Burrell Ellis
Investigators from the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office searched Ellis’ Stone Mountain home and his Decatur office while he was testifying for the second time before the special grand jury.
Ellis introduced the team of attorneys – Craig Gillen, J. Tom Morgan, John Petrey and Anthony Lake – at a Jan. 17 news conference.
Morgan is a former DeKalb DA, Petrey is a former DeKalb assistant district attorney, and Gillen was a federal prosecutor before becoming a defense lawyer and winning acquittals for high-profile clients. Lake is Gillen’s law partner.
Ellis said that he is focused on the business of running DeKalb County and won’t let the recent flurry of suspicion distract him. He said he is ready for whatever the DA’s office throws his way.
Search warrants for the Jan. 7 raids said investigators were collecting evidence under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, extortion, bribery, theft by taking, and influence-peddling laws.
The special grand jury has been probing the county’s Watershed Management Department and county contracting for more than a year.
Investigators were looking for vehicles registered or assigned to Ellis and personal and business financial records including checking accounts, savings accounts, retirement and investment accounts, tax returns, safe deposit box keys, and storage devices.
They left his office and home with boxes of documents and computer hard drives.
In addition to raiding Ellis’ property, investigators also searched the home and offices of Kevin Ross, Ellis’ friend and former campaign manager.
They also obtained his campaign contribution records and county contracts, including firms Ross represented after Ellis was elected.
The warrants also sought information about five companies – Sentinel Probation Services, Montgomery Watson, Rural Metro Ambulance, Massey-Bowers, and the Ferguson Group – that have done more than $4 million in business with the county since Ellis became CEO.
Ellis received about $20,000 in campaign contributions from individuals associated with the companies.
Neither Ellis nor Ross has been charged with a crime. Both deny any wrongdoing.
Each and every appointment made by CEO Erkel should be questioned.
And as to the appointment of a new Police Chief = Boy is that scary.
I must make it clear that Burrell Ellis has not been indicted, charged, or been arrested for anything and could very well be innocent of all the allegations and innuendo. I am not here to carry water for anything or anyone implying his guilt.
It is my sincere hope that he will prove faultless and clear the stench hanging over his name and his office, right now.
With that said, if we put two and two together we start to wonder if it could really be four. We have no dispute about what two is or how much we are supposed to get when we ask for two. The problem starts when we put two and two together. Let me explain this old folk’s take on common logic.
Is Robert James, DeKalb County DA, crazy? How do you raid the house of the most powerful person in the County based on flimsy appearances, “he say- she say,” and a media soaked workshop of career space probes? Does James think he could get away with that? How bold does one have to be to pull this off?
Has the judge who signed those seven warrants blown a circuit? How could he sign these warrants on some DA's wild eyed fantasy, lunatic postulations, appearances, accounting flim-flam, and record keeping merry-go-round?
Then why did Burrell lawyer up, with nearly four lawyers (he is one), including J. Tom Morgan, the local Johnny Cochran, if the truth is simple, facts clear, and the truth swimming like oil soup under a BP oil rig- that Ellis is not a RICO gangster?
Why am I worried for him, because of his association with another lawyer named Kevin Ross?
Ross, a tour guide for former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and star federal prosecution witness that helped secured Bill Campbell twenty odd months in federal orange clothes, less than two years into Burrell’s first term goaded him to cancel high a performing DeKalb County contract with Judicial Correction Services to give it to Sentinel Corrections Services, a Ross crony company. Why am I terrified that Ross was always truant or sleazy company for Burrell?
Judge Nelly Withers had to kick both of them to the curve and remind them that only judges can terminate probation related contracts. They crawled away like to rouge pitt bulls to an ambulance contract that the judge had no power over.
Why am I worried about Burrell's known association with this Ross character? Why is my confidence slipping that Ellis is the person to turn DeKalb around? Smart, unassuming, the un-Vernon Jones, the lawyer economist who could handle the money as he articulates the law to bring DeKalb out of the pits of moral and socio-economic darkness.
Why am I wondering- just suppose that Robert Jones ain't crazy, and the judge who signed those warrants ain’t mixing alcohol with his psychosis medicine?
Why am I wondering if DeKalb has been kicked in the gut- again?