The mayor of Stonecrest announced during a bombshell meeting that he will resign hours before he’s set to appear in court on federal fraud charges.
Jason Lary addressed the city Tuesday, saying the resignation will be effective at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Lary is accused of stealing more than $650,000 in COVID-19 relief funds to cover his own tax liabilities and pay off the mortgage on his lake house.
During a 45-minute Zoom call, Lary talked about his tenure as mayor of Stonecrest, which was founded in 2016.
“Every executive has to make a decision on how far he can take an organization, and I’ve given all I can give,” Lary said. “I ask that you all measure me by the whole story. I did the best that I could do with what we had in place.”
A tone point, the call was hacked and briefly displayed a video game and then a brief snippet of pornography.
Lary continued with the meeting after an IT tech fixed the problem.
“As you can tell with technology, it can be immature and ridiculous, and that’s fine,” Lary said.
Federal prosecutors said Lary conducted a scheme where he asked small businesses and churches who he allocated grants to, to give 25% of the money to companies connected to himself and co-conspirators.
One of the grants was to his church, which he awarded $150,000. He then asked the church to give $50,000 back to one of the companies included in the scheme.
Lary previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, but his attorney, Dwight Thomas, indicated on Nov. 10 that he would take a plea deal.
Lary was supposed to be in office until the end of 2023.
The city will hold a special election to select a new mayor.
Channel 2′s Audrey Washington called and emailed Stonecrest officials about the announcement and the hack.
“We have not response about the Mayor’s resignation,” city officials said. “We are putting measures into place to prevent what we experienced during the meeting.”
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