4 p.m. Oct. 23, 2025: This story was updated today to reflect a statement from District Attorney Keith Higgins.
A cashier’s check for $113,000 to pay for an office vehicle. Management lapses leading to upwards of $60,000 in salary overpayments. No formal procedures to review or approve operating budgets.
These are among the findings forensic accountants revealed at District Attorney Keith Higgins’s office during a monthslong investigation to explain how his budget has gotten more than $1 million in arrears to the five counties which comprise the Brunswick Judicial Circuit.
The 10-page report by Baker Tilly Advisory Group and obtained by The Current GA found dozens of instances of questionable spending by staff at the DA’s office. However, these amounts detailed in the report were not close to the totals that the municipalities say they are owed in non-budgeted overspending of taxpayer funds by the DA.
The accountants said poor recordkeeping and oversight since Higgins took over the office in early 2021 prevented them from performing a complete audit for the county commissioners from Glynn, Camden, Wayne, Appling and Jeff Davis. The findings, sent Wednesday, “may not fully represent the true state” of affairs at his office, according to the document, which refers to the office as the “DAO.”
“Our audit of the DAO identified multiple critical deficiencies, most notably in the area of internal controls. These weaknesses contributed to questionable cash withdrawals and transactions that raise concerns about potential misappropriation of funds or fraudulent activity,” the report said.
The audit is expected to provide the basis of discussions during court-appointed mediation scheduled to start Oct. 28 (Tuesday) between Higgins and the Glynn County government over what the county says is $962,607.96 in overspending by the DA’s office.
The DA filed a complaint in the county’s superior court in October 2024 that accused Glynn County of withholding payroll disbursements and conspiring with the other counties in the circuit to do so as well. The county countersued and attempted to start proceedings to remove Higgins from office.
This morning, the five counties in the circuit released a joint statement calling for Higgins’ resignation, in light of the audit’s findings.
“The audit confirms what the counties have experienced for months, an alarming lack of financial management and oversight in the District Attorney’s Office,” said Walter Rafolski, Chairman of the Glynn County Board of Commissioners. “The findings are deeply troubling and reflect a complete breakdown in the systems that safeguard public money. The five counties expect immediate corrective action and full accountability. Taxpayers deserve better, and we intend to ensure they receive it.”
Higgins told The Current that he will not be resigning. He added that the only time Baker Tilly spoke with him was on Oct. 10.
In a statement released to the media, Higgins said that the employees responsible for record keeping and expenditures referenced in the report are no longer employed by the office.
“The signature stamp that was misused by former employees was eliminated, and I implemented a policy that all personnel action forms, which are required to hire new employees or increase an employee’s hourly rate of pay or salary, must be personally signed by me,” he wrote in the statement.
Higgins said that once he became aware of the misappropriation of government funds, he referred the matter to law enforcement for investigation, recused himself, and arranged for another attorney from the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to handle it.
The accounting team said that the District Attorney has not had an audit, nor has he reconciled his monthly office spending since 2022. Poor financial controls were evident when the accountants started their work, the report said. They were provided “numerous boxes” of files, expense receipts and other financial transactions, but the documentation was so disorganized that it was “extremely difficult to conduct a meaningful analysis,” according to the report.
Higgins said that from now on, he will have an annual audit at the end of each fiscal year.
The apparent lack of understanding within the DA’s office about budget protocols and salary bands led to salary overpayments of between $38,000 and $60,000 for new hires to the office, the report said.
A lack of internal oversight or structured approval process for expenditures led to numerous cash payments for some office-related purchases, the report said. Notably, these included a cashier’s check of $113,905 and $63,726 to Woody Folsom Automotive for two office vehicles, payments that the report said had been initiated by the former office manager. The DA told the auditors that the expenses had been approved, but he did not know the payments would be made in cash.
Cash was also used for certain staff payments, according to the report. Office staff were paid approximately $17,400 for organizing the District Attorney’s file room, according to the report. The auditors said that the DA had approved the project and the payments but were not aware that the work, supervised by his former office manager, was paid for in cash, according to the report.
The auditors revealed a series of expenditures allegedly made by the former office manager that the accountants said could potentially be fraudulent. Those include expenses allegedly made with an office credit card during personal vacations, including payments for flights and hotel payments in Las Vegas, totalling approximately $1,250.
The auditors also reported that they could not find documentation to explain expenses totalling approximately $14,000 paid from the office checking account.
Some of the checks written from the office account had the DA’s approval, the report cited Higgins as saying. He told the auditors that up to 16 checks associated with his former office manager could have been forged, according to the report. But the auditors did not provide a total for these expenditures.
The auditing firm said that they would be referring their findings to appropriate law enforcement.