Rep. Sailor arrested for bounced check, suspended license
Law enforcement officers in Gwinnett County have arrested state Rep. Ron Sailor Jr. (D-Decatur) on a felony fraud charge. An arrest warrant says Sailor bounced a $1,110 check meant to pay
utilities on a house in Gwinnett. Authorities also charged him with
driving with a suspended license and failure to appear in court. The city of Buford took out an arrest warrant on Sailor on Jan. 25,
saying Sailor wrote a bad check in November to cover a utility payment.
Sailor said the bill was for rented office space that he vacated more
than a year ago. Sailor said he was attempting to cover the overdraft
when he was arrested (implying he knew he'd written a check his balance couldn't support).
Last June, the state filed a request to garnish Sailor's state wages to help settle $13,487 in delinquent state income taxes. Sailor paid the overdue taxes in January, according to the Department of Revenue.
Sailor also failed to file 12 required campaign-disclosure reports for 2006 and 2007, and he owed the State Ethics Commission $900, according to records.
Before the then 25-year-old qualified to run for the State House, he shared radio duties with his father at
Kiss 104.7-FM, where he had worked for 5 years, first reporting from Washington and then locally. Sailor also co-pastors the 1,800-member Apalachee Baptist Church in Gwinnett County with his father. Upon winning his first political office, Sailor said:
"I was following a mandate from God," he said. "I clearly heard his voice and he said `If you will listen to me
you will win.' " Days after his win, Sailor took a two-day sabbatical to the Georgia mountains to commune with God. He said he
is ready to do his part to bring moral leadership back into government, ... (blah, blah, blah) Here's all he's said so far [per the Examiner]:
"I am very embarrassed," Sailor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. "This puts me in a posture where I am deeply apologetic to all of the constituents in my district and anyone else who may have been inconvenienced by this."
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Actions
speak louder than words, and those who openly profess to be guided by
God need to be extra careful to stay in the middle of the road. Surely he has a perfectly logical
explanation (it seems unlikely God mandated he do these things), and
Decatur-DeKalb will publish it once he makes a statment to the press.
And remember, just like Michael Vick, he's innocent until proven guilty. A fundamental takeaway for the rest of us:
Keep your check book balanced and don't wirte a check you can't cover.
For small amounts, the bank might allow your account to go negative and
charge you $35, and the recipient of the check might only charge you a
penalty and let you send a good check in a reasonable time frame. For amounts over a grand, the recipient just might call the police. It's better you call and try to work something out.
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