who is facing challenges from Lowe and Brenan Baird in the July 31 Republican primary. “The GBI ran it and it didn’t show up anywhere.”
After no owner was found for the equipment, an “unclaimed property sale order” was approved in Madison County Superior Court, allowing the sheriff to sell the grinder, as well as several other seized or abandoned items. The court order stipulated that the sheriff should place an ad in the county’s legal organ, specifying a date, time and place for a public sale.
The sheriff’s department placed a legal ad in The Journal for a month to advertise a Feb. 25 public auction. The stump grinder was included in the list of items to be sold.
Local auctioneer Phil Piche handled the sale. He said that on the day of the sale, Thomas told him that the grinder was gone.
“Folks came to buy that machine and there were some folks who were upset when it wasn’t there,” said Piche.
The auctioneer said items are sometimes pulled from an auction when the original owner of stolen or abandoned property is determined. But he said he had never seen an item pulled from an auction in his approximately 15 years of handling county sales when no prior owner had been determined.
On May 31, the grinder resurfaced in South Carolina at Martin and Martin Auctions. According to a report from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Tommy Saxon of Statham, Georgia, dropped off the stump grinder at Martin and Martin to be sold. The report noted that Kevin Waters, a broker interested in purchasing the stump grinder, contacted Vermeer Southeast in Marietta to confirm that the equipment wasn’t stolen. He was informed that the grinder had, in fact, been stolen and that Caterpillar Financial Loan had paid a claim on the stolen stump grinder.
The Anderson County report also states that an employee of Martin and Martin checked the equipment’s serial number with NERUSA.com (the National Equipment Register) and confirmed that the grinder was stolen. The reporting deputy then contacted the Anderson County dispatch, who ran the serial number through the NCIC (National Crime Information Center), which confirmed that the grinder was stolen and was still an active case with the Calhoun Police Department. The deputy contacted the Calhoun department and learned that the investigator who worked the case in 2008 was no longer assigned to property crimes, didn’t have access to the report and was unsure of any details related to the investigation.
Sheriff Thomas said state law under Georgia Code Title 16, Section 16-13-49 gives the sheriff the authority to handle judicial sales or sheriff’s sales through “any commercial means feasible.”
Thomas also said he spoke with Superior Court Judge John Bailey and was told that he could handle the sale of abandoned and seized property as he sees fit.
“Judge Bailey said we can sell however we want — on Ebay on Craig’s List,” said Thomas. “We were going off what a judge told us and were acting in good faith. It (the grinder) was sold and the money was put back into seized funds.”
Madison County Chief Deputy Shawn Burns noted that the department sold a Ford Explorer on Craig’s List, adding that a number of other departments also sell items in such a manner. He added that Thomas acted in the best interest of the department.
“He didn’t do anything for personal gain or anything of that nature,” said Burns.
Judge Bailey said that he did not tell the sheriff that pulling items from a public auction was allowable under the law.
“I know better than that,” said Bailey. “As far as auctions are concerned, you can’t do it outside of that process. If something is advertised to be auctioned, then it should be sold at auction.”
The Journal contacted the Georgia Sheriff’s Association for clarification on what sheriffs are allowed to do with seized and abandoned items. The association put the paper in contact with Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who is considered an authority on auction matters among the law enforcement community.
Sills said that state law includes code section 16.13.49 that allows for disposal of drug seizure items outside of auctions, but he said the stump grinder wouldn’t fall under that code. He offered a different code that he felt was more pertinent.
“Official Code of Georgia 17.5.54 prescribes in minute detail how property that is abandoned or no longer needed is to be disposed of and it clearly says that if it is to be sold, it is to be sold at auction and it provides for no deviation from that,” said Sills.
Thomas said that the questioning of the stump grinder sale was politically motivated. And he believes the anonymous submission of public documents related to the grinder came from Lowe.
Thomas said Lowe has his own questions to answer. He said the former sheriff’s purchase of three sheriff’s department guns was a misdemeanor at the time of the purchase. He noted that the law has been amended to allow law officers to purchase guns at their own department’s sales, but he said that wasn’t the case when Lowe bought the guns.
He pointed out that the Georgia code at the time of the purchase read: “No sheriff or deputy or other officer discharging a similar duty shall be permitted to purchase any other property whatever at his own sale, either upon his own bid or upon the bid of any other person for him, directly or indirectly,” stated O.C.G.A. 15-16-18.
“He (Lowe) broke state law doing that,” said Thomas.
Thomas presented receipts for the sale of the county guns to Lowe at public auction: two 30-caliber M1 carbines and a 223 caliber Remington 700. The current sheriff noted that one of the guns purchased by Lowe had been used by the Special Response Team (SRT).
Lowe acknowledged that one gun was from the SRT, but “they (Thomas and his administration) were disbanding that (SRT) anyway.”
Lowe said he purchased a gun for a person to use at a handicapped dove shoot. The former sheriff said Thomas is trying to “compare apples and oranges.” He said the intent of the law prohibiting the sale of inter-department guns was to keep officers from making deals in secret among their own department.
“It was a public auction; it wasn’t a private sale,” said Lowe. “Had it been a private, back room deal, that would have been different. What I did made the county money, what he (Thomas) did cost the county money.”
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