Lawyers charged with theft of murdered man’s money

Two Carroll County lawyers have been indicted in Douglas County on charges related to theft from the estate of a man murdered by his wife, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday.

The lawyers, Candace Rader and Valerie Cooke, represented Debra Post when she was charged in 2002 with the murder of Jerry Post.

The GBI said its investigation showed they knowingly took assets worth more than $320,000 from Jerry Post’s estate as payment of Debra Post’s legal fees. Debra Post later pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence without parole.

The charges against her lawyers are the first known case under Georgia’s “Slayer’s Statute”, which prohibits a person who kills another from inheriting assets from the murder victim, the GBI said.

Rader and Cooke each were indicted on six counts of theft by taking and one count of theft by receiving.

They were arrested Thursday in Carrollton by GBI agents and taken to the Douglas County Jail, the GBI said.