A longtime Marietta city councilman was indicted Thursday on charges of racketeering and making false statements.
Anthony Calvin Coleman, who began his first term on the council in 2002, is accused of helping a friend falsify information regarding community service hours ordered as a sentence for reckless driving, according to the indictment obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Coleman and the woman, Terry Jones Mays, both 56, are charged with one count of racketeering and three counts of making false statements, the indictment states.
In September 2012, Mays was arrested and charged with DUI, open container of alcohol, hit-and-run-improper lane change and following too close, the indictment states. The following August, she pleaded guilty to reckless driving and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, in addition to court fines.
“Because of his ongoing relationship with defendant Mays, defendant Anthony Coleman contacted Revered Joseph Comeaux, Pastor of Marietta Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and requested that Pastor Comeaux write letters on behalf of defendant Mays stating that she had performed certain community service hours when, in fact, she had not,” the indictment states.
Mays met with her probation officer on Dec. 4, 2013, though she had only completed 41 community service hours, and two days later, she was re-arrested for violating her probation, the indictment states.
Coleman then allegedly submitted on Dec. 10 a letter from Comeaux dated Dec. 15, stating Mays had finished the remaining 59 hours, according to prosecutors. But later that afternoon, Comeaux also submitted a letter to the probation officer, the indictment states.
The GBI investigated the case, the Cobb County DA’s office said Friday.
Neither Coleman nor Mays was in custody late Friday afternoon. But bond is expected to be set at $100,000 for each once arrested, the DA’s office said.
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