Hapeville elected official passes bad check but avoids arrest

Already facing a state fraud investigation over her handling of thousands of returns for tax clients, and a felony theft indictment in Gwinnett County for allegedly defrauding a dying family member out of his retirement funds, Barr narrowly escaped arrest last month after passing a bad check to a local business owner at a city council meeting on June 21.

Now, the city attorney’s office is reviewing whether the Hapeville Police Department acted properly when officers failed to arrest Barr on July 6 on a bad check warrant. Judge Monica Ewing commanded officers to take Barr into custody, but instead they allowed the councilwoman to phone the merchant to whom Barr had given the bad check for $742. The account had been closed out weeks before.

“It smells bad, it really does,” said attorney Jeff Brickman, a former district attorney who spent 15 years as a state and federal prosecutor. “I think what they did was improper and that’s not the way arrest warrants are supposed to be executed in my opinion.”

Barr has operated her tax preparation business for decades and has left a trail of victims, some through a series of investment schemes with losses totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She has a history of ignoring court-ordered civil judgments against her and a pattern of dodging victims who seek payment.

An innocent mistake?

Dennis Martino, who owns Martino-White Printing, Inc., had been trying to get paid for weeks after his company had printed envelopes for Barr’s tax preparation business. Barr’s business has been under investigation for months by the Georgia Revenue Department for preparing bogus returns.

When Martino finally cornered Barr at a June 21 city council meeting, she gave him a $742 check written on a Fidelity Bank account for her business. The check was passed down the council bench and Mayor Alan Hallman witnessed the transaction, according to police records.

But the check bounced. Martino’s bank informed him that Barr’s account had been closed on June 10. It’s illegal in Georgia to write a check on a closed account, so Martino contacted the city police department to report the problem.

Barr said Thursday the bad check written to Martino’s company, which is a block from City Hall, was an innocent mistake. She said her daughter, Anne Cruz, who is her business partner, was out of town and had left several signed checks. Barr claims she grabbed one of those checks not knowing the account was closed.

“I mistakenly picked up a check that was from an old account,” Barr said. “And so I took care of it as soon as I found out about it.”

Martino asked police to tell Barr to pay him his money, plus the $25 bounced-check fee. The mayor became aware of the problem during the course of the police investigation. After Martino lodged his complaint against Barr, Detective Justin McGinnis contacted Mayor Hallman as a witness, records show. Hallman recalled the check being passed to Martino, but said he knew nothing of the details of the transaction, police records show.

Over the next week, officers made several attempts to contact Barr, records show, but she didn’t answer. On July 6, McGinnis went before the Hapeville Municipal Court where Judge Monica Ewing signed a warrant for Barr, ordering police to arrest her and bring her before the court.

No arrest made

Officers located Barr the same day at an address on Dogwood Drive, just down the block from her accounting business, B & B Accounting and Tax Services. But instead of arresting the city councilwoman, officers allowed her to phone Martino and work out a deal with him. She promised to deliver cash within a few hours. He agreed.

The Hapeville officers told Martino this would conclude the matter with the department and that “if any other issues arose from the situation he would have to pursue a criminal arrest warrant on his own,” according to police records. Police told Barr the warrant had been withdrawn.

But the officers had no authority to make that decision on their own and their actions raise questions about whether the city councilwoman received special treatment. Once a judge issues an arrest warrant, an officer’s job is to arrest the suspect, not give them an opportunity to work out a deal with the victim, said several legal experts interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News.

“A judge has ordered him to go get the person and arrest them,” Brickman said. “There’s no discretion from that point forward. I would say it’s improper.”

Hapeville Police Chief Richard Glavose declined an interview request, but said he thought his officers’ actions were proper. Judge Ewing declined to comment and referred questions to the city attorney whose review started this week in the face of questions from the AJC and Channel 2.

The review thus far has found no violation of policy and no suggestion of special treatment, said John O’Neal an attorney with Fincher Denmark & Minnifield LLC, which serves as the city’s attorney.

Even though there is no paperwork documenting the warrant’s dismissal, he said officers were in contact with the judge and “it appears it was withdrawn by the judge,” although the timeline of when she dismissed the warrant is not clear.

Members of a citizen’s group, Hapeville Community Coalition, have been critical of Barr and are troubled by the latest episode.

“She seems to be getting a lot of special treatment,” said George Rogan. “I think she needs to be impeached.”

The mayor and city council insist they did not intervene on Barr's behalf and they are powerless to remove her from office. After the AJC/Channel 2 investigation in May revealed the trail of fraud allegations linked to Barr and her tax business, Mayor Hallman said he approached her on behalf of the council and asked her to resign. She refused.

Now, Hallman and other leaders seem frustrated that Barr’s latest troubles have again drawn attention to the city.

“The situation is unfortunate,” Hallman said Thursday. But, he said, “She is entitled to due process.”