Quitman Police Chief Indicted for Pocketing the Raffle Gun His Department Gave Away

Lawrence McGee ran the Quitman Police Department. He is now charged with stealing from it. A Brooks County grand jury indicted the 44-year-old chief on one count of Felony Theft by Taking and one count of Violation of Oath of Office, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested him on the strength of that indictment [S2].

The thing he's accused of stealing wasn't cash out of a drawer. It was a gun somebody donated for a police raffle. Let that sit for a second.

The Case Against Lawrence McGee

In January, the Quitman Police Department took in a donated handgun meant to be raffled off at a regional traffic enforcement meeting [S2]. According to investigators, McGee kept the weapon for personal use and never entered it into the scheduled drawing [S2]. The Brooks County Sheriff's Office discovered the alleged theft and asked the GBI to open a formal investigation on Feb. 3 [S2]. GBI officials say McGee "kept the gun for himself and did not include it in the raffle" [S4]. A grand jury returned the indictment, an arrest warrant was secured, and McGee was arrested Oct. 14 and booked into the Brooks County Jail [S4]. The GBI has since turned the completed case file over to the Southern Circuit District Attorney's Office for prosecution [S2].

PUBLIC OPINION

The public record on this is thin, and it's worth saying so plainly instead of padding it out. James Lawrence, Quitman's city manager, told WALB that "Police services will continue without interruption under the department's next-ranking officer. As this is a personnel matter, the city will have no further comment at this time" [S4]. That's the entirety of the official reaction on record. Not a word about the raffle, not a word about the charges, just a promise that the trains will keep running. No editorial board, columnist, or named local figure weighing in on the conduct itself appears anywhere in the sources gathered here [S2][S4].

BULLSHIT DEFENSE

There isn't one, not yet. FOX 5 Atlanta reported flatly that "It is not yet confirmed if McGee has hired an attorney to speak on his behalf" [S2]. No statement from McGee, no statement from a lawyer representing him, nothing to knock down. When one shows up, it gets the same scrutiny as everything else here. Until then, the silence is the whole defense.

A police chief is supposed to be the guy who makes sure the raffle gun gets raffled. Instead, Brooks County says he's the reason it never did. He's charged, not convicted, and that distinction matters. But a man sworn to enforce the law allegedly couldn't resist a free handgun that wasn't his to keep, and that's not a complicated story to tell a jury.

P.S. The city's response was to reassure residents that policing will "continue without interruption" [S4]. Nobody's asking whether the department can function. They're asking whether the man who ran it can be trusted with a box of donated raffle tickets, let alone a badge.