MACON, Ga. — Eyes are once again on Macon Water Authority Board Member Desmond Brown after his comments at a recent public meeting.
This week, during a town hall on redistricting, Brown appeared to thank Macon District Attorney Anita Howard for not charging him with possible crimes uncovered in a water authority investigation. That process started in late 2021 when the water authority first investigated Brown for an alleged pattern of self-dealing and possible violations of state ethics laws.
The Macon Water Authority hired former District Attorney David Cooke as a special investigator. Cooke filed a nearly 20-page investigative report with the authority detailing alleged instances of Brown defrauding elderly women. Cooke says Brown told them he'd repair their homes but took their money and never did the work.
"Either didn't complete it or didn't do any of it and keeping the check," Cooke said.
Brown stepped down as a member to run for chairman before the board took decisive action on Brown. When that happened, the board stopped the investigation and never forwarded Cooke's findings to Howard's office.
Brown was eventually re-elected to his old position. Monday, Brown appeared to thank Howard for not prosecuting him.
"I'm here to tell you I shouldn't be standing here. Y'all know I shouldn't be standing here. Thank God for a beautiful lady in this room. I ain't going to call her name, but I'm sure darn glad she's in office. Because if she wasn't, I'd be gone up the road by now," Brown said.
"Wow," Cooke said after watching the video.
He calls the video 'shocking.' Cooke says most district attorneys would have investigated the allegations.
"'I shouldn't be standing here because I should've been convicted.' That's how I read what he's saying. And, 'If we didn't have the DA we have now, I would've been convicted.' That's, you have it right there from the horse's mouth," he said.
Howard's office says they lacked first-hand evidence and never pursued an investigation for that reason.
"If we had been in receipt of any such evidence or material first-hand knowledge from anyone about any such criminal wrongdoing, we would have turned over that information to law enforcement for a thorough investigation and potential issuance of appropriate arrest warrants," wrote Assistant District Attorney Cindy Adams in a statement.
She continued, saying Howard never spoke to Brown about what he said during the meeting and that there's nothing more she could add on the matter.
Over the last two years, 13WMAZ reached out to Brown several times about these allegations and for other stories. As of October 2022, each call and text went unanswered. Friday, Brown finally responded. Via text, he said, 'STOP 🛑'.
Cooke does not plan to run again for district attorney.
You can read the full district attorney's office statement here:
"To date our Office has not received any information from a law enforcement agency or from any individual with first hand knowledge regarding any criminal wrongdoing of Mr. Brown vis a vis the Macon Water Authority. If we had been in receipt of any such evidence or material first hand knowledge from anyone about any such criminal wrongdoing, we would have turned over that information to law enforcement for a thorough investigation and potential issuance of appropriate arrest warrants. After an arrest had been made and the case file sent to our Office for another review, our Office would then begin the process for grand jury presentment and indictment.
While there may be different ways in which any given situation may be handled, including the initiation of an investigation by the DA's Office, we feel it is vitally important to handle investigations in the most legal and equitable manner possible, which means following established processes for doing so, as I previously outlined. To our knowledge there is no reason why, nor have we been presented with any reason why, either the Bibb County Sheriff's Office or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (the normal avenues of initiating a criminal investigation in Bibb County) would not be an appropriate entity for investigation of any potential allegations of criminal wrongdoing in regard to Mr. Brown."
In addition, DA Howard has not had any conversation with Mr. Brown about any matters set forth in your inquiry. Therefore, there is nothing we can add about Mr. Brown's comments at the redistricting meeting."