ATLANTA — A former high-ranking state law enforcement officer filed suit against the state’s highest-ranking prosecutor, Attorney General Chris Carr, on Thursday.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne went through the lawsuit and found it alleges malicious prosecution.
Attorney David Cooke says that when his client Josh Waites was with the Georgia Department of Revenue Office of Special Investigations, and eventually became the chief, he dug up allegations against lots of suspects.
In 2022, he claims the Georgia Attorney General’s Office turned the tables on him by asking a grand jury to indict him on charges of false statements and writings and forgery, which the grand jury rejected and unanimously labeled a “malicious prosecution.”
Now, Waites is bringing allegations of his own in a lawsuit against Carr, one of his ranking prosecutors John Fowler and former A.G. office prosecutor Blair McGowan.
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A statement from a spokesperson for the Georgia Attorney General’s Office read, “We completely dispute these allegations and very much look forward to vigorously defending our office in Court.”
Cooke says the lawsuit not only claims malicious prosecution, but that the attorney general’s office has interfered with Waites’ ability to get a job since he was fired by the Dept. of Revenue in 2020, costing him at least four specific job offers or opportunities.
The suit alleges that in July 2024, Fowler "falsely represented to the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office that Waites remained under active investigation for fraud."
Winne sent the lawsuit to former DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James.
“If the investigation had truly terminated and members of the attorney general’s office are interfering with employment gratuitously without reason, then that’s a problem,” James said. “However, if there were still reason to believe that there was, you know, crimes that had been committed that were still in the statute of limitations, then no, they were just doing their job at that point.”
The suit suggests when Waites helped secure fraud convictions against reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, he became a target and that he regularly led investigations of the coin-operated amusement machines industry.
“The Chrisleys and COAM industry players wanted Waites out of law enforcement because he helped the government secure convictions and win judgments against them, and Carr’s office made it happen,” the lawsuit reads.
“The timeline doesn’t lie,” Cooke said.
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Cooke says the lawsuit rebuts a longstanding allegation against Waites that he lied on a 2015 job application for chief when he claimed an associates degree, but had no such diploma.
Cooke says Waites already had the job and the form was a formality. Since he had enough college hours for an associates, he checked the box that most closely matched the situation, Cooke said.
Cooke says he also expects to disprove in court allegations that Waites faced that he altered an email concerning the use of state forfeiture funds.
Winne attempted to get comments from the Chrisleys and the COAM industry, but did not receive any.