Dade County’s ex-sheriff indicted for spending thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on clothes, phone bills

TRENTON, Ga. — A Dade County grand jury indicted former Sheriff Patrick Cannon on charges that he spent about $8,000 of public money on his clothes and phone calls.

Cannon, who was sheriff from 2005-12, was indicted on 13 counts of theft by conversion and five counts of violating the oath of a public official. The grand jury chose not to indict him on several other counts.

Cannon has previously called the allegation “political propaganda,” saying that public officials were well aware that the money was spent out of his county uniform allowance.

But according to the indictment, he also took about $4,000 from the county bank account to pay his family’s phone bills. He started doing this at least in September 2010.

The last time he withdrew the money, according to the indictment, was in November 2012, the month he lost his re-election campaign to current sheriff Ray Cross.

He tried to withdraw another $650 the next month, according to the indictment, but other county officials blocked him.

He also is accused of going on a $3,400 shopping spree with county money on Oct. 11, 2012. The sheriff spent about $2,800 at Men’s Warehouse and $600 at JC Penny.

This is the second time the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had looked into Cannon. While he was sheriff, the GBI investigated whether he took a local man’s animals and fences, then sold them for personal gain.

The GBI presented that evidence to Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin, but he did not bring that case to a grand jury.