Three Meriwether County (Ga.) workers, including the public works director, have been fired or have resigned after accepting loans from an inmate, county administrator Robert Hiss said.
Hiss fired Public Works Director Earl Pressley and camp secretary Lee Ann Bulloch for accepting money from inmate Wade Wheelus, who had been working at a county camp. Kenzy Parham, a county road and bridge supervisor, resigned while Hiss was investigating the matter.
Bulloch, who was fired last month, had admitted to borrowing $5,250 from Wheelus.
But Pressley faces the most serious allegations. He is accused of taking $80,000 from Wheelus, buying a house with it and the plotting to burn down another house and collect on insurance to repay the debt.
Wheelus allegedly gave Pressley the money in exchange for promises that Pressley would get the inmate's driver's license restored and make him the shop foreman at the county camp, said Maj. Chuck Smith, of the Meriwether County Sheriff's Department.
Pressley, who served as director for about a year, was fired Sept. 24 for conflict of interest by a public employee, misconduct, commission of a crime involving moral turpitude and conduct reflecting discredit on the county, Hiss said.
On that same day he was charged with conspiring to commit arson. Pressley was later charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Authorities seized a firearm from him during his arrest on the arson conspiracy charge and later found that he had been convicted of burglary in Stephens County, Smith said.