Evangelist charged in Elaine Boyer’s kickback scheme
Posted: 7:14 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015
By Johnny Edwards – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A federal grand jury has indicted Rooks Boynton, an evangelist who helped Elaine Boyer fleece DeKalb County taxpayers by posing as her legislative advisor.
The indictment says he accepted more than 35 checks from then-DeKalb County Commissioner Boyer, totaling about $85,000, for consulting services he never performed. He kicked most of the money back to Boyer and her husband.
Boynton, 73, is charged with federal program theft and federal program theft conspiracy.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about her spending on a county-issued Visa card in March 2014. The AJC continued investigating and discovered the kickback scheme involving Boynton, as did the FBI. Boyer resigned in disgrace in August 2014 and is now serving a 14-month federal prison sentence.
Boynton is the third person connected to Boyer to face charges of pilfering taxpayer money, and part of a succession of corruption scandals plaguing DeKalb government. The brazen method Boyer used to extract tens of thousands of dollars shows how mired in corruption the county had become.
From September 2009 to November 2011, Boyer used false documents to have the county cut checks to Boynton. Invoices said he researched issues such as transportation, Grady hospital and MARTA’S legislative oversight committee, MARTOC. When one check was entered into the county’s computer system, someone typed, “Lobbying & Legislative Analysis.”
Boynton was not a registered lobbyist, but a family friend and religious activist who ran unsuccessfully for DeKalb CEO three decades ago. He also ran a nonprofit, Rooks Boynton Ministries, which performed “ministerial services both locally and on foreign mission trips,” according to tax documents.
The indictment, issued Tuesday and obtained by Channel 2 Action News, cites five occasions on which Boynton deposited DeKalb County checks ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. Boynton funneled about $60,000 of the total into an account controlled by Boyer and her husband, John, the indictment says.
“Boynton kept and spent the rest of the approximately $25,000 that he received from DeKalb County,” the indictment says, “despite not performing any services for DeKalb County.”
The indictment notes that DeKalb, as a local government, receives federal funds, thus the federal program theft charges.
John Boyer, who pleaded guilty to masterminding the scheme, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19.
In a case not related to the kickbacks, Bob Lundsten, who was Boyer’s top aide, has been charged with using his government-issued Visa card for personal purchases. That case is being handled by the DeKalb County District Attorney.
J & J Ranch, Stone Mtn, GA 
It becomes depressing that so many supposedly God fearing people over the years have been tied to these types of scandals. It is so hypocritical.
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I find it very hard to believe when I first hear about it. But, I guess you become immune. Everyone, and I mean everyone around here is corrupt as hell! The investigation for the County where we live, stated the County corruption touched every office, from the highest to the lowliest, and that the County is rotten to the core. Then the CEO of the County fired the investigators he had hired to weed out the corruption.
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My county “Lassen” In Ca is a good ole boy deal and our town council re always having issues and there are frequently issues like inspectors that are not licensed for the last 5 years the town was having a pool built and a 4 million loan was taken out and there is still no pool after 5 years but every week we read how more funds are needed. If nobody is working on it why do they want more money? The grand Jury just found that our police department is slow to actively follow up on murder cases. We had a girl murdered and 4 years passed before they officially opened an investigation.
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” We had a girl murdered and 4 years passed before they officially opened an investigation.” Now that is bad, but at least they got around to opening an investigation. Here they don’t even bother unless you make the news. Most murders in Atlanta, never make the news.
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Thats it exactly her mom finally got it on the news. Now they have a guy in custody who gave her a lethal dose of drugs.
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It is depressing though, yes you are right about that. After I thought about it again, I realized that there have been quite a few pastors, preachers, and evangelists, not only in this County, but the state as a whole that have been right in the middle of the corruption. It is a shame, that young people really have no one that sets a good example for them. I mean people that we admired and looked up to when we were kids. I mean, back then, football players even had to set a good exmaple. Not no more! There is not one person that I can think of, that really deserves that kind of respect anymore. Now, that is truly depressing. Even people we think of as being “Holy” people, aren’t anymore.
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