FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A North Fulton County company sued the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and won $2.6 million.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Sophia Choi showed you the monitoring wristbands, produced by Talitrix at the jail in Alpharetta in 2023.
Those wristbands are supposed to alert guards if an inmate is having a health issue or is possibly in a fight.
But the program ended. And the company never got paid.
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Talitrix CEO Justin Hawkins sat down with Choi exclusively to discuss the case and the contract.
“We were a victim of a political vendetta between the sheriff and the county commission,” Hawkins said.
In February 2023, Sheriff Pat Labat announced a partnership with Talitrix.
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The company said the Sheriff signed a contract worth $2.1 million for 500 wristbands without alerting the County Commission.
Months later, only 15 inmates had them, so the commissioners decided to claw back the money.
But not before the sheriff already owed hundreds of thousands for work the company says it already performed.
So Talitrix sued, something Hawkins said Labat encouraged.
“Sheriff Labat. This was his actual idea,” Hawkins told Choi.
A judge ruled that the Sheriff owed $865,000 for work by Talitrix, and $140,000 for attorney’s fees.
Then last week, a jury of Fulton County citizens voted to give another $1.6 million to Talitrix for attorney’s fees.
Attorney Robbie Ashe represented Talitrix.
“After four days of testimony, the jury concluded in the fastest jury verdict I’ve ever seen that indeed Fulton County’s refusal was bad faith and did cause unnecessary trouble expense,” Ashe said.
“In the end, it will be a waste of money,” Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts told Choi.
Choi learned that money will come from the county budget, not the Sheriff’s.
In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, Sheriff Pat Labat said:
“It is unprecedented to require any constitutional officer or County department head to pay a legal judgment out of their budget.”
Pitts said Labat spends his budget and signs contracts as he wishes, as a constitutional officer.
But his actions ultimately will cost Fulton County.
It’s taxpayers who are responsible for paying the money to Talitrix.
Labat said he is considering appealing certain parts of the ruling.
You can read a full statement from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office here.
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