Former Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary is set to report to federal prison on Dec. 15, nearly a year after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the city he helped create out of COVID-19 relief funds.
Lary admitted in January to using shell companies and personal connections to funnel nearly $1 million of Stonecrest’s federal CARES Act money to himself, cash he used to pay off his own tax burdens and a Macon-area lakehouse. In July, he was sentenced to serve 57 months — or nearly five years — in prison, but U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. delayed his report date so the former mayor could continue treatment for his ongoing battle with prostate cancer.
A firm date was set last week, though the originally proposed site of Lary’s incarceration has since changed.
The U.S. Marshal’s Office originally ordered Lary to report to a facility in Butner, North Carolina. Lary’s attorney, though, quickly pointed out in court filings that the former mayor had developed an alcohol abuse problem.
Dwight Thomas said that his client had entered a treatment program due to the abuse, which was reportedly driven by depression and anxiety exacerbated by his legal predicament. Thomas said the Butner facility does not have treatment programs and asked that Lary be sent to a prison that does offer such services.
Lary will now report to the federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama.
The only other person charged in connection with the Stonecrest scheme, meanwhile, will report to prison later this month.
Lania Boone, who admitted to writing checks that aided Lary’s actions, was sentenced in September to serve six months in prison. Officials last week ordered her to report to a facility in Texas on Wednesday, but she asked for and received a two-week extension.
Boone’s report date is now Nov. 29.
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