Documents federal agents served Commissioner Sammie Sias at the start of Tuesday’s Augusta Commission legal meeting were likely subpoenas for records or other items not found during the FBI raid of Sias’ house last month.

Documents that federal agents served Commissioner Sammie Sias at the start of Tuesday’s Augusta Commission legal meeting were likely subpoenas for records or other items not found during the FBI raid of Sias’ house last month, said an attorney familiar with federal prosecutions.

Kevin Rowson, an FBI public affairs specialist, said the agents “carried out a court-authorized law enforcement action” but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Sias did not return messages inquiring about the agents’ visit.

The commission referred concerns raised by Sias’ former mistress, Willa Hilton, to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in July, but within days the city was in receipt of subpoenas authorized by a federal grand jury, indicating the FBI investigation had been underway for some time.

The scope and targets of the FBI inquiry are unknown, but Hilton alleged Sias was forging invoices and misusing sales tax funds intended for improvements at the city-owned Jamestown Community Center as well as mistreating children attending programs at Jamestown. Sias said her allegations were that of a scorned ex-lover.

The Sandridge Community Association, which Sias founded and has led since he was a Fort Gordon Army sergeant major in 1992, has received $312,800 in sales tax dollars for Jamestown since 2007. The city pays all utilities and other expenses for the center, while Sandridge got to keep rental fees and program payments.

Evans attorney John Garcia, who worked as a U.S. and state prosecutor for 18 years, said two types of documents are typically hand-delivered.

“The big things you hand deliver are subpoenas or target letters,” Garcia said.

If agents had already searched a home, they might issue subpoenas for additional materials related to the case they haven’t found, said Garcia, who said he is unfamiliar with Sias' case and not involved with it.

Sias was handed two legal-sized envelopes at the meeting. Garcia said separate subpoenas would be required for an individual and his or her business.

Investigations can take wild turns as agents analyze evidence, Garcia said.

“You may start looking at one thing but when you start developing it, there’s some much bigger crime,” he said.

More serious would be a target letter, which informs someone that he or she is under investigation for a crime and invites him or her to speak to the grand jury, Garcia said.

The target is subject to cross-examination and can bring an attorney, but the attorney cannot observe the grand jury proceedings.

A target letter indicates an indictment could be close, Garcia said.

“You’ve done everything else, but you’re ready to indict if you give a target letter,” he said.

A target letter can also be an effort to induce someone to testify, but those aren’t typically delivered in a public space, he said.

“I doubt if they’re trying to get him to be a witness unless they have come to the conclusion there are other conspirators,” Garcia said.

Augusta attorney Jack Long, who has defended many clients in federal court, said that the documents likely were notice of a wiretap of Sias’ phone. The subject of a wiretap – which also covers text messages – must be informed within 90 days after the surveillance concludes, although the court can delay the notice.

A judge will authorize a tap if probable cause exists that a crime is being committed and the phone number is being used to commit it.