Officers Shoot Dog While Chasing Drug Suspect; Owner Angry

October 19th, 2008
POSTED: 2:17 pm EDT October 17, 2008
UPDATED: 2:57 pm EDT October 17, 2008
ATLANTA — An Atlanta dog owner is demanding answers after a police chase and shooting. Police were chasing a drug suspect when they opened fire on a dog, she said.
The pit bull’s owner, Tracy Dummetts, said her dog, Veruca, was riddled with bullet holes after an unexpected run-in with police.
Thursday afternoon, Dummetts said she heard yelling and saw police running around her 6-foot privacy fence, apparently chasing someone, when the suspect hopped the fence and an officer followed. Dummetts said she headed to her back door to get Veruca inside, but before she got there, she heard gunfire and moments later found her dog on the ground.
In a written statement, Atlanta police told Channel 2 the pit bull attacked the officer and he fired his weapon after fearing for his safety.
“She may have been barking, but she’s never bitten anyone. She’s a very friendly dog, so he was clearly just afraid of dogs because the suspect went through the yard and jumped over and didn’t have any problem,” said Dummetts.
Dummetts said she begged the officers to help her get her dog to an animal hospital or give her a police escort and they refused.
She said no one from the department has offered apologies or help for her vet bills.
WSBTV.com

Posted in Animal Law, Legal Malpractice, Personal Injury | No Comments »

Dalton Law Firm Bombing Over Bitter Family Dispute

October 19th, 2008
POSTED: 11:17 am EDT October 17, 2008
UPDATED: 5:50 pm EDT October 18, 2008
DALTON, Ga. — A bitter family dispute over property in north Georgia apparently erupted Friday when a 78-year-old man threw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office.
The explosion blew out windows of the two-story, colonial-style house where attorneys worked, and some in the small blue-collar town of 30,000 felt vibrations from more than a block away.
Witnesses said the blast at about 10 a.m. Friday blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham Law Firm on West Crawford Street.
Police have identified the suspect in an explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia Friday as 78-year-old Lloyd Cantrell.
Sam Sanders, an attorney at the firm, told Channel 2 that both father and son had mutual restraining orders against one another.
Sanders said Cantrell amassed several parcels of land in the area, and transferred property to his son in the 90’s.
Authorities said Cantrell’s son had grown fearful of him, though, and filed a lawsuit seeking to keep his dad off the property the son had been given, claiming the elder man stole tools, kicked down a door and was suicidal.
Sanders said the case had been moving slowly in the court system.
Authorities said it was too early to talk about a motive in the case, but the dispute between the father and son was well-documented in court records.
“Essentially, what we’ve got here is not an act of terrorism,” said Scott Sweetow, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It is a depraved individual, by all accounts, who decided to launch what ended up being a suicide attack.”
“We do not know what kind of device it was,” said Officer Bruce Frazier with the Dalton Police Department, referring to the explosive. He also said the device didn’t appear to be large enough to damage surrounding buildings.
Police said a call came in about a disturbance and when the officer arrived, a man ran to the rear of the building, then an explosion occurred.
The officer was not injured. Four people other than the bomber were hurt.
Initially, witnesses said the suspect tried to ram his vehicle into the law firm.
Authorities said the bomber’s vehicle had containers of gasoline and propane.
Frazier said the GBI has finished removing explosive materials from the suspect’s vehicle.
Out of the four people injured, one person was flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, one person was admitted to Hamilton Medical Center and two people were treated and released.
“As I was exiting the post office I saw smoke coming up from the law firm and police officer told us to get back because it was a bomb,” said one witness.
Authorities said they also planned to search the bomber’s residence.
There will be a public meeting Sunday at Dalton High School at 2 p.m.
Police Chief Jason Parker and District Attorney Kermit McManus as well as Victim/Witness Assistance Staff and members of Georgia’s State Crisis Response Team will be present with a team of crisis interviewers to talk with community members about Friday’s events.
Community members, family members and friends of victims, law enforcement community members, first responders, as well as counselors and teachers are encouraged to attend.
As the situation unfolded Friday, City Park Elementary School, which is located across the street, was locked down. Police said the children were not in danger. The children were transferred to a local church.
Steve Williams, an attorney at the firm, told the local newspaper he was at the post office next door when he heard a loud explosion. He said he didn’t know how many people were in the building at the time.
Police, fire and medical personnel were at the scene, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The GBI cleared the building just after 1:30 p.m. Friday and firefighters were then able to attack the fire. The fire came from a hot spot from the initial blast.
The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site.
Authorities turned the building where the bombing occurred back over to its owners Saturday. Members of the firm told Channel 2 they hope to reopen their office.
WSBTV.com

