Telfair County Sheriff Sentenced to 36 Months’ Imprisonment on Corruption Charges

AUGUSTA, GA—Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that Jimmie W. Williamson, age 48, the former Sheriff of Telfair County, Georgia, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Dublin, Georgia, before U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen, Jr. to 36 months’ imprisonment.

Booth noted that Williamson was charged by a criminal information in December 2008 with devising a scheme to deprive the citizens of Telfair County of his honest services as their sheriff from approximately 2004 to the present through a variety of corrupt activities, including:

• the embezzlement of fine and bond money paid by individuals arrested in Telfair County for his own personal use instead of properly sending such money to the Telfair County courts;
• the acceptance of bribes from individuals arrested in Telfair County in exchange for reducing or dismissing the pending charges against them; and
• the improper purchase of items for his own personal use with funds belonging to and for the exclusive use of the Sheriff’s Department.

Williamson pled guilty to those charges in January 2009.

Booth stated that the court sentenced Williamson on those convictions to 36 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. While on supervised release, Williamson will be required to perform 150 hours of community service. Booth further commented that Williamson was also ordered to pay restitution of the embezzled fine and bond money to the Telfair County courts.

The investigation involved the cooperative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorney R. Brian Tanner.