Lawsuit filed against the City of Warner Robins and former Mayor Randy Toms 

MACON — Former Executive Director of Economic Development for the City of Warner Robins, Gary D. Lee, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 21, against the city and its former Mayor Randy Toms after a false entry was made in his file in the spring of 2018.

The false entry claimed Lee was in rehab for substance abuse. The lawsuit says that Lee had never participated in any rehabilitation program and reported the false entry to Toms. 

“Whether or not former Mayor Toms was involved in the creation of the false entry, former Mayor Toms used the false entry and Mr. Lee’s request that the false entry be investigated as a pretext to suspend Mr. Lee, have Mr. Lee indicted, and to have Mr. Lee prosecuted,” the lawsuit said. 

The lawsuit claimed Toms had consulted with a couple of law enforcement agencies to arrest Lee and also enlisted former Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig to have Lee prosecuted. 

“Acting in concert with and at the direction of former Mayor Toms, Mr. Hartwig assigned a third-year law student, Hannah Rozier, to ‘find something’ that Mr. Lee could be arrested for,” the lawsuit said. “Ms. Rozier was further instructed to keep her investigation secret and conceal it from everyone.” 

After a few days of digging, Rozier found nothing Lee could be criminally charged with. Rozier reported that proceeding further would violate Lee’s constitutional rights. 

Despite this, the lawsuit claimed that Hartwig, under Tom’s discretion, “obtained a special presentment” that indicted Lee on two counts of false report and one count of making a false statement. 

The lawsuit said Lee did not falsely report a crime nor make any false statements related. Lee was then arrested and put into jail on March 27, 2019. 

“In my eight years working at Houston County DA’s Office, I had never seen the charge ‘causing a false report of a crime’ being prosecuted,” Rozier’s affidavit said. “I believe Gary Lee was targeted and selectively prosecuted in this matter.” 

Lee was then suspended by Toms due to his being under criminal prosecution. Lee’s suspension was eventually lifted, and he was reinstated as Director of Economic Development. The lawsuit said Warner Robins City Council investigated this matter, led by Mayor Pro Tem Keith Lauritsen. 

A part of the city council’s statement was in the lawsuit, which read: 

“Multiple memos and statements to Council indisputably support an established pattern of wrongdoing including, but not limited to, acts of maleficence, HR file tampering, false documents, keys to HR being passed around and failure of due process. Finally, there was a failure to adhere to the Whistleblower policy. Had the correct procedure been invoked, a wrongful indictment could have been avoided,” the lawsuit said.
Charges against Lee were dropped by an outside agency on November 27, 2023.