AUGUSTA, Ga. – The former fire chief of the Augusta Fire Prevention Bureau was convicted Thursday by a federal jury of seven counts of extortion.
According to evidence presented at the four-day trial, Jason Baron Beard extorted cash payments from two nightclubs in exchange for not assigning fire marshals to work “specials” and enforce the clubs’ occupancy limits.
Beard would collect his payments from the clubs’ managers on the Saturday following the first Friday of each month, a date when restaurants, bars, and nightclubs in Augusta would hold special events and promotions to draw the largest crowds.
Even when the nightclubs’ managers told Beard that the clubs were well over the occupancy limits, Beard continued to collect cash payments without ever even issuing a warning. So long as the clubs’ managers continued to pay Beard, he never assigned a fire marshal to that location.
As a result, Beard knowingly allowed these nightclubs to operate in a dangerous and overcrowded manner on regular occasions and ignored a threat to the public’s safety, officials said.
“Acting as Fire Chief was not Mr. Beard’s job; it was the citizen’s job that he was hired to perform. He had no right to sell the public’s trust for his personal profit,” U.S. Attorney Edward J. Tarver said. “The United States Attorney’s Office will continue to fight public corruption to help ensure the public’s safety.”
Tarver commended the hard work and dedication of the FBI, which investigated the case. Special Agent Charles E. McKee led the FBI’s investigation.
“Public corruption remains the FBI’s No. 1 criminal investigative program priority because of the vast damage that it can cause within government and to the public’s trust in its government,” said J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Atlanta Field Office. “The investigation and resulting federal conviction of former Augusta Fire Chief Beard illustrates the FBI’s commitment to following up on allegations in these matters, developing facts and presenting them for prosecution.”