A former Chief Magistrate Judge in Floyd County was arrested Thursday evening on 27 charges. Charges for the Judge, Chris Mathis, include  theft by deception, theft by taking, theft by conversion, exploitation of an elderly person, deposit account fraud and damaging and destroying property to defraud another, according to Floyd County Jail records. The charges stem from Mathis Cattle Business. A property bond was set at $500,000. Allegedly There are multiple victims and the thefts ranged from $130,000 to $35,000. In some of the cases, Mathis took his alleged victims’ money with a promise to purchase cattle but instead converted the funds for his own use. Some of the alleged incidents happened in 2009 while some took place earlier this year. Mathis is also accused of being in possession of John Deere tractor that belonged to someone else. Additionally, he is accused of writing a bad check for $39,600 to pay for cattle.

Mathis was charged with exploitation of an elderly person because two of his alleged victims were over 65 years old, warrants stated.

Mathis resigned as Floyd County chief magistrate judge May 13. District Attorney Leigh Patterson said at the time she received information about several allegations of misconduct by Mathis last summer and requested that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation conduct an investigation.

Mathis was arrested at his home by agents from the GBI and Floyd County sheriff’s deputies.

Information provided by the Rome News Tribune