Georgia mayor acquitted of charges that he intentionally stashed gin in a ditch for prisoners

THOMSON, Ga. -- The mayor of a small Georgia town is back in charge after a jury acquitted him of charges that he intentionally left a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state prison work crew.

McDuffie County jurors on Tuesday found Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cranford not guilty of furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempting to commit a felony.

Cranford was later suspended by Gov. Brian Kemp, but his acquittal restores him to office and entitles him to back pay.

No one disputes that Cranford bought a bottle of Seagram's Extra Dry Gin from a liquor store on the afternoon of June 3 and then drove directly across a road and dropped the bottle in the ditch. But while prosecutors alleged the deposit was an intentional act, Cranford's defense lawyers suggested that the bottle fell out of Cranford's white SUV after he opened the door while fiddling with his Bluetooth wireless connection.

Testifying in his own defense, WRDW-TV reports that Cranford told jurors he doesn't remember what happened. He said he probably put one of the two bottles of liquor he purchased in the cupholder in the driver's side door. Cranford said he had probably opened and closed his car door to reconnect the Bluetooth, but said he didn't remember why he drove across the road to do so.

Although there are other ways to reset the connection, Cranford testified that he is “not tech savvy" and had always done so by opening and closing his SUV's door.

“That’s the way I’ve always done it," Cranford testified. "If that’s the right way or the wrong way, you tell me.”

Cranford testified he was buying gin because a friend told him it would prevent him from getting malaria. The quinine included in tonic water, which is often mixed with gin, can prevent the mosquito-borne disease.

Cranford said he knew no one on the work crew from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution and had no reason to buy alcohol for people he didn't know.

Prosecutors, though, argued that Cranford knew what he was doing.

“We don’t know if there was a specific target for the alcohol — if it was for one person or all of the inmates," Assistant District Attorney Terry Lloyd told jurors, according to WRDW-TV. “But what is clear is his intent to leave the alcohol in the ditch for the inmates.”

Alvin James, who was driving the inmate work crew bus, testified that passersby have tossed cigarettes, vapes and marijuana to inmates working in roadside cleanup crews before, so he watches carefully. Surveillance video from the liquor store shows Cranford entering and exiting the store, driving across the road, and then driving away, shortly before James pulls up in the bus and emerges to lean over the roadside ditch.

James testified that he found the bottle and photographed it, and when Cranford drove back by, photographed Cranford's license plate. That started the police investigation that led to Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents marching a handcuffed Cranford out of Thomson City Hall before television cameras.