STONECREST, Ga. — Former Stonecrest mayor Jason Lary has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison on fraud charges.
Despite his attorneys asking for a lighter sentence, a judge on Wednesday sentenced Lary to 57 months behind bars with three years of supervised release.
“Lary betrayed the trust placed in him by the citizens of Stonecrest by stealing the very funds meant to help his constituents weather the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a news release. “The people of Stonecrest deserved better, and corrupt officials can expect severe consequences for using their offices to commit crimes.”
Lary pleaded guilty to allegedly stealing COVID relief funds awarded to the city during the pandemic earlier this year. He initially faced a max sentence of 35 years in prison.
Court documents show he was arraigned on the charges after relief funds expected to be allocated to the Stonecrest Cares Program and Small Business Program never made it to the city initiatives. Instead, $108,000 dollars were transferred to pay off the mortgage on a lakefront property owned by the former mayor, records show. A bookkeeper was also involved in the scheme and arraigned.
Lary resigned from his post as a mayor right before filing a guilty plea to the charges, citing health reasons and three battles with cancer. He was the first mayor of Stonecrest, which was incorporated in 2017.
