MACON, Ga. — Airplane tickets, food at the Atlanta airport, underwear and perfume — all examples of how Macon Violence Prevention Coordinator Jeremy Grissom says Macon mayoral candidate Shekita Maxwell spent funds designed to make the county safer.
But beyond that, Maxwell also faces battery charges for allegedly attacking an employee of her old apartment complex.
In 2022, Maxwell's company, Royal Science, got a $180,000 contract with Macon Violence Prevention. Grissom says the program was for kids to have fun with science.
Maxwell described it like this that same year: "Between 7 and 11 every Saturday, Royal Science is trying to have something positive so all the kids can have something to do."
Maxwell got $45,000 of the money up-front from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. She had to report receipts so the county could track the spending, but Grissom says he noticed a problem within a few months.
"It was kind of some problems with proof of payment," he explained.
More specifically, Grissom says in many cases, Maxwell couldn't document where the money was going.
"If I tell you I spent $500 somewhere, there's really no way of knowing if there's just a receipt that shows I took the cash out. It's untraceable," Grissom said.
At 13WMAZ, we thoroughly vet political candidates for offices like mayor so you have all the information you need at the polls. That often includes looking into criminal records and pulling government documents.
After Maxwell qualified to run for mayor of Macon-Bibb County this month, we started our vetting process.
Through an open records request to Macon-Bibb County, we found two letters from the county attorney's office to Maxwell, dated March 2023 and August 2023. The August letter alleges she "misspent" county funds — totaling $20,812.15.
That letter also terminates the agreement between Maxwell and the county for Royal Science's services.
The letter said that "$20,812.15 was spent on items not contemplated by the Agreement and in conflict with the law. The County considers the misappropriation of County funds to be a serious offense," the August letter reads.
Macon-Bibb County's letter to Shekita Maxwell
After a meeting with the county attorney's office sorting through the records, 13WMAZ obtained a $553 invoice for mosquito control, another payment for an almost-$700 photography session and an invoice from Mercedes-Benz of Columbus for almost $243 in maintenance.
Grissom says it's possible Maxwell spent some of that figure on expenses for her program, but many of the receipts she submitted weren't acceptable.
"Once the receipts were turned in, over 50% of them were non-programmatic expenses," Grissom said.
The county attorney's office says Maxwell didn't reply to the March letter, but did reply by email to the August termination letter.
"The response was that I needed to fix it," Grissom said.
On the phone, Maxwell said she submitted every receipt she had, and didn't know anything about the money the county wants back.
Eventually, she said not to call back and hung up.
According to Bibb County State Court records, Maxwell also faces pending charges of Battery, Simple Battery, Obstruction of an Officer and two counts of Cruelty to Children in the Third Degree for an Aug. 31 incident at her old apartment complex.
Video entered as evidence in Bibb State Court for an eviction proceeding shows a woman who appears to be Maxwell lunging at a woman in the leasing office and trying to grab her neck.
The Bibb County incident report says Maxwell, "Pushed Sullivan in the face with her finger and then began to attack her," after maintenance workers at the apartment complex got debris on her car. Sullivan worked in the leasing office.
Maxwell's battery case is still making its way through the state court system. Her attorney filed a motion to dismiss last week, but there's no ruling on it yet.
Since this case involves federal money awarded to the county, any potential charges would likely end up in the federal court system. At this time, there are no charges filed against Maxwell.
We reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia to ask if they were investigating. They directed us to the FBI, who would not confirm or deny if there was an investigation into Maxwell.
