CAIRO — South Georgia District Attorney Joe Mulholland said he believes the case into former Grady County clerk Carrie Croy can possibly be concluded by the end of the year.

Mulholland said the timeline of how quickly the case proceeds will depend on various circumstances and the procedures of the Superior Court of Grady County.

Croy, 52, surrendered to Georgia Bureau of Investigations agents Tuesday at the Grady County Jail on an outstanding warrant after being charged with one count theft by taking.

The district attorney said he believed the GBI would hand him a completed case file within the next several weeks.

“In this case it’s a little bit different in the sense that most of the evidence and most of the investigation was all done prior to her arrest and so therefore, there’s not a lot they have to wrap up before they give it to me,” Mulholland said. “I’m sure I’ll get the file within the next couple of weeks.”

Mulholland said once he receives the case file, he will review it with GBI special agent Hank Day to form the indictment he will eventually present to the next available grand jury, possibly later in the month.

“I review it and I can either add charges or if I don’t think a charge is appropriate we can certainly change it or maybe modify the language of the actual arrest warrant,” Mulholland said. “I’ll make an indictment based on those charges that I think are pertinent.”

The district attorney said he has been in contact with Day since the beginning of the investigation and did not anticipate the review process to take very long.

Mulholland said the grand jury phase was not likely to last longer than two months.

If the grand jury approves the indictment the case will then move to the Grady County Superior Court where it will be presided over by either Judge J. Kevin Chason or Judge Heather Lanier.

“Most criminal cases Heather tends to handle, but there’s not any rhyme or reason,” Mulholland said. “Basically they both have the same constitutional office, and so either one of them can handle any particular case, civil or criminal.”

The GBI stated in a press release that Croy is alleged to have illegally taken approximately $5,800 between 2015 and 2018 in her capacity as county clerk.

An Oct. 23 letter to the county commission from County Administrator Buddy Johnson outlined the findings of an internal audit that alleged Croy was involved in “widespread” manipulation of the payroll and finance software in order to increase the net value of her personal paychecks.

Croy resigned as county clerk the same day.

The letter alleged Croy surreptitiously removed various deductions from her own paychecks dating back to 2015, including health- and life-insurance premiums and federal and state tax deductions.