Analyzing The ‘But I Didn’t Mean To’ Defense | Georgia Public Broadcasting

ATLANTA — This week, Gov. Nathan Deal suspended a state Senator under indictment. Don Balfour allegedly claimed reimbursements when he wasn’t on Senate business. At his suspension hearing Wednesday, his attorney said the errors were inadvertent. But legal experts say that excuse is actually indefensible

This week, Gov. Nathan Deal suspended a state Senator under indictment. Don Balfour allegedly claimed reimbursements when he wasn’t on Senate business. At his suspension hearing Wednesday, his attorney said the errors were inadvertent. But legal experts say that excuse is actually indefensible

You didn’t see the “no parking” sign and mistakenly left your car in a tow-away zone. Or you didn’t know you needed to pay taxes for freelance work you performed.

Mistakes — inadvertent errors. Right?

This week, a state Senator tried to add one more to that list of innocent mistakes: allegedly filing fraudulent expense reports. And while a state Senate ethics committee accepted that reasoning from Senator Don Balfour last year, that was before his indictment on a combined 18 counts of making a false certificate, theft by taking and making a false statement.

On Wednesday, that argument didn’t get him very far.

“The expense errors that were submitted were inadvertent. Inadvertent! Therefore unintentional,” Balfour’s attorney, Ken Hodges, told a panel of three GOP lawmakers.

A few hours later, Gov. Nathan Deal suspended Balfour, the state Senate’s longest-serving Republican. And in the words of Atlanta criminal defense attorney Doug Rohan, it might be because that defense doesn’t wash.

Rohan says there’s a class of offenses that require criminal intent. And then there are the crimes Balfour’s been charged with.

“If you’re signing your name to a document purporting that those documents are correct and accurate, you can’t say it’s inadvertent,” he said in a telephone interview. “You can’t say you’ve mistakenly submitted documentation for reimbursement.”

Rohan says it’s especially true because the charges include instances of double-billing. In those cases, Balfour allegedly submitted expense reports to both the state and his employer, the Waffle House.

“It’s not a mistake that you then obtain reimbursement from both your employer and the taxpayers of Georgia,” he said. “You are intentionally submitting reimbursement forms to both agencies for reimbursement.”