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DAHLONEGA, Ga. — Both sides delivered closing arguments Friday in the case of Lumpkin County Coroner Ronald Fortner who is charged with 18 counts of felony theft by deception, 18 counts of misdemeanor theft by deception and violation of oath of office.

On Thursday, defense attorney Jeff Wolff moved for a directed verdict of acquittal of his client but Judge Martha Christian denied the motion. Friday morning Enotah Judicial District Attorney Jeff Langley called Chris Loga, former administrator of Gold City Convalescent Center, as a rebuttal witness before closing arguments began.

Loga testified that Fortner met with him in his office at Gold City and told him he would explain how it worked in Lumpkin County with respect to coroner.
He told me that only the coroner cn pronounce death in Lumpkin County. “I asked why and he said, ‘that’s the way it is in Lumpkin County.”‘

Wolff argued, the charges filed against Fortner are the result of a political vendetta by County Commission Chairman Chris Dockery.

Wolff recalled Thursday’s testimony of County Commissioner Doug Sherrill who talked about the chairman wanting Fortner to place lettering on the coroner’s vehicle and he refused which created tension between the two.

“Who did he make angry,” Woff asked. “Why did they come after him? Mr. Fortner was trying to protect the elderly victims of alzheimers and dementia. That’s what he was trying to do. When a hard working coronner decides to stand up for the disadvantaged in the county, someone decides they don’t like him and government goes after him.”

Wolff also argued that his client had been charged with illegally pronouncing the death of patients at Gold City. But the evidence presented by the prosecutor showed that a nurse had pronounced the deaths.

“Mr. Langley will argue that was just a legal technicality. It’s not a technicality. It’s the law. A nurse pronounced death in all those cases but one.”

“This case is not about politics,” Langley said in his closing argument. “It’s not about $3,000. It’s about principle. Did he get money for cases he wasn’t supposed to get money for?”

Langley also argued that any death at a nursing home is considered “attended” and that a coroner does not have jurisdiction.

The case went to the jury Friday afternoon.

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