Metro court clerk accused of ordering employee to delete public files tied to passport fees

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into a clerk for the Cobb County Superior Court, who is accused of ordering an employee to delete public files related to passport fee expenses.

Channel 2′s Michele Newell learned the Cobb County Board of Commissioners received a whistleblower complaint last week.

Connie Taylor has served as the Cobb County Superior Court Clerk for two years. Now she is at the center of a whistleblower complaint.

The complaint sent to the Cobb Board of Commissioners accuses Taylor of ordering her employee to delete passport fee records after the office received an open records request.

According to the complaint, Taylor said she wasn’t obligated to provide the information because the passport fee money belonged to her and stated that they would get rid of records responsive to the request and said, “We are just going to Donald Trump this thing.”

“She should definitely be investigated,” said Mary Ghattas, who lives in Cobb County.

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State law allows superior county clerks to retain some passport processing fees as personal compensation, in addition to their salary. They’re are not required to return the money.  Taylor allegedly collected a little more than $400,000 from passport fees over a two year period.

Taylor is accused of collecting $84,000 in passport shipping fees that she said was a mistake due to a system error. Taylor offered to refund the money back to the county.

Newell tried get her side of the story on Monday, but Taylor didn’t respond to her email. So Newell went to her office. She was told Taylor was unavailable.

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