Posted in Business Law, Consumer Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Family Law, Personal Injury, Wills and Probate | No Comments »

Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher’s Class

October 15th, 2008

Travis Unified School District Says It Must Respect Privacy

POSTED: 1:50 pm PDT October 14, 2008
UPDATED: 5:58 pm PDT October 14, 2008
VACAVILLE, Calif. — A teacher’s gender reassignment surgery has caught the attention of some parents who want to know why the school district didn’t notify them ahead of time about the change.
A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year.
The teacher, who was not identified by KCRA 3, is now being addressed as “Mister.”
Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated.
“All the information came straight from our kids and didn’t come from the school board or the teachers … this has all been second-hand information,” parent Melissa Oiland said.
The district said it has to respect privacy and personal issues, and that it must preserve privacy rights of the teachers.
The school board said such disclosure would violate HIPAA privacy rules.
“I understand what parents are saying, but we have a right as an employer, we have a legal obligation as an employer to protect our employees,” Superintendent Kate Wren Gavlak said.
Gavlak said the district consulted with lawyers and determined that legally, it could not disclose any information about the teacher’s gender change.
“We will not be discussing personal matters with either the students, or the parents or the community at large … because we cannot,” Gavlak said.
Parent Angela Weinzinger, who has three children at the school, said she has since transferred her children out of the class.
“I wasn’t given the opportunity to make a choice on what I wanted to do with the situation,” Weinzinger said.
So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the music class and into a physical education class.
KCRA.com

Posted in Civil Rights, Education Law | No Comments »

Boy, 5, Dead After Car Crashes Into Home

October 15th, 2008

Grandmother Was Driving On Suspended License, CHP Says

POSTED: 5:12 pm PDT October 14, 2008
UPDATED: 10:40 pm PDT October 14, 2008
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A 5-year-old boy is dead and a woman is in critical condition after their car crashed into a home Tuesday, officials said.
Joni Kelley was driving with her grandson, Alexander Martinez, on her lap in a slow-speed area near the intersection of Iroquois Court and Arapaho Way when the car went into a wall of a home near a carport area at about 3:30 p.m., officials said.
Both Martinez and Kelley were brought to Mercy San Juan Hospital where Martinez was pronounced dead at 4 p.m., officials said.
“He should have never been in her lap,” said Norma Martinez, Alexander’s other grandmother. “If he’d been in the back seat where he belonged this probably never would have happened. As far as I am concerned, she killed him.”
The wall that Kelley hit was 40 feet from the street.
There was no car seat in the 1996 Toyota Camry, police said, and Kelley was not wearing a seat belt.
The airbags were deployed in the car after the crash.
California Highway Patrol was taking a blood sample, but officials said they do not think drugs or alcohol was involved.
It is never safe to have a child in the front seat or sitting on your lap while driving, California Highway Patrol officer Liz Dutton said.”
You always need to be careful with them and watch out for their safety because you are the only one who can do that for them,” Dutton said.
Kelley was driving on a suspended drivers’ license at the time of the crash, the CHP said.
KCRA.com

Posted in Criminal Law, Family Law | No Comments »

3 Charged After Georgia Teen’s Alcohol Death At Campsite

October 15th, 2008
POSTED: 5:52 am EDT October 15, 2008
UPDATED: 6:02 am EDT October 15, 2008
CLEVELAND, Ga. — Authorities say three people face charges after the alcohol overdose of a 16-year-old girl on a northeast Georgia camping trip.
The White County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that the girl — who was identified as Frances Gloria “Amy” Fortenberry by the Gainesville Times — was found inside a tent by investigators and the U.S. Forest Service on Sunday after a report of a death at a campsite about four miles from Unicoi Gap.
The cause appeared to be asphyxiation due to alcohol overdose.
Authorities say 22-year-old Terry Warren was charged with three counts of furnishing alcohol to underage persons, while 19-year-old John Bell and 17-year-old Elizabeth Vaughn were charged with underage consumption of alcohol.
Officials said they found alcohol at the scene. Additional charges may be pending autopsy results and further investigation.
WSBTV.com

Posted in Criminal Law | No Comments »

Disabled Man Can Barely Move Arms; Arrested At Airport For Assault

October 15th, 2008
POSTED: 4:52 pm EDT October 14, 2008
UPDATED: 7:13 am EDT October 15, 2008
ATLANTA — A disabled man is under arrest following an altercation with police at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Tamara Sorman says she and her husband, Bradley, who has a neurological disease similar to Lou Gehrig’s Disease and can barely move his