Warner Robins council candidate charged with forgery

Warner Robins Post 2 Council candidate, Eric Langston, was arrested Monday, one day shy of the Post 2 runoff election. The arrest was in connection to charges of forgery first degree and false statement/writing.

Houston County jail records showed Langston was taken into custody at 12:25 p.m. and bonded out around 1:13 p.m. Records also listed each charge at $2,500. Langston said he received a call last week from the media suggesting he owed back taxes for 2013 and 2014. Not being aware of the matter, Langston said he reached out to the Georgia Department of Revenue.

“I wanted to get some information, and if I did owe taxes, how could I satisfy that debt,” he explained. “However, I was emailed a statement from the Georgia Department of Revenue suggesting that I had a zero dollar tax balance. I produced that document to the media to show the voters and public that I had a zero dollar balance. Well today (Monday) I got a call from The Department wanting to meet and investigate this matter. They, I guess, suggested that the document I produced to the media was forged, but what I gave the media was the document from the Georgia Department of Revenue.”

He assured he had no reason to suspect the document he received was illegitimate, but has sought legal council.

“I’m just as shocked as the voters are that this happened on the eve of an election,” he said. “I just have encouraged all my supporters and the voters to cast their ballots with their hearts. I believe I am the best candidate for the job, and we will move on and press forward.”

Victoria Payne of the Georgia Department of Revenue filed the criminal arrest warrant Monday. The warrant for the charge of false statement reads:

“The accused did knowingly and willfully falsify, conceal, cover up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact/make a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation, to wit: When he presented an altered letter purported to have been prepared by the Georgia Department of Revenue, which showed a zero balance for the accused’s tax balance, when the original letter showed a tax balance of $4,783.”

The warrant for the charge of forgery reads:

“The accused did, with intent to defraud, knowingly make, alter or possessed any writing other than a check, in a fictitious name or in such manner that the writing as made or altered purports to have been made by another person, at another time, with different provisions, or by authority of one who did not give such authority and utters or delivers such writing, to wit: When he delivered a letter that was altered or falsified and purported to have been issued by the Department of Revenue to Sarah Hammond.”

The office of Warner Robins mayor released the following statement Monday afternoon: “At this time Mr. Langston has not been convicted of anything and there is no basis under Georgia law to remove his name from the ballot.”

Langston ran for Warner Robins Council Post 1 (At-Large) seat in 2017. At that time no documentation was found of owing back taxes when he qualified for the election.