Local

Trial reopens for former EMC president

COBB COUNTY, Ga — The stage was set for a much anticipated trial in Cobb County after the Georgia Supreme Court refused to toss out the case against the former President of the county's Electric Membership Corporation (EMC).

Channel 2 first started covering the long-running saga roughly five years ago when agents raided the home of Cobb EMC's then, president Dwight Brown and Cobb EMC headquarters miles away.

It took years of poring over the evidence before a grand jury indicted Brown for siphoning off millions of dollars from the member-owned utility for his own benefit by turning part of Cobb EMC’s non-profit organization into a for-profit entity called Cobb Energy.

Brown hired former Gov. Roy Barnes law firm, which successfully challenged one indictment, but when they asked the Supreme Court to toss a re-indictment on grounds that some of the grand jurors were Cobb EMC customers, justices denied them.

Chief Assistant DA Don Geary told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt, that grand jurors do not have to be unbiased like a trial jury.

Brown’s criminal trial may be back on track months after an unrelated civil case settlement that has the utility giving back nearly $100 million to customers that should have been shared with them years ago.

That, combined with the fact the utility has nearly 200,000 customers has a lot of people watching what comes next.

The District Attorney’s Office is awaiting the paperwork from the state Supreme Court, and then will have to get with the judge on scheduling hearings in the criminal case.