Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for a possible extortion attempt.
The investigation is in addition to four lawsuits claiming Taylor shut down bail bond companies in the county because owners did not donate to his election campaign.
Taylor, a Democrat, was elected in November and is the first Black sheriff in Gwinnett’s history. A spokesperson for the GBI said the request to investigate Taylor came from the Attorney General’s office Sept. 14, when he was still a candidate. A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office said she could not comment on the case on Tuesday.
The GBI said the investigation is “active and ongoing,” but would not provide any additional information to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In addition to the GBI investigation, Taylor is the subject of one federal and three state lawsuits from bail bond companies.
In the federal action, Anytime Bail Bonding included a video of Taylor in April 2019 saying, “if folks don’t support me, I’m not gonna let them bond here.”
“That’s the reason why everybody that I’ve gone to I’m like, ‘Hey, go on and do your research, research me out, research out my opponent, and then make the decision on what you want to do,’ ” Taylor said in the video.
Taylor, in a text, declined to comment to the AJC and his spokesperson declined a request for comment on Tuesday.
In a May 13 statement, Taylor said Anytime Bail Bonding spurred the investigation “by sending misleading and tampered evidence to the GBI in order to support my opponent, Lou Solis, during the general election.”
“The investigation is nothing more than a political stunt and trial tactic that attacks my character, my integrity, and my commitment to criminal justice and bail bond reform in Gwinnett County,” Taylor said in the statement.
He said he has “sole discretion” of the bail bond companies that can operate in the county and “eliminated several that did not meet my high standards for various reasons.”
Bob Cheeley, an attorney representing Anytime Bail Bonding, said he expected the bond companies had gross revenues of “well over $1 million a year” in Gwinnett.
The Bondsman is another that claims it was shut down, and Tonya Romines said that company closed in March after owner John Nevil received an email from Taylor saying his certificate of authority would not be renewed.
“He was put out of business, our employees lost their jobs,” Romines said.
The Bondsman was one of three companies that sued Taylor in Gwinnett County Superior Court. Bobbie Cole, a legal assistant with the county law department, said Judge David Sweat ruled Tuesday to dismiss Nevil’s case. Anytime Bail Bonding and A-Action’s cases are ongoing.
Nevil said he plans to appeal the ruling. His attorney, Mike Bowers, said a federal lawsuit is also a possibility.
“We didn’t give money to the sheriff. Others did,” Nevil said. “I didn’t play the political game. I expected the best out of the sheriff. That’s not what happened.”
Bowers, who is also representing Anytime Bail Bonding in its Superior Court case, said Taylor shut down six bonding companies “totally arbitrarily.”
Now, Romines said, just four remain and Barrow County — population 83,000 — has more bail bond companies than Gwinnett, which has more than 11 times as many people.
“This is a mess, it is a true mess in Gwinnett County,” Bowers said. “It’s a scandal.”
In the federal case, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia, Anytime Bail Bonding owner Scott Hall said in more than 20 years in Gwinnett, the company had never been under review, or had its certificate of authority suspended or revoked.
Taylor, for his part, filed a motion to dismiss the federal suit. He said Hall made a “false statement” to Taylor when the two had dinner last September and that state law requires a bondsperson to be of good moral character. The 25-second video, he said, is provided without context.
“While Plaintiffs took the statement as a request to ‘pay to play’ they do not allege they contributed to Taylor’s campaign nor do they allege he requested a bribe,” Taylor’s answer said. “More importantly, they do not allege that Taylor ever accepted anything from them at any point.”
Cheeley, an attorney representing Hall, said his client sent the video where the alleged extortion took place to the GBI.
“When I saw that video for the first time, my jaw dropped,” Cheeley said. “I can’t believe somebody would be that brazen.”
Cheeley also accused Taylor of witness tampering, saying that Taylor tried to get Hall to quash the investigation in their meeting.
Cheeley said he thinks Taylor shut down some bond companies to clear the way for others to open in the county. He said he expects to seek more than $10 million in the federal suit.
“He has really put his career as sheriff in jeopardy,” Cheeley said. “He’s really in hot water. ... The public has a right to know what’s going on with this sheriff and he’s out of control.”
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New sheriff in town
Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor was a police officer in the county for more than 25 years, rising to the rank of Major. He was the first Black Sergeant in the county and the first Black sheriff to be elected in Gwinnett. He is also the first Democrat to be elected to the office since 1984.
Upon taking office, Taylor immediately ended Gwinnett’s participation in the 287(g) immigration program. He also disbanded Gwinnett County jail’s Rapid Response Team, which had been the subject of a federal investigation and excessive force lawsuit.
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