Exonerated former building inspector looking for work

Mark Lindsay, the former Fort Oglethorpe building inspector whose criminal conviction was overturned, is upset he has not gotten his job back.

Lindsay said he interviewed for a new position with the City Council in the last couple of weeks, but elected officials chose to go with a different candidate.

“It’s cost me my career,” Lindsay told the Times Free Press on Wednesday. “And you got a lot of people that won’t even give me a chance. They look at me and think, ‘That man was convicted of a felony.’”

In November 2010, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged Lindsay with theft by receiving stolen property.

A Catoosa County Superior Court judge convicted him during a bench trial in January 2015. But a year later, the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. And in October, the state Supreme Court declined to hear the prosecution’s arguments to reinstate the original ruling.

Lindsay said this week that when he was arrested more than six years ago, City Manager Ron Goulart promised to recommend to the City Council that he get his job back if he were found not guilty. That has happened, but Goulart has since moved on to become Catoosa County’s state court judge.

Goulart confirmed the conversation this week, saying, “I felt pretty comfortable that [Lindsay] would be exonerated.”

Councilwoman Paula Stinnett said she and other council members did interview Lindsay but found another candidate with better credentials. Asked about Lindsay, Councilman Derek Rogers said, “There’s no drama; there’s no drama, thank you,” before hanging up the phone.

Lindsay worked for the city in various roles for 14 years before the GBI arrested him in 2010. According to police and

“It’s cost me my career. And you got a lot of people that won’t even give me a chance. They look at me and think, ‘That man was convicted of a felony.’”

prosecutors, he had a five-year affair with the bookkeeper of the Gateway Mall of Cloud Springs Road. Fort Oglethorpe police arrested the woman for embezzling about $138,000 from her company.

The woman, who later pleaded guilty to charges of forgery and theft, told a Fort Oglethorpe detective she bought about $60,000 worth of gifts for Lindsay. They included a Yamaha Rhino off-road vehicle, a 16-foot trailer, a 40-inch flat-screen TV and a .44 Magnum revolver.

Prosecutors said the woman and Lindsay had talked about her salary and Lindsay knew she shouldn’t be able to afford the gifts. The woman, in turn, told investigators Lindsay knew where she was getting her money.

A local judge convicted Lindsay on seven counts of theft by receiving stolen property, but in March 2016 ruled that Lindsay did not actually receive anything stolen because he didn’t get any of the embezzled money itself. Lindsay merely received items that were bought with the stolen money.

Prosecutors tried to appeal that ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, writing, “Converting the stolen funds to personal property does not alter the stolen character of the personal property, nor the victim’s claim to the personal property.”

The justices declined to hear the case in October, ending Lindsay’s ordeal six years after his arrest.

Lindsay believes he was a pawn on a politically charged chessboard. During his interviews with a GBI agent, the investigator asked Lindsay whether he knew of any criminal activity by Goulart and state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga. He said no.

Goulart told the Times Free Press he doesn’t know why the GBI would be asking about him. Mullis did not return a call or email seeking comment.

Lindsay is friends with Mullis. In 1999, when Mullis applied for a job as Fort Oglethorpe’s zoning administrator, he interviewed with Lindsay. In 2013, with the bench trial against Lindsay still looming, Mullis contacted Judge Brian House, who was scheduled to hear the case and decide whether to convict Lindsay.

It’s not clear what Mullis said to House, but House withdrew from the case. Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr., who took House’s spot, described the contact as “impermissible communication” because Mullis was a potential witness for Lindsay.

Mullis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he called House because he feared his friend’s case had lingered too long and that Lindsay was being railroaded by the court system.

“No good deed ever goes unpunished,” he told a columnist for the Atlanta newspaper in June 2015, after his contact with House was revealed in a court filing.

While he said he doesn’t know anything about wrongdoing by Mullis or Goulart, Lindsay said Wednesday he has knowledge of other elected officials who have broken the law. As soon as his lawyers give him clearance, he said he would expose those people. He declined to provide any names or details about potential crimes.

“It’s going to be ugly,” he said. “But I’m fixing to expose a lot of people.”

— MARK LINDSAY, FORMER FORT OGLETHORPE BUILDING INSPECTOR WHO WAS EXONERATED IN OCTOBER