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.
In the surveillance video, the two men appear to have a brief argument and Gaillard puts his finger up to Webb’s face.
When Webb tries to push it away, Gaillard charges, shoving him against the wall, choking him with both hands around his neck, then body-slams the elderly veteran to the ground and stomps on his head. He then kicks Webb in the head a second time.
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“I guess he got upset because I hit at his door,” Webb told Gray.
Webb was hospitalized for three days with a brain bleed.
“He was Mike Tyson-ing me there,” Webb said. “I’m just stunned. I don’t know what to say.”
In August 2022, a Fulton County Grand Jury returned a six-count felony indictment. Those charges could have carried as much as a 20-year prison sentence.
“The fact that someone was entrusted to care for him and treat him like this, it is completely offensive,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at the time.
Under Georgia’s First Offender Act, Gaillard instead pleaded to aggravated battery and aggravated assault charges.
Along with probation, he is required to not work at the VA, write an apology letter, and stay away from the victim. He’s also required to undergo treatment for PTSD.
It was a “non-negotiated plea.” That means prosecutors and the defense could not come to an agreement on sentencing, so the judge made the decision.
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