Since I’ve been state auditor, special agents from my office have investigated countless cases of public corruption. My office has also worked with prosecutors (they are the ones who decide whether someone should be charged with a crime) to hold people accountable.
Since 2018 prosecutors charged and my office arrested 103 people for stealing taxpayer money from city halls, county courthouses and other government offices around the state.
People who steal taxpayer money don’t usually enjoy being arrested, or having their mugshots posted online, nearly as much as they enjoy spending stolen money. Often they publicly proclaim their innocence for a while before eventually pleading guilty to what prosecutors alleged.
I’ll give you an example. Last year, former Hinds County Election Commissioner Toni Johnson and multiple co-conspirators were arrested for embezzlement and fraud. Together, these individuals stole over $250,000. The money they took came from nearly $2 million in grants awarded to Hinds County by the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), an organization funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
After the Hinds county Election Commission drew down the CTCL money — called “Zuckerbucks” around the country — investigators from my office found Ms. Johnson used some of it to purchase and steal two 85-inch televisions. To hide the theft, Ms. Johnson purchased smaller, cheaper televisions to “replace” the ones the Hinds County Election Commission had actually purchased.
Ms. Johnson also used her position to have multiple vendors paid with public money despite no work being performed. These vendors — including a “motion picture and video production” and “hair and fashion” company hired to do election work — were owned by Ms. Johnson’s co-conspirators. The vendors were paid over $250,000 to perform bogus work like election machine audits and cleaning services.
After being arrested, Ms. Johnson and her attorney hurled accusations of bias my way and questioned the integrity of the investigators at the State Auditor’s office. What neither Ms. Johnson nor her attorney took into account is my team of investigators had already crossed every “t” and dotted every “i” to prove the case. Prosecutors had already pored over the case before deciding to charge Ms. Johnson and her associates with crimes.
The reason I’m telling you this story is simple: when you hear someone challenge the auditor’s office, you need to understand we’ve documented and proven everything we say. My grandfather used to say, “You can tell a man by his actions, not his words.” When defendants sling arrows our way, they are just words. We’ve already done the work — the actions — to justify the charges.
That’s why, on the day her case was scheduled to go to trial, Ms. Johnson pleaded guilty.
Ms. Johnson is now convicted of a felony offense and will no longer be able to handle taxpayer money again. A judge ordered her and her associates to repay taxpayers for the money lost to fraud and embezzlement.
I tell my investigators to leave no stone unturned in every case, from the smallest tip to the largest public fraud case in our state’s history. We will keep doing that regardless of who gets upset.
The post Innocent until it’s Time to Plea appeared first on Mississippi Office of the State Auditor News.