Read Part 1 – Interview with Commissioner Ray Davis
Read Part 2 – Interview with Clay & Megen Conner, owners of Sand Creek Land Construction
Read Part 3 – Interview with Bulloch County Public Works Employees
Read Part 4 – Interview with Commission Chairman David Bennett
Complete Timeline Below Rushing audio
GBI Interview with Commissioner Timmy Rushing
0:49 – Rushing tells Agent Jones that he’s going to answer all of his questions and then he’s going to tell him what’s going on. “Or I’ll tell you what’s going on and that might answer your questions.”
1:16 – Rushing tells Agent Jones that he’s been voting on paying Clay Conner invoices “since before he knew who Clay Conner or Toby Conner was” before noting that the procedure is the same as it’s always been.
Rushing then shares his perspective on the investigation. “I know what got it all screwed up…Number 1 is y’all not investigating Clay Conner. Y’all investigating Toby Conner. Lawton Sack and Cassandra Mikell and Ray Davis and his old lady and David Bennett and all of them, that is the Bulloch County Coalition and Robert Busbee rode their coat tail in to be the D.A and that’s probably the only reason that you done the investigation that went ‘round the sheriff of a county. They didn’t contact the Sheriff. Robert Busbee contacted y’all because it ain’t nothin’ but a witch hunt. It’s a witch hunt because they after Toby Conner’s seat at the commission office.”
2:40 – Rushing then begins telling agent Jones about a March 2024 incident in which he had to “carry [Lawton Sack] to court to try to get a restraining order against him” because Sack approached him during a break at a county commission meeting. Rushing did not tell Agent Jones that the judge denied his request for a restraining order.
“Now that’s why it didn’t go to the Sheriff. Now he’ll put off that he’s a preacher, but he ain’t. He went to work one day and walked off from his old lady and just left. Cassandra Mikell has done the same thing.”
3:40 – Rushing tells Jones this all began because Ray Davis’ “old lady” and Cassandra Mikell got a hold of the invoices. “All they want is the publicity, to go in the paper, to go on social media so they can drag the county commissioners down.”
4:20 – Rushing says this is a witch hunt because the district attorney is asking for an increase in his budget for FY 2026.
4:45 – “Are you going to find some discrepancies in a $100 million budget? I don’t think you have to be really Dick Tracy to find some discrepancies,” Rushing says.
5:20 – “I didn’t put it all together, but Robert Busbee had done contacted y’all before Cassandra Mikell even got back up and started questioning the billing at the commissioner’s office, at the commissioner’s meeting. It’s recorded, I don’t know if you’ve watched it or not. It’s as plain as the nose on your face what’s going on.”
5:45 – Rushing then tells Agent Jones that he will answer his questions before asking him if he knew all the stuff he told him [Jones] about BAC, Sack, and Mikell. Agent Jones states he did not. Rushing says ‘Let’s finish then’ and shares that Lawton Sack “tried to get him [Rushing] locked up. He went to the Sheriff. That’s the reason they went around the sheriff this time.”
Jones asks how recent the incident was and Rushing shares it was last year before outlining his recollection of the events, including stating that Sack “wasn’t even supposed to be in the room” and he took it upon himself to go into the commissioner’s executive session. [Note: This statement is refuted by testimony made during a March 2024 Magistrate Court hearing which was video recorded]
“He jumped on me. They always got something. They go through our agenda and they pick out something negative, just to be able to pick out something that they can put on social media, which is fine with me, I don’t care,” Rushing says before giving a rundown of the events.
8:38 – “He [Sack] pushed for three or four days to try to get me locked up, just to get me in the paper, so what I did, I just took a Good Behavior warrant, I carried his tail to court and put both me and him on the front page of the paper. It’s on the front page, you can go look at it. And that’s how they play ya now.” Rushing then says he has ‘no use in none of ‘em’ because they play dirty pool.
