Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have arrested a Columbus criminal defense lawyer who was acquitted last year of federal money laundering charges, charging him with eight felony counts of drug distribution for giving 11 prescription pills over a two-month period last summer to a friend who turned out to be an undercover informant.
Around noon Thursday, in front of waiting television cameras and members of the Columbus news media, the GBI made a traffic stop of Columbus attorney J. Mark Shelnutt in front of the county Government Center, Shelnutt told the Fulton County Daily Report on Friday. As television news crews filmed the arrest, GBI agents handcuffed Shelnutt and took possession of his car, he said.
