The brother-in-law to former Democratic nominee in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election, Stacey Abrams, was arrested and charged with attacking a 16-year-old who refused to have sex with him, reports say.
According to the Tampa Police Department, 57-year-old Jimmie Gardner invited the teen to his room while lodging at the Renaissance Hotel in Tampa. Upon accepting the invitation, she arrived with the expectation she would accept money from him in exchange for sex. But she changed her mind once she arrived, which made him angry, she told officers.
He then ordered her to leave his room. A verbal altercation ensued, which turned physical after the suspect rung his hands around her neck, causing her the inability to breathe.
Moments later, she fled the scene and called the police. Officers were dispatched to the hotel room, where they found the victim. Gardner left the premises.
Since then, the suspect has been captured and charged with “human trafficking, lewd and lascivious touching of certain minors and battery.”
In 1984, Gardner, formerly drafted by the Chicago Cubs, was wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting two women in West Virginia. Twenty-seven years after his wrongful conviction, he was exonerated and released from prison in 2016, authorities say.
Two years later, he married Georgia Federal Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, making him the brother-in-law of Stacey Abrams.
The suspect, a Georgia resident, is a motivational speaker and emotional intelligence trainer for formerly incarcerated students.
“Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez wrote in a statement released to the media. “Our attorneys will prosecute this case as we would any other offender who is alleged to have committed these crimes. We take these charges very seriously.”
Shortly after Gardner’s arrest, he was held at Hillsborough County with no bond, which was later set at $500,000.
