Kesting denies visiting voodoo priestess

George Ann Mills, a practitioner of voodoo, simply wanted to be paid for her services.

The Blythewood, S.C., “priestess” said she was approached in late August by Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting. Kesting was seeking otherworldly help, Mills said, against Democrat Woody Thompson, who defeated Kesting in the primary runoff vote for the District 4 seat representing southwest Cobb.

C. Aluka Berry / The State

George Ann Mills, 55, a voodoo priestess, says she prayed to god of the sea Olokun (seen on the right) at the behest Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting.

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Mills has accused Kesting, a first-term commissioner, of writing $3,000 in bounced checks for her services.

Kesting on Tuesday denied ever meeting Mills.

“I have no idea who Ms. Mills is,” Kesting said. “My car won’t let me get to South Carolina. I know nobody in South Carolina.”

Mills, 55, has had some experience with bad checks. Public records show Mills has a record going back to 1997 for passing fraudulent checks.

“That happened when I was younger,” she said. “before I was initiated [as a priestess].”

Mills said when Kesting visited her, she held up a photo of a man she said was Thompson.

“She said, ‘Do you see cancer in him?’ I said he looks like a very healthy man,” Mills said. “She said, ‘Is there anything you can do about this … give him cancer, or make him have an accident or something?’ “

Mills said she refused, saying she didn’t want Thompson’s blood on her hands. She offered to “make trouble for him, to make people see who he really is.”

Instead of performing a ritual for Thompson, Mills said she sacrificed a chicken and three roosters to provide protection for Kesting and her son, who Kesting said was adrift. In return for her services, she says Kesting wrote two checks totaling $3,000, which were returned for insufficient funds. Kesting then sent two $1,000 money orders in payment. Mills produced a copy of a MoneyGram receipt, dated Aug. 28. The receipt, faxed to the AJC, listed Kesting’s husband, Christian, as the sender.

“I kept a paper trail of everything,” Mills said. “I don’t think this would have ever come out if I had been paid.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Kesting said of the money orders.

Her lawyer, Sims Gordon, said Kesting will not leave office early. Her term ends in December.

“She had not seen a priestess, witch doctor or anyone in South Carolina,” Gordon said. “As a matter of fact, she’s running to be written in” as a candidate, he said.

County Commission Chairman Sam Olens said Tuesday the commission does not have the authority to force Kesting to leave office.

“Am I horrified about the allegations? The answer is yes. What statements are made thereafter, we should first let the criminal process take place,” Olens said.

Kesting defeated Thompson, then a two-term Republican incumbent, in the 2004 general election to become Cobb County’s first African-American commissioner. In August, Thompson defeated Kesting in a runoff. He faces Republican Barbara Hickey on Nov. 4 for the commission post representing southwest Cobb.

Kesting’s term as commissioner has been marked by unflattering financial disclosures and personal blunders. She was delinquent in paying taxes to the county in 2007 for properties she owned in Powder Springs, and also was written up for code violations on several of her properties.

Then, in February, Kesting appeared before a Marietta church and gave an inflammatory speech in which she criticized some workers at the county government headquarters. At a news conference several days later, Kesting blamed dirty politics and the news media for the uproar. She called it part of a conspiracy to drive her out of office.