Wife of McDonough police chief indicted for allegedly stealing funds

By Ralph Ellis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The wife of McDonough’s police chief was indicted Thursday for allegedly stealing $4,000 from city hall while working there as a clerk.

Callie Dorsey, 49, was charged with one count of theft by taking. Henry County Sheriff Keith McBrayer said Thursday afternoon that Dorsey was expected to turn herself into the jail later that day and would be booked under a bond of $8,000.

Flint District Attorney Tommy Floyd said she is accused of taking the money between April 22, 2008, and Jan. 6 of this year.

Callie Dorsey started working in city hall in 2004 as a clerk in the utilities department, taking payments in cash and check for garbage, water and sewer service. She is married to Preston Dorsey, the police chief in this town of 20,000 people about 35 miles south of Atlanta.

City manager Billy Beckett said a routine audit of 2008 showed discrepancies in the utilities department. The district attorney’s office, with the help of a GBI agent, gave Callie Dorsey a polygraph test on Aug. 5 and she admitted to taking $1,000, according to documents obtained under the state open records law.

She was fired Aug. 6 but was not charged with a crime until Thursday. Preston Dorsey said he knew nothing about the theft. City authorities allowed him to stay on the job.

Callie Dorsey could not be reached for comment Thursday. Preston Dorsey did not immediately return a message left on his cell phone.

The charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.