Former county commissioner gets probation for extortion

Former DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton was sentenced to three years of probation and nine months of home detention on Feb. 14, according to a report from Law360.

Barnes Sutton was found guilty by a jury in Atlanta on Nov. 2, 2022, of extorting a DeKalb County subcontractor in connection with a $1.8 million contract.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from about May 2014 to August 2014, Barnes Sutton, 63, of Stone Mountain, demanded monthly payments of $500 from a subcontractor. She later increased her demand to $1,000 per month. The subcontractor made the first $500 payment in June 2014 at a restaurant in Decatur and the second $500 cash payment in July 2014 at Barnes Sutton’s residence, according to a press release.

DOJ officials said the FBI disrupted Barnes Sutton’s continued demands in August 2014, and that she also accepted a $5,000 cash bribe from an FBI confidential source who had business before the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners.

Prosecutors said Barnes Sutton faced up to 20 years in prison. However, on Feb. 10 she and her legal representation presented a sentencing memorandum asking the judge to withhold prison time.

The memorandum details Barnes Sutton’s upbringing, her education, her career—including highlights such as creating DeKalb County youth programs—and her lack of criminal background.

Barnes Sutton had allegations of ethics violations—such as purchasing card violations and conflicts of interest—placed against her in DeKalb County as early as 2014. She was a focus of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics when the board began meeting again in 2021. Barnes Sutton served two terms as a DeKalb commissioner before Commissioner Steve Bradshaw unseated her in 2016.