Former DeKalb commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton subpoenaed again

A former DeKalb County commissioner faces more questions from a federal grand jury about her time in office, Channel 2 Action News is reporting.

“The new subpoena demands campaign and banking records for former commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton going back to 2012,” Richard Belcher reported.

Sutton’s attorney confirmed to Channel 2 that she had recently be served with papers. He said state and federal authorities were targeting Sutton, who was also subpoenaed in 2017, because she filed a lawsuit challenging the makeup of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics.

The Georgia Supreme Court sided with Sutton last year, and the Ethics Board has been dormant ever since. The Georgia Senate recently approved a bill that would change how board members are appointed and allow them to get back to work.

Sutton has not been charged with any crime, but the latest subpoena suggests she is still under investigation, Belcher said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution could not reach Sutton for comment.

In 2014, an AJC investigation found that Sutton paid her then-boyfriend $34,000 in public dollars, most of it for political advice during her first two years in office.

That same year, the Ethics Board investigated complaints that Sutton had used her county purchasing card for personal expenses.

While that investigation was pending, DeKalb voters in 2015 approved changes to the Ethics Code that allowed private groups to appoint members to the Ethics Board. Sutton filed a lawsuit saying those changes were unconstitutional, and the investigation of her actions was put on hold.

Barnes left office in 2017.