Columbus court clerk who stole millions loses appeal over federal prison sentence

The convicted ex-Muscogee Superior Court clerk supervisor who stole millions of dollars from Columbus taxpayers challenged his federal prison sentence.

He lost.

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land sentenced Willie Samuel Demps to 12 years in prison in June 2022 after Demps pleaded guilty in the financial scandal that likely cost Columbus about $7 million.

Demps appealed that sentence to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Theat court rejected his claims that Land unfairly increased his penalty beyond the sentence recommended by a pre-sentencing report the judge was to weigh in his decision.

The report recommended a sentence of 97 to 121 months in prison for Demps’ guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of tax evasion.

Land decided Demps deserved a harsher penalty for abusing a position of public trust, and for taking advantage of seven co-defendants he recruited to cash checks written on Superior Court Clerk accounts.

Land sentenced Demps to 121 months in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, plus 60 months for each of the two tax evasion charges.

Besides arguing his sentence was unreasonably harsh, Demps maintained Land improperly classified his co-conspirators as victims, “because nothing in the record suggested that they were anything other than knowing participants,” the 11th Circuit wrote.

In affirming Land’s decision, the appeals court said Land’s variance from the recommended sentencing would have been questionable had the judge not fully explained his reasoning. However, the court maintained the judge did so.

“According to the court, the variance was necessary to provide just punishment for each offense, account for the number of victims of his conspiracy and fraud, and reflect the seriousness of the offense and need to promote the rule of law,” the judges wrote.

The court added more explanation.

“The court considered whether Demps acted out of greed or opportunism, as well as that he took advantage of his friends and family. The court also considered the public trust that had been placed in Demps, and that his actions harmed the citizens of the entire county. It took into consideration the nature and seriousness of the crime and the need for public protection.”

The scandal

Demps, who worked for the clerk’s office from January 1989 to December 2019, rose to the rank of chief deputy clerk, giving him exclusive oversight of various bank accounts and money the clerk’s office collected from fines and forfeitures.

Investigators said he diverted funds to his own use as far back as 2010.

After Demps pleaded guilty Feb. 2, 2022, Land ordered him to pay $1.3 million in restitution to the clerk’s office, and $359,604 to the IRS.

Besides recruiting friends and family to help him cash checks he wrote on clerk’s office accounts before pocketing the proceeds, Demps kept an open safe in his office from which he took cash whenever he wanted, authorities said.

Investigators estimated the total loss at $7 million from 2010 to 2019, but said the yearly amount taken swelled in 2019, when Demps wrote multiple fraudulent checks for his cohorts to cash.

According to the 11th Circuit’s recounting of the evidence, “Demps purchased expensive cars, sent his children to private school, and wired money to his wife’s family in Africa. The investigation revealed that Demps deposited $147,455 and $327,787 in his personal bank accounts in 2018 and 2019, respectively; in those same years he reported only $35,996 and $38,531, respectively, as his taxable income.”

The check-cashing scheme continued for a year after Superior Court Clerk Danielle Forte requested an internal audit when she won a special election in November 2018. That election followed the death of Clerk Ann Hardman, who was elected in 2016 and died in office. Before Hardman, Clerk Linda Pierce held the position for 28 years.

The audit Forte requested did not begin until September 2019, but immediately raised suspicions, spurring what authorities called Demps’ “abrupt retirement” on Dec. 2, 2019, the day he was supposed to meet with an auditor.

Demps called in sick that day, then went to the Government Center that night to remove records, and sent an email saying he was retiring, effective immediately.

Federal agents arrested Demps in August 2021 after a 71-count indictment accused him and his seven co-defendants of stealing at least $467,000 from accounts that Demps managed in the year 2019.

But when he pleaded guilty in 2022, prosecutors offered a fresh assessment of the losses over the years:

They said Demps wrote 330 fraudulent checks totaling $1.3 million between Oct. 19, 2010 and Nov. 27, 2019, and deposited only $210 out of $5.5 million in cash paid to the clerk’s office over those years.

The accounts he oversaw held court funds derived from felony and misdemeanor fines, forfeitures and condemnations. The accounts were at Synovus Financial Corp., SunTrust Bank and Colony Bank.