In a recent interview, District Attorney Robert Busbee of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit offered an explanation of his role in requesting a GBI investigation into the handling of public works contracts by the Bulloch County government.

Previously a defense attorney in private practice, Busbee was first elected in a May 2024 Republican primary victory over previous Ogeechee Circuit D.A. Daphne Totten and took office at the beginning of January. His request for a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe involving the government of the largest of the four counties in the Ogeechee Circuit – the others are Effingham, Screven and Jenkins – came just two months into his term.

As he acknowledged in conversation with a Statesboro Herald reporter June 2, this was inopportune because it was also when county commissioners were looking at fiscal year 2026 budget requests from various agencies.

“The timing of it wasn’t ideal,” Busbee said. “But this was reported to me in the middle of the budget cycle.”

His budget request, for a major increase in funding, was the main thing he wanted to talk about. But he began with his role in initiating what a GBI spokesperson has described as the investigation into “financial discrepancies related to invoices and bidding procedures within the Bulloch County Public Works Department.” Busbee requested that investigation back on Feb. 28, according to the GBI.

Last week, the district attorney expressed a belief that the call for an investigation soured at least one Bulloch County commissioner, Toby Conner, on his office’s budget request.

“There’s all kinds of rumors out there, and yes, people think they know what’s going on,” Busbee said on June 2. “I think Mr. Conner thinks he knows, at least from what I’ve heard, and his understanding is that this is me, probably with the Bulloch Action Committee, trying to attack him. That’s not how it works. And apparently, when it comes to my budget now, he’s of the opinion that I’m coming after his family, so he’s going to punish my office. At least this is apparently what he’s told people in private.”

Conner’s response

The reporter did not have that exact quote on hand when he approached Conner during a break in the Tuesday evening, June 3, commissioners’ meeting. But the question put to Conner was whether he had said he was opposing an increase in the D.A.’s Office budget because of the investigation.

“It has nothing to do with the investigation,” Conner said. “This job that I have (as a commissioner) has nothing to do with anything going on. I have to separate myself from everything else. It comes down to he was the highest one on the requests. He asked for a 78% increase, and we can’t afford that.”

He also noted that the proposed budget is not the final version. The county’s proposed budget at this point includes a 20% increase for the D.A.’s Office. Details of Busbee’s argument for a larger increase are included in a separate story.

Conner said Busbee had not talked to him and did not come to the county’s budget work sessions.

“I don’t know where he’s hearing this, because he’s never talked to me,” Conner said.

Although he did not attend the county-hosted sessions, Busbee reports that he invited all seven of the Bulloch County commissioners – Chairman David Bennett, as well as the six district-elected commissioners – to the District Attorney’s Office in downtown Statesboro to hear about the work of the prosecutors and staff and talk about the budget. The commissioners did not come as a group, but five of the seven did visit over a period of weeks, Busbee said. The two who did not, he said, were Conner and Commissioner Timmy Rushing.

‘Anonymous’ tip

During the June 2 interview, Busbee had talked further about his reasons for calling the GBI. First, he noted that his office is a prosecuting agency and not a primary investigative agency. Then he described the tip he received.

“In this case, I had someone reach out to me anonymously, which is to say they reached out to me and asked to remain anonymous, for fear of blowback and all that,” Busbee continued. “I can’t tell you who it was, but I can tell you who it wasn’t. It wasn’t Lawton Sack, and it wasn’t Cassandra Mikell.”

Sack and Mikell are the co-founders of the Bulloch Action Coalition, which supported challenger candidates over incumbents in last year’s elections.

“I’ve had people tell me that’s who the tipster was, and that’s just not true,” Busbee said.

Mikell spoke to the Board of Commissioners during a March 4 public meeting, raising questions about the emergency hauling contracts. Busbee, who reportedly made the call to the GBI four days before that meeting, said he never heard the investigation associated with Conner until a report by Grice Connect that included Mikell’s comments.

As previously reported, Conner in 2025 has always recused himself from votes affirming emergency road repair rock hauling invoices from his brother’s company, Sand Creek Land Construction LLC, but he had not always done so in 2024. Three times last fall, when “ratifying hauling service” payments for the company were approved by commissioners along with other items grouped for a single vote in the “consent agenda,” Conner voted, according to the minutes. But the GBI has not said publicly whether this is a concern of its investigation or released any other details.

“This person reaches out to me, basically just …  references specific evidence that they believe is indicative of wrongdoing at the county, tells me that it involves a commissioner but doesn’t say who,” Busbee added. 

After hearing from the tipster, Busbee said he knew that with the commissioners partially funding his office and fully funding the county Sheriff’s Office, he had to refer the tip to the GBI for investigation, and did so.

After also conferring with a couple of other district attorneys who agreed that the tip presented a conflict for his office, he reached out to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, he said.

The GBI would still present any evidence to his office, but the staff there would immediately pass it along to a “conflict prosecutor” to review, “because ... if there’s nothing there, the conflict’s almost worse, because the person who’s saying there’s nothing wrong is also receiving funding from this person,” Busbee said. With this matter seen as presenting a conflict for all of the Ogeechee Circuit prosecutors, a district attorney or assistant district attorney from a different circuit would probably be assigned.

As of last week, the GBI had not forwarded any report or evidence from the case to Busbee’s office and had announced nothing further.