Riggins To Appear before tribunal tomorrow

ATLANTA – Dougherty County School board member Velvet Riggins will appear before a governor’s tribunal at 9 a.m. Tuesday to answer questions in regard to a Dougherty grand jury indictment on four counts of school lunch fraud.

Early last week Governor Nathan Deal appointed Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Henry County School Board member Erik Charles and Tift County School Board member Shawn Utley to review the charges against Riggins.

Riggins was indicted on April 25 by a Dougherty County grand jury on two counts of theft by taking, public record fraud and providing false information to obtain free school meals for a child.

The indictment stems from two 2011-12 free or reduced-cost school lunch applications filed for her children at Robert Cross Middle Magnet School and Lincoln Elementary Magnet School.

Riggins and her attorney, Mark Brimberry, appeared at an arraignment hearing on June 5 before Superior Court Stephen Goss, who gave Brimberry until June 29 to file motions in the case.

Deal instructed the tribunal to make a written report to be delivered to his office by June 29 with a recommendation as to whether Riggins should be suspended from office, as required by O.C.G.A