The newly-elected mayor of Thomson, Georgia, was hauled away in handcuffs following a recent city council meeting. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that 52-year-old Benjamin Cary Cranford was taken into custody on felony charges of furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempting to commit a felony.
Authorities said that Cranford purchased a bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin and hid it in a ditch along a road where a crew of state prisoners from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution were working.
After the Thomson Police Department learned of the alleged incident, which occurred in early June, they contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and asked the agency to conduct an investigation into the new mayor.
Officials did not say why Cranford allegedly left the bottle of gin for the prisoners.
Cranford could be suspended as mayor until the charges have been resolved.
“As we understand the charges in this case are not related to Mr. Cranford’s duties as an elected official, we do not have a comment,” city spokesperson Jason Smith said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Cranford has had legal trouble. Months before entering the mayoral race, Cranford faced a lawsuit, accusing him of attempting to hide assets from a bonding company that was going to help pay off some of Cranford’s paving company’s debts. The lawsuit has since been settled.
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