ATLANTA — A Cobb County attorney says she was shocked to learn that a one-time close friend, who was a highly paid state official, had been charged with four felony counts of trying to defraud the state by faking two pregnancies. The state Attorney General’s Office obtained the indictment of 43-year-old Robin Folsom earlier this month. Folsom left her job as the top communications official at the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) after being confronted by state investigators last October.
Attorney Meredith Carter emailed the AG’s office and the state Inspector General (OIG) after she learned of Folsom’s indictment. She copied Channel 2 in the email and offered to tell us about her two-year friendship with Folsom that corresponded with the time Folsom claimed she had two pregnancies.
“It’s just amazing that this was happening. I had no idea,” Carter told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Richard Belcher. Carter says she has to be good at evaluating people so she can sort out prospective clients, but she admits she and a small circle of friends completely misjudged Robin Folsom.
According to the OIG, Folsom faked two pregnancies between October 2019 and May 2021. Asked by Belcher if she saw any signs that Folsom was pregnant or whether she had stopped drinking alcoholic beverages during social events, Carter answered, “Never.” Any discussions of pregnancy? “Never.”
In a news release, the OIG said Folsom’s alleged scheme began to unravel in March 2021 when a GVRA co-worker noticed that Folsom was wearing what appeared to be a fake pregnancy costume under her outer garments. One of the counts in the indictment accuses her of creating a fake identify of the purported father of at least one of her alleged children. GVRA received an email from that person requesting additional leave benefits for Folsom.
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“I definitely am just astounded that she made up another person, a father, a baby father and was saying that she was pregnant at a time when we were making plans. We went to Lake Lanier in July 2020, and she was not pregnant,” Carter told Channel 2.
But Carter says the fake pregnancy allegations aren’t what drove a wedge between her and Folsom. Early last year – at a time when, unknown to Carter, Folsom claimed she was pregnant – Carter says her friend announced she was getting married. She shopped for a dress and picked out a venue. She asked Carter to be one of her bridesmaids. In fact, Carter says she and other friends ultimately discovered that it was a lot more complicated.
“She actually was planning two fake weddings, and I was in one, one wedding that was going to happen in the mountains, and another group was at a wedding that was going to happen at Key W, Florida,” she told Belcher.
Carter says the purported groom was a fellow state employee, whose name Channel 2 is withholding, but “When I looked it up, I saw he was married.”
Carter says she gave her pal “the benefit of the doubt.” But Folsom’s wedding claims fell apart last July, when Carter and other friends finally figured out that the weddings were a fiction.
Carter says she and Folsom haven’t spoken since, and she’s astonished at what her former friend faces. “I don’t think that any of this was about money. I really just think Robin needs to get help,” she told Belcher.
Channel 2 estimated in an earlier story that the amount of money involved in the alleged leave pay fraud was between $10,000 and $15,000.
The OIG says Folsom resigned last October after she was interviewed by an investigator from that office. Most of the charges against her are based on her alleged lies to the investigator.
Channel 2 has made repeated efforts to reach Folsom, who is reportedly in custody in Washington, DC, where she had an initial hearing Monday. She’ll have to be returned to Georgia to face trial in Fulton County. We tried three cell phone numbers, two of which were disconnected or reassigned. A third number appears to be active – and sounded like her voice on the voicemail – but the mailbox is full.
She is apparently represented currently by the DC Public Defender’s Office. We were unable to leave a message for her attorney at that office.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Chris Carr’s office emailed, “We understand she was arrested in DC, and on condition of her bond in that court, she must turn herself in to Fulton County.”
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