Clayton Man Charged in Toccoa With Extortion

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa

A Clayton man faces charges in Stephens County after an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office.

The Stephens County Sheriff’s Office arrested 52-year-old Robert Pietrowicz recently and charged him with three counts of criminal attempt to commit theft by extortion.

Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said it started with a phone call from an industry within the county.

“The Sheriff’s Office received a complaint from a local industry here in Stephens County that the management had been getting a lot of e-mails and letters through the U.S. Mail from a former employee demanding they give him a large sum of money and trying to extort money from the company,” said Shirley.

Shirley said that once the industry contacted his investigators, they began looking closely into the case.

“We began the investigation that included a controlled call to the suspect,” said Shirley. “During the call, a time and location and date was set up where the suspect was to meet an individual with the money. As the suspect came to the pre-determined location near Wal-Mart, investigators and Sheriff’s deputies did an arrest of Mr. Pietrowicz without incident.”

The sheriff went on to say that once Pietrowicz was in custody, investigators continued their work to find more evidence.

“After he was arrested, my investigators, along with Rabun County investigators searched two homes, one in Habersham County and the residence of the suspect in Rabun County and were able to recover valuable evidence that included documents as well as electronically stored information that was germane to the investigation,” said Shirley.

Pietrowicz was released from the Stephens County Jail on a $15,100 bond last week.