For second time, judge decides against pre-trial dismissal

Former Community First Bank officer Benjamin Lee Hiott has failed to win a dismissal of the lawsuit in which he is a co-defendant. Late last week Judge Lawton McIntosh signed an order in the Oconee Common Pleas Court stating, “Defendant Hiott’s motion to reconsider the court’s February 20, 2015 order is denied without hearing.” Hiott’s lawyer had appealed to the judge to drop his client as a defendant in the suit for Hilton Head Island resident Debi Baker Brookshire that alleges a series of deceptions that resulted in the emptying of a $1.1 million trust, with which Brookshire had entrusted Community First and had given its then vice president, Hiott, power of attorney.