DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The Department of Veterans Affairs employee who viciously beat an elderly veteran at an Atlanta VA clinic will not serve any prison time, Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray has learned.
In a plea agreement, Lawrence Gaillard was sentenced to 2 years on an ankle monitor and 8 years’ probation.
But that ankle monitor time is considered time served and the ankle monitor was removed on Aug. 18.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office pushed for a 2-year prison sentence, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jane Barwick instead went with 2 years’ time served.
Gray first broke the story of the attack in April 2022 and first obtained the surveillance video of the attack later that summer through a Freedom Information Act request.
The April 2022 incident started when Vietnam Veteran Phillip Webb, 73, knocked on Gaillard’s office door. Gaillard was a patient advocate at the VA.
Webb said he knocked on the door in the waiting room to let Gaillard know he was going to the bathroom. He was waiting to discuss scheduling hernia surgery.