Former Stonecrest mayor convicted of fraud disqualified from running for city council

STONECREST, Ga. (Decaturish) — The DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections disqualified Jason Lary from running for Stonecrest City Council at its Sept. 10 meeting. Lary was recently released from federal prison and is under supervised release following a conviction for stealing COVID-19 relief funds from the city.

The elections board also canceled Lary’s voter registration due to the conviction. Lary qualified to run for Stonecrest City Council District 5 in August.

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Elections board members said Lary began serving his sentence in January 2022 and was released in February 2025. He still has to undergo supervised release for the next three years.

A representative for Lary said he has completed his sentence, paid restitution, and registered to vote. Elections board members said they were not given documentation showing Lary’s sentence is complete and his civil rights have been restored.

Lary is the former mayor of Stonecrest, serving from 2017 to 2022. However, he pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2022 of embezzling COVID-19 relief funds from the city. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Decaturish media partner Atlanta News First reported that Lary used the money to pay the mortgage for his lake house and other debts.

According to ANF, U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said under the CARES Act, the federal government distributed $125 million in COVID-19 relief funds to DeKalb County. In July 2020, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted to disburse some of the relief funds to its municipalities, including a $6.2 million grant to Stonecrest.

According to the Department of Justice, Lary, as Mayor, signed a resolution in September 2020 acknowledging the CARES Act requirements and adopting a funding plan for Stonecrest’s relief funds. The plan provided $1 million to the Stonecrest Cares Program for mask distribution, COVID-19 education and testing, and other purposes for churches and nonprofit organizations in and around Stonecrest. The plan also provided $5 million to the Small Business Program.

Under Georgia law, individuals convicted of a crime of moral turpitude cannot run for office. A crime of moral turpitude includes theft and fraud, with a sentence of up to five years.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, anyone convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude is ineligible to hold office “unless that person’s civil rights have been restored and at least 10 years have elapsed from the date of the completion of the sentence without a subsequent conviction of another felony involving moral turpitude.”

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.

This story was written and published by Decaturish, a news partner of Atlanta News First.