Ex-dekalb official won’t go to prison

Former commissioner gets probation in 2019 extortion case.

Nearly nine years after the actions that led to her federal criminal charges, the case against Dekalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton is closed. She will serve no prison time. U.S. District Court Judge Mark H. Cohen on Tuesday sentenced Barnes Sutton to three years of probation, with nine months to be served on house arrest.

The sentencing came about three months after a weeklong trial that ended with Barnes Sutton being found guilty of two counts of extortion. She was acquitted on a separate charge of bribery.

Barnes Sutton was indicted in 2019, three years after she left office following an unsuccessful reelection bid. But the allegations against her dated back to 2014.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the former commissioner demanded that a man named Reginald Veasley pay her $500 a month.

Veasley was a subcontractor on a multimillion-dollar contract tied to work on Dekalb County’s Snapfinger Creek Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Barnes Sutton allegedly extorted Veasley because she was upset another vendor — Veasley’s former employer — was not included on the project.

With help from a county staffer who was wearing a wire after being flipped by the FBI, Veasley ultimately paid Barnes Sutton a total of $1,000.

Barnes Sutton’s defense team, meanwhile, contended at trial that the payments were merely contributions to an “informal legal defense fund.”

The solicitations came during a period of Dekalb County governance defined by corruption and backroom deals, and authorities at the time were already investigating allegations involving the commissioner misusing a county purchasing card.

Barnes Sutton’s sentencing likely represents the last legal shoe to drop from an era in which several other officials and county employees were implicated by a special grand jury, faced criminal charges or both.

Sharon Barnes Sutton