Litesey takes guilty plea for violation of oath of office charge

The case against former Polk County Coroner Trey Litesey is over after the court accepted a plea deal set forth by attorneys and Tallapoosa Circuit District Attorney Jack Browning this morning.

Litesey will face three years probation and a $2,500 fine on a guilty plea on a charge of Violation of Oath of Office by a Public Official, a felony charge.

He could have faced jail time on the charge, but Superior Court Judge Meng Lim following recommendations from Browning decided against jail time since Litesey had no previous record of criminal charges, and no further wrongdoing was found in the course of investigating the case.

Litesey was originally charged in the August 2014 theft of $300 off the body of a local pastor who committed

suicide, and Browning explained in court proceedings Tuesday that the grand jury found enough evidence to indict on the original charge.

However, that charge was dropped and replaced based on the same charge, but in a different context.

Browning explained during the 2014 Georgia Bureau of Investigation look into the case, Litesey had spoken with Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd twice about the ongoing open case.

During a second meeting, Litesey was said to have come to Dodd with $300 in cash, asking if the money was returned if the whole thing could go away, according to Browning’s court statements.

Browning said that Dodd recorded the second conversation, took the money in as evidence, and told Litesey because it was an open investigation there was nothing he could do to prevent it from continuing.

“If we’d continued on with the case as indicted, there would have been some issues with our case,” Browning said Tuesday during the explanation of the plea agreement in court. “However we were helped by the comments and actions of Mr. Litesey, but it was still a trial based on circumstantial evidence.”

Browning said that because there were so many people coming and going at the time on the scene, it was nearly impossible to prove Litesey was responsible. However, because of Litesey’s later conversations with Dodd, Browning said “it was a clear cut case of him obstructing law enforcement’s investigation by offering $300 to make the investigation stop.”

He did say that this was not behavior that Litesey had done previously, otherwise Browning said he would have sought real jail time.