DOUGLASVILLE – As a result of a GBI investigation, two Carroll County lawyers were indicted yesterday by a Douglas County Grand Jury on charges related to theft from the estate of a murder victim.  Candice Rader and Valerie Cooke, attorneys for Debra Post who was charged in September of 2002 with murdering her husband, Jerry Post, were each indicted on 6 counts of Theft by Taking and one count of Theft by Receiving.

This is the first known Georgia criminal case where charges were based upon Georgia’s “Slayer’s Statute”, O.C.G.A. 53-1-5, which prohibits a person who kills another from inheriting assets from the murder victim.      

The GBI investigation determined that Rader and Cooke knowingly took assets which belonged to the estate of Jerry Post as payment for their legal fees associated with their representation of Debra Post.  The assets included life insurance proceeds to Debra Post and real property deeded over to Rader and Cooke by Debra Post.  The total value of these assets is over $320,000.

The case was presented to the grand jury by Special Prosecutor Brown Mosely who will handle the prosecution of the two lawyers. 

On September 12, 2003, six months after Jerry Post’s assets were turned over to Rader and Cooke, Debra Post pled guilty to felony murder and is now serving a life sentence without parole.

Cooke and Rader were arrested late yesterday in Carrollton by GBI agents and taken to the Douglas County Jail.

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Contact Information:

John Bankhead - 404-270-8330