MACON, Ga. — It's been nearly three weeks since 13WMAZ first aired a video of Macon Water Authority board member Desmond Brown appearing to thank District Attorney Anita Howard for not prosecuting him.
"Y'all know I shouldn't be standing here. But 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 at a Nov. 27 redistricting meeting.
The only two elected women in the room were Howard and Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Elaine Lucas.
Last week, 10 days after we aired the video, Howard officially asked the water authority for all documents related to their 2021 investigation into Brown. Deborah Little, listed in the report as one of the victims, says Brown still hasn't returned her money.
"He's nothing but a scam artist. A scam, scam scam," Little said.
Little hired Brown in Sept. 2020 to fix her roof, but she says he never completed the work.
"You think that he's doing the work, but he don't. I had to get my sister and brother-in-law to finish the work," she said.
According to the 2021 investigation from former district attorney and water authority special counsel David Cooke, Brown got $30,000 from Little's insurance company.
Little says she gave him another $9,000, but all he did was damage her property and move her furniture.
"We had to get about 7 to 10 big black trash bags to take out that were full of trash and debris and stuff that he was supposed to be doing, but he never did," said Little's niece, Shieka Fordham.
Fordham says she and her aunt, Jeanine Fordham Brown, are glad Howard is looking into Desmond Brown.
"Right is right, and wrong is wrong. And he's fully, 100% wrong," Fordham said.
Fordham Brown says the investigation should have started much sooner.
"She's still stressed out about this. And then, she stays sick, because stuff like this right here. You can't do people like that," Fordham Brown said.
Little herself says she just wants something done to hold Brown accountable.
"As long as they take any type of action they can take against him," she said. "He don't deserve to be on that water board."
Brown still serves on the board and has not responded to multiple requests for comment since Howard asked for the official report.
The Macon Water Authority has until Dec. 31 to send over all details in the Brown investigation. Howard's office also asked any water authority employees with information to contact them. Howard's office will review the report along with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.