9:25 – Rushing says he called Commissioner Simmons that morning and told him he would be going up there to speak with the investigator because he wasn’t going to have “them” telling their side of the story.
9:50 – Rushing shares that he does not go over every bill that comes through the county, whether it is with regard to Clay Conner or anyone else. “If they’re inaccurate, I couldn’t tell you cause I don’t sit there and watch that truck go in and out the job,” Rushing said.
10:15 – Rushing shares about his friendship with Kirk McGlamery and the business McGlamery has since leaving law enforcement. He goes on to share about a property exchange between the two that drew the attention of some in the community because the property was then purchased by the county.
13:00 – “Robert Busbee rode in on their [the other commissioners coat tails] and put Totten out. They used the shooting over there in Sylvania where the boy got killed, where the state patrol killed him, and they used all of that just like knives, jabbin’ her. But anyway, I don’t even know Robert Busbee. My sister’s good friends with him, but I can only imagine, probably, if he gets a chance, he’s going to shoot me too. But we’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it.”
14:10 – Rushing goes back to the business practices of Clay Conner and goes through the inventory he’s familiar with Conner having.
14:45 – Rushing asks if the agent spoke to the wife of Ray Davis. Agent Jones replied that he had not. “I can bet Cassandra Mikell and Lawton Sack were sitting in the room with Robert Busbee. I ain’t dumb,” Rushing says. Rushing then went on to discuss the personal lives of Sack and Mikell, their marital status, and his ability to read whether or not someone has marital problems.
15:45 – Agent Jones attempts to bring the conversation back to the scope of the investigation and asks if Rushing has doubts about the possibility of criminal activity with the Conners. Rushing answers that if they find anything, it will be “an error in the bookkeeping.”
“The Conner family is a good family in the county. It ain’t nothin’ but a witch hunt. Let me tell you. They got after Toby Conner because Toby Conner voted to pay his brother. He wasn’t votin,’ he got that from legal. I was sitting right there now. He got that advice from our county attorney, which, he ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer as far as I’m concerned. If y’all was fixing to lock me up, I wouldn’t call him, I can promise you that. Now, I recuse myself on stuff like with Kirk or stuff with my brother or anybody like that. I don’t really have to. It ain’t illegal. Might be a little unethical.”
Rushing tells Jones he told the county attorney and Toby Conner that Toby Conner wasn’t voting to give a contract to his brother because his brother had already done the work. “The county’s got to pay him. You can vote or not vote. We still gone pay him. Oh, well, they tried to make something out of that. They couldn’t make something out of that. He voted two or three…then he said ‘I can simplify this. I’ll get up and walk out the room.’…”
18:10 – “Wherever these two magical invoices come from, that was handwritten by Clay Conner that hadn’t changed from the time he started working for the county to that moment,” Rushing prefaced by saying how the issue came about.
19:00 – Jones asks Rushing if he had seen any criminal actions to which Rushing replies “Hell no. I hadn’t seen any unethical actions out of anybody except the ones putting you on, getting you to put the investigation on.”
Jones replies that GBI has a scope of what they’re looking into, to which Rushing replies “I understand” and continues sharing that someone watched who went into the district attorney’s office and told him [Rushing] as much.
Rushing then tells the agent that he knew Davis, Newkirk, and Bennett met with the District Attorney “after the investigation started,” which was referenced in David Bennett’s interview as a pre-scheduled meeting during the budget process. “If we gonna pull out the unethical card or, what do they pride theirselves on – transparency…That seems like that wasn’t too transparent to me.”
20:30 – Rushing tells Jones he can ‘prove everything he just told him’ in the interview thus far.
21:00 – Rushing returns the conversation to Lawton Sack and Cassandra Mikell. “What do him and Cassandra Mikell do? Run to the sheriff. And the sheriff been knowing me all my life, all his life, I’m older than the sheriff. And the sheriff said “You fared pretty good really,” I mean, you know, so they couldn’t get no satisfaction out of that and so now, but, they got me on the front page of the paper, and all stirred up in that mess, so they’ve got plenty of footage to put on social media when I run again.”
22:25 – “Lawton, he said he was a mathematician, I think is what he said, so you know, he’s smarter than everyone in the room.”
22:50 – Rushing talks about the minority makeup of the districts for Commissioner Ray Mosley and Anthony Simmons. “And there ain’t two finer fellers in Bulloch County. You can get down on your hands and knees and kiss their feet cause they’re good people.”
23:15 – Rushing tells Jones he doesn’t care if they [Bulloch Action Coalition] goes after him. “I don’t even know if I’m running again. I wouldn’t tell them that. I might run just to make ‘em whip me.”
He then shares that he’s unfamiliar with any illegal thing happening in the county – with a commissioner or an employee. He said they’re having an issue with an employee running around with the gals in the tax office, but they clock out and so that’s not his business. “That ain’t my rabbit to chase. What you do on your own time, if your old lady puts up with it, mine did it a lot, but that was mine and her business, but other than that, I don’t know of one illegal thing. ”
24:10 – “Would I bet my life on it? No because I don’t know everybody that works for the county but I can tell you, and I would just about bet, and I know you can’t tell me and that’s fine, but I’d just about bet, if you find anything, it’s minute. It’ll be a clerical error because I mean, the boy just…I don’t know, it just bothers me because it’s hard enough to get people to do anything for the county.”
Rushing then moved the conversation to a June 2024 news article which revealed an audio recording between Chairman-elect David Bennett and Senator Billy Hickman.
27:50 – “It’s them against us, period,” Rushing tells Jones, before sharing that the sheriff was unhappy that the district attorney called the GBI instead of the sheriff.
Agent Jones then thanks Rushing for his insight and Rushing encourages Jones to use the information he provided and to talk to Anthony Simmons. Rushing says he told Simmons that morning that he should talk to the GBI because he’s tired of the crap and it’s time to lay it all out there on the table. “I said let’s rake through it. But we gonna rake them through it, too. It’s two or three little head down there that are stirring up all this commotion…”
29:43 – “It’s just like the Conners down there. Ray Davis and Charles Conner – Toby and Clay’s daddy – played football together at SEBHS…and it wouldn’t surprise me none-at-all if y’all didn’t get a call down there and have to go down there to investigate somebody getting killed about this deal,” Rushing says.
“Oh Lord, don’t say that,” Jones replies.
Rushing then says he’s in business with Adam Harville, in the tree business, the mobile home moving business, the mobile home park business, a septic tank business and he loses money as a county commissioner. “I get about $17,000 a year as a county commissioner and I burn that in fuel.” He then tells Jones he will answer any questions Jones has and the interview concludes.
“I used to do all the county and the city’s work far as tree work, I get about $17,000 a year [as a county commissioner] and I burn that in fuel doing this. And I don’t get to do none of that work, you know. I ain’t gonna [inaudible] myself as far as, if any, I’m in business with Adam Harville, he still does some of that on his side, but I ain’t even gonna be on the job, I ain’t driving the loader or nothin, ain’t nobody riding by looking at me standing there cause I ain’t wanting hear no, none of that trash, so with that being said, as long as you get paid for what you do, it might be a little unethical, but it ain’t illegal.”
Listen to the audio below
Case Timeline
Friday, February 28, 2025 – Commissioner Ray Davis contacts District Attorney Robert Busbee.
Friday, February 28, 2025 – District Attorney Robert Busbee requests assistance from the GBI after receiving information from a concerned resident. The letter says Busbee was notified of concerns regarding 1) bidding, and 2) an unnamed county commissioner, and) a county employee named “Dink Butler.”
Tuesday, March 4, 2025 – Bulloch County Commissioners hold their regular meeting. The issue of invoices and Sand Creek Land Construction are discussed during the public comment portion of the meeting. Meeting can be viewed here.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025 – 8:45 a.m – GBI Interviews Commissioner Ray Davis. Listen to his interview here.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025 – 1:31 p.m. – GBI Interviews Clay & Megen Conner Listen to the interview here.
Thursday, March 6, 2025 – 8:53 a.m. – GBI Interviews Public Works Director Dink Butler & Asst. Public Works Director Robert Seamans. Listen to the interview here.
Chairman David Bennett Date of interview unclear – Listen to interview here.
Commissioner Nick Newkirk [Interview date not listed on audio recording or in case file. Time ~8:25 a.m. (based on interview end time)]
Commissioner Anthony Simmons [Interview date not listed on audio recording or in case file. Time ~12:00 p.m. (based on interview end time)]
GBI Interviews Commissioner Ray Mosley [Interview date not listed on audio recording or in case file. Time 9:53 p.m. (based on interview end time)]
GBI Interviews Commissioner Timmy Rushing – [Interview date not listed on audio recording or in case file. Time 10:14 a.m. ]
Monday, March 10, 2025 – GriceConnect breaks the news that there is a GBI investigation. TheGeorgiaVirtue also notes an active GBI investigation in an article about the ethical concerns about Commissioner Toby Conner voting on the approval of funding for work completed by his brother.
GBI Interviews Commissioner Toby Conner [date not listed but comments from agent in the audio indicate it occurred after the month of March]. Time 10:06 a.m (based on interview end time) ]
No one else was interviewed by the GBI, but in July, the GBI does interview Clay Conner a second time.
April 11, 2025 – The District Attorney’s Office notifies PAC that the GBI investigation, which is still ongoing, will create a conflict for his office. The DA’s office did not formally ‘conflict out’ because the office did not receive the case file since Busbee notified PAC while the investigation was ongoing. The GBI does not forward its eventual findings to the Ogeechee Circuit DA’s office and instead consults with PAC.
Monday, July 14, 2025 – Clay Conner and his attorney submit a proffer to the GBI and Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia which prohibits the use of the content of Conner’s interview in any criminal or civil proceeding against him so long as the content is truthful and complete. The fact that the proffer has been made is also prohibited from being used in any criminal or civil proceeding against Clay Conner. Read the proffer. A copy of the document signed by the prosecutor in the case is available here.
Tuesday, August 19, 2025 – Conner and his attorney appear at the Bulloch County Commission meeting. Conner’s attorney, Jim Durham, tells the commissioners his client has been treated unfairly and that Conner voluntarily sat down with the GBI with all of the information about his business. Read the story.
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2025 – The Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council signs an order appointing a District Attorney Pro Tem to handle the case. (Note: This is when the order was signed, but PAC was handling the case prior to this date because the PAC prosecutor is referenced in the case file prior to this date and Busbee notified PAC of the potential conflict on April 11, 2025.)
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2025 – The Prosecuting Attorney’s Council pens a letter to the GBI stating, “Based on your findings and our analysis of the case, there is no readily provable criminal intent, and the case is declined.” Read the story.
Thursday, Aug 21, 2025 – TheGeorgiaVirtue filed an Open Records Request for the complete case file. The GBI replies the same day to report that the case is still open and pending and, therefore, the records are not available. View the email response from the GBI indicating that the file was not subject to release.
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2025 – TheGeorgiaVirtue again files an Open Records Request for the complete case file. [Documented in response from GBI here]
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025 – The GBI replies with the cost estimate for the case file and states the file will be ready on or before November 19, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. (Not a typo on the part of TGV, the GBI invoice lists the completion date as more than one year from the date of request. View the email response from the GBI.)
Friday, Oct. 3, 2025 – The GBI file is provided to TheGeorgiaVirtue. It notes that some personally identifiable information was redacted during preparation of the file, as is permitted under the Georgia Open Records Act.[View the email dated October 3 indicating that the case file is available for download]
