A former Fort Valley State University employee involved with a sorority at the center of a criminal sexual misconduct investigation has not done anything illegal, her attorney said Monday.
“I have no evidence of her having done anything improper or criminal,” Adrian Patrick, the attorney representing Alecia Johnson, said in a telephone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the University System of Georgia last month began an investigation into sexual misconduct and hazing at Fort Valley, about 30 miles south of Macon. The investigation has focused on the university's Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter. The sorority's national office is conducting its own investigation and has disqualified the chapter from participating in various sorority activities, pending the outcome. The sorority has said it's investigating "unauthorized activities and misconduct involving current and former members."
GBI officials declined Monday to discuss the investigation.
Johnson, who Patrick said is on the sorority chapter’s council, resigned her job as the university’s special events director the day after the GBI first spoke publicly about the investigation. Johnson resigned because she could no longer withstand accusations on social media that she helped connect prospective sorority members with people who paid them for sexual activities, Patrick told the AJC and Channel 2 Action News in separate interviews.
“You don’t want to go to work every day with people saying you are a madam,” Patrick said.
“She’s been demonized by social media, but not one piece of evidence has shown what’s happening,” he added.
Patrick said GBI officials last week searched Johnson’s home and personal computer. The attorney said Johnson has not been interviewed by the GBI, but is open to answering their questions.
Patrick said his client knows little about what prompted the investigation. Johnson worked 14 years at the university.
Staff writer Ernie Suggs contributed to this report.
