Troubled ex-Cobb Commissioner Kesting denies latest charges
Former Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting insists she has never had possession of a borrowed pickup truck at the center of felony theft charges brought against her and her husband.
Her attorney Gerald Griggs, speaking for her at a news conference Saturday, said Kesting was not “the borrower of the car “ and “was never in possession” of a 1993 Ford F-150 loaned to the Kestings on June 12.
The lawyer said the truck was actually loaned to her husband, Christian Kesting.
The Kestings were arrested Thursday at a house on Cedar Drive in Marietta on a criminal charge of theft by conversion. They were released from jail Friday after each posted a $5,000 bond.
According to the arrest warrant, the Kestings borrowed the truck from an associate to use for errands and to take in a car for repairs. The warrant said the truck owner had tried several times to reach the Kestings, but never made contact.
By Thursday, July 23, the pickup had not been returned.
Griggs, with Annette Kestings silently standing beside him, disagreed with that claim, arguing that the former commissioner “spoke to the person who loaned the car.” He said the couple was returning the pickup “at the time they were arrested.”
“This is not a criminal matter. It’s a civil matter,” Griggs said. “With respect to the charge, she is totally innocent.”
Kesting, 45, was voted out of office last fall, just weeks after she made headlines for writing a bad check for $3,000 to a South Carolina voodoo priestess to put a spell on a political rival, Woody Thompson. Though Kesting defeated Thompson in 2004 to become Cobb’s first African American commissioner, Thompson took back office in last November’s election.
Also last year, Powder Springs cited Annette Kesting for code violations on rental property, and she had to pay the city a $700 fine and $3,000 in court fees. Powder Springs also cited the Kestings in 2007 for nearly two dozen code violations.
In other years, she and her husband also have been delinquent paying property taxes.
Her supporters at the news conference held outside the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, complained that news accounts of her problems ignore her accomplishments while in office.
