Fourteen area NAACP branches have banded together to fight what it calls discriminatory acts and abusive actions surrounding the recent indictments of four former and current Black elected officials of Unadilla, GA.

The indictments stem from the city councilmen giving then Unadilla's Police Chief Leonard Smith $2,500 advancement on his pay Feb. 9, 2006.

The complaint was filed on behalf of several counties and branches: Crisp, Wilcox, Lee, Dougherty, Tift, Turner, Worth, Rochelle, Ben Hill, Dooly, Sumter, Clay, Randolph, Macon, and Muscogee. They are accusing the District Attorney (DA), Denise Fachini, of the Crisp District, of collaborating with White city officials to take steps to remove Blacks off of the Unadilla, GA city council that was once majority Black.

"Discriminatory acts and abusive actions are being done and were performed by and on behalf of white elected and former officials of the City of Unadilla and Dooly County, joining together as a group, with the intent to unlawfully deny to its Black citizens equal political representation and equal protection under the laws of the constitution of the United States and the laws of the State of Georgia," according to the written complaint. In a phone interview, Atlanta, GA attorney George W. McGriff said he has been watching the "discriminatory" actions of Crisp Circuit District Attorney Denise Fachini for years.

"It's absolutely unfair: a conduct that's designed to intimidate Blacks and stop Blacks from running for public office," McGriff said. The complaint also cites a number of instances in which the city gave personal loans to other city officials, mostly White.

At the center of the issue is City Administrator Ronnie Brand, current Council members Dexter Eugene Whitaker, Tony Lamar Lester, former Council members Mr. Jeffrey D. Minor and Dr. Bobby G. West and former Unadilla Police Chief Leonard Smith. Each council member was indiced last month for alleged fiduciary theft by taking. The group is accused of using city funds to  write the check to Smith that was purported to be a "personal loan," an action outside the group's authority, according to the indictment.

The City Council was presented with the request for the advance from Brand. He cut the $2500 check and sought after councilmen Whittaker and Minor for their signatures. He did not obtain a signature from the mayor or any of the White councilmen. The cancelled check ended up in the hands of DA Fachini and an indictment was made against all four Black councilmen.

Whitaker, Minor, Lester and West were also indicted on charges of violation of oath by a public officer and violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

According to the indictment, Whitaker, Minor, Lester and West, all council members in 2006, violated their oath of office by transferring city funds to police Chief Smith without authority and violated the Open Meetings Act by agreeing to transfer the money during a telephone conference without giving required advance notice and a public forum for a decision.

The NAACP complaint blasts the allegations. "The most recent act of seeking an indictment against the Black City Councilmen and former City Councilmen of Unadilla for acting in accordance with the policies and practice of previous City of Unadilla officials was malicious and done with the clear intent [while acting as a group under color of law] with the sole purpose of unlawfully conspiring to deny to the Black citizens of Dooly County their civil rights."

"The City of Unadilla, as well as the County of Dooly and the State of Georgia, have a history of using various schemes and tactics to deny to its Black citizens the right to vote, denying to its Black citizens the opportunity to participate in the political process and to deny to them the right to hold public office in the City of Unadilla."

Dr. John Marshall, publisher of the Americus-Sumter Observer and former Americus- Sumter NAACP president, said the complaint would be forwarded to Georgia's Congressmen, Senators, the Governor; U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the State Bar of GA, and other agencies the NAACP believes may need to have it.

"We're going to spread it to everyone," Marshall said. Unadilla's demographics show that it has a majority Black voting population. Until recent years, the City Council of Unadilla was made up of a majority of white city council members, before Lester, Whittaker, West, and Minor were elected in 2006.

The complaint states that in an effort to do their job properly upon taking office, the four Black council members began studying documents detailing the City's financial transactions.

But, that approach apparently presented some concerns to current and former White city officials.

"It is our strong opinion that the action of indicting the Black City Council members was done in order to destroy the Black majority on the City Council, and was done with the intent to prevent the pervasive corruption that existed from seeing the light of day," the complaint alleges.

The complaint adds that the investigation was initiated against the Black elected officials even after it was clear that there was a repayment plan and that money was being deducted from Chief Smith's pay.

The complaint goes on to say that DA Denise Fachini, of the Crisp Circuit, along with the involvement of the Mayor and other former and current officials of the City of Unadilla, were directly responsible for the investigation of the Black elected officials.

"If Fachini's goal was not to destroy the Black elected officials, then why we ask would she seek an indictment of these officials, almost a year after the pay advance had been paid back to the City," the complaint reads. She told the councilmen that she would not indict them if they would not run for office last year. They ran anyway. She kept her word and had them indicted. "It is clear to the undersigned NAACP branches that this was an act of conspiracy by DA Denise Fachini and the current Mayor and former officials of Unadilla with the clear intent and purpose to destroy the majority Black representation on the City Council of Unadilla."

"Furthermore the malicious action was designed to intimidate and prevent Blacks from seeking public office." McGriff said Fachini made steps to move Blacks out of office a couple years ago when she claimed black officials were abusing their per diem privileges. Fachini also refused to act on a Judge's ruling to do something about the alleged voter fraud that kept Minor and West out of office, McGriff said. He further illustrated by saying that DA Fachini's current effort is designed to punish those Blacks with authority and intimidate other Blacks from running for elected office.

"It is truly unimaginable for a District Attorney to indict anyone on this kind of stuff," McGriff said.

The complaint also points out that it has been a common practice for the previous and current Mayor and City Council members of City of Unadilla, to grant council members and residents of the city personal loans.

Employees of the city have been granted pay advances, but there had never been any related accusations, arrests, indictments or prosecutions until the accusations lodged against the four black council members. The complaint cites loans made to Helen Lyman of Unadilla, Betty Mullins of Hawkinsville and Lavelda Branen of Vienna.

In the complaint are official city documents and records that clearly show that there were thousands of dollars in loans made through the use of a rehab program and an employment incentive program. It also includes an "interesting" loan to Tommy Kersey.

Kersey advised the city at the time of the loan that he possibly could not pay back the loan in a timely manner; however, the City loaned him the money for a horse arena, ran water and sewage to his business and paved around the building. The complaint also allegedes that before the 2006 election, the City Council conducted secret meetings- a clear violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act. The complaint also cites loans made to various businesses, abuse of credit cards and improperly paying attorneys' fees- all can be found in the official records of the City and of Dooly County.

"The NAACP branches respectfully request that the officials in Dooly County and those officials in the City of Unadilla be held to account for their actions and be responsibleto all of the citizens of Unadilla and Dooly County." "We request an immediate investigation of the acts and actions of the official conduct of current and former officials that have held public office in Unadilla,” the NAACP officials said. “And we further request an immediate investigation into the conspiracy of the District Attorney acting in concert with White corrupt officials in Unadilla and in Dooly County.

Their collaboration was a cover up to prevent exposure of the corrupt conduct and practices of such officials."

McGriff said that he thought the complaint by the fourteen NAACP counties and branches was a good idea, but it will take much more to stop Fachini's abusive behavior towards Black officials in Unadilla and Dooly County.