Former Nonprofit Leader Calls for Accountability After IRS Agent’s Arrest

When former Southern Conservation Trust executive director Katie Pace Quattlebaum heard her dog barking furiously last fall, she didn’t expect to find a stranger standing in her backyard—past a locked gate, “Beware of Dog”, and “No Trespassing” signs.

That man, later identified as Allan Burrows, claimed to be with the U.S. Department of Justice. According to Quattlebaum and court records, he was actually an unsworn IRS process server attempting to deliver a witness subpoena related to a conservation easement case in Florida. Quattlebaum had already agreed to testify in that case, which was related to her work with the Southern Conservation Trust and had nothing to do with anything criminal.

“He walked a good quarter of a mile up my driveway, past a locked gate, around to the back of my house,” Quattlebaum said. “When I told him he was trespassing, he said if my dog bit him, he’d shoot him.”

Quattlebaum, recovering from a painful hernia at the time, said she was terrified. She called her attorney, who instructed her to contact the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies arrived within minutes and found Burrows sitting in a chair on her back porch.

Body camera footage from responding deputies later became central to a probable cause hearing in Coweta County Magistrate Court. The video, according to the order from Judge Shipley, showed Burrows falsely identifying himself as a Department of Justice employee and claiming Quattlebaum was “wanted in a fraud case.”

The Coweta Deputy’s bodycam footage recorded Burrows stating, “It’s a big fraud case. Uh, from what I see, she looks like she’s the promoter.”

Following the trespassing incident, TIGTA, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration sent Quattlebaum a letter threatening to prosecute her for threatening the IRS employee, though he was an unidentified trespasser at the time and had threatened her dog.

Judge Shipley found probable cause that Burrows had committed criminal trespass and felony false statements to law enforcement.

“He admitted on the stand that he lied to the deputy,” said Ryan Pulver, Quattlebaum’s attorney. “The judge found probable cause for both charges.”

In the video from Coweta Magistrate Court Burrows said “I corrected myself afterwards and said that she is just a witness in this case”, and he admitted to lying to the Coweta Deputy in order to “express the importance of personal service.”

Burrows, a Florida resident, surrendered to authorities after the hearing and was later released on bond. He was initially represented by a United States Department of Justice attorney but has since retained private counsel.

The case now rests with Coweta County District Attorney Herb Cranford, whose office has prosecutorial discretion on whether to pursue indictment.

Quattlebaum says she has stayed in contact with the victim advocate assigned to her case but has grown frustrated by delays.

“It’s been more than a year since it happened,” she said. “He’s still employed by the IRS, and taxpayers are still paying his salary. He needs to be held accountable.”

Pulver emphasized that the case isn’t about Quattlebaum’s professional conduct, but about a government employee overstepping his authority.

“There’s nothing wrong with the work Katie did,” Pulver said. “This happened because somebody told the government no, and instead of following process, this agent trespassed and lied.

Quattlebaum, who now works for a global health organization and volunteers her grant-writing skills to local nonprofits, said the experience has shaken her sense of safety.

“I’ve worked in this community for years. I’ve won awards. I pay my taxes. For someone to come to my home, threaten to shoot my dog, and call me a criminal—it’s absurd,” she said. “I still get nervous when someone pulls up to my gate.”

For now, she’s waiting—hoping that justice moves forward.

“As a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen, I want to see him indicted,” Quattlebaum said. “If this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.”