PICKENS COUNTY, ATLANTA - The prosecution division of the Attorney General’s Office has concluded the case against Judge William “Allen” Wigington, former Chief Magistrate Judge in Pickens County. The court sentenced the former judge to 15 years in prison.
He was found guilty of one count of racketeering, three counts of fourth-degree forgery, five counts of theft by taking, 39 counts of unauthorized use of a financial transaction card, and one count of violation of oath of office — a total of 44 felonies and five misdemeanors. He will serve five years in custody, followed by 10 years on probation.
An investigation was launched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Pickens County Sheriff’s Office after a local non-profit organization found out that Judge Wigington had used their bank account to pay for his credit card payment.
In addition to that, it was also discovered that Judge Wigington had been using his county-issued credit card to purchase personal products worth thousands of dollars from Amazon and that he had been doubling the amount on invoices for county trip reimbursements.
Among his other crimes, Judge Wigington also stole $200 from a fund set up to buy a suit for a child whose family could not afford it.
“Mr. Wigington violated the public’s trust in the worst way, and he will now serve time for his deceitful behavior,” said Chris Carr, the Attorney General. “I commend the work of our Prosecution Division, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office for uncovering the extreme lengths that Mr. Wigington went through to defraud his community. The theft of taxpayer funds will not go unpunished, and we will continue to root out this type of public corruption in our state.”