GBI agent: Couple continued to solicit funds after warning
Seven months after a Gordon County couple was advised by a GBI agent to stop soliciting money for a fictitious lawsuit, they borrowed over $140,000 from two people in Floyd County, prosecutors say.
Glenn Carden, 82, and his wife Annie Mae Carden, 79, are charged in Floyd County with two counts of theft by taking and two counts of exploitation of elder persons.
They also face 67 counts of theft by taking in Gordon County.
During opening arguments Monday in Floyd County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney Hal Goldin said the Cardens went to someone in Floyd County asking for money on behalf of another individual.
The Cardens told people they were attempting to assist a third-party fund a personal injury lawsuit against Budweiser, Goldin said, and they’d pay the money back with interest. The prosecutor said they collected $78,000 from one person and $62,000 from another between August 2012 and January 2014.
“Ladies and gentlemen I would suggest to you that this was a fraudulent scheme that was put together by the Cardens to get money from their friends and they went, time and time again, to get money from their friends telling different versions of the story,” Goldin said.
The lawyer for the Cardens said no one disputes the Cardens owe money, but said the case belongs in civil court instead of criminal court.
“The facts are pretty well not argued about,” said defense attorney Hugh Kemp of Dalton. “My clients borrowed the money. They intended to pay back the money. They did not use the money to buy cars or go to Florida. As a matter of fact they went without air conditioning and without heat in this little business they own over in Calhoun.”
The Cardens admitted owing the money during an earlier civil lawsuit and a civil judgment was made against them in Gordon County.
“They’re in default, they’ve never denied the debts,” Kemp told the jury. “They have not benefited by this situation.”
The first witness called by the state, GBI Special Agent Daniel Sims, told the jury that he was called into the case in January 2012 at the request of the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office.
During a meeting with the Cardens in Calhoun, Sims told them he was unable to find any indication of a federal lawsuit being filed by the individual the couple was supposedly seeking to help.
When he told them of his findings the Cardens acted “detached and bewildered that that was in fact the case,” Sims said.
At that point the GBI agent told them to stop soliciting funds on behalf of the other person immediately.
“I thought I made it adequately clear with them,” Sims said. Seven months later, they began soliciting money from the two alleged victims in Floyd County.
Testimony is expected to resume at 9 a.m. today in Judge Jack Niedrach’s courtroom.