INEZ — A nearly 10 year old case which included indictments of Martin County Housing Authority director Garry Lafferty, his wife Elyonna and son Braxton for allegedly misusing Authority funds for personal use has been dismissed, Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Skeans said today.
Skeans outlined the order of events that led to the indictment and then restitution this week. He did not actually say why the indictments were announced at all.
Here is how Skeans explained the situation:
“…The case which was presented stemmed from the initial audit report of alleged misuse of funds from the 2012-2014 period for the Martin County House Authority.
…The Office of the Commonwealth Attorney became involved in 2016 when it was requested to issue subpoenas for documentation to various vendors including Walmart and Dollar General. The KSP under Detective Jeremy Giles opened a formal investigation in February of 2017 which appears to have concluded sometime in late 2017.
…Subsequently Detective Giles was reassigned, and Detective Michael Coleman was assigned to the case.
…Detective Coleman provided the complete investigation files to my office in June of 2020 after doing some additional investigation. I made the decision to not present the investigation to the Grand Jury during our time as a “virtual only” Grand Jury because of the age of the case already (case was already old, and it wouldn’t’ have gotten the attention it needed in the virtual environment) and the need to present documents to the Grand Jurors which under COVID protocols was impossible.
…When we returned to in person Grand Juries in April of 2021 we scheduled Detective Coleman for presentation. After two failed attempts to present the case to the Grand Jury based upon scheduling issues with the reassigned investigating officer we made the decision to call the original forensic auditor. We were able to schedule her for a February 2022 Grand Jury date.
…Shortly after being indicted and arrested, the Defendant’s attorney offered as a means of quick resolution a repayment of $9,000.00 to the Martin County Housing Authority in exchange for a Dismissal without prejudice.
…The offer was accepted and a cashier’s check in the amount of $9,000 will be presented to the Martin County Housing Authority upon receipt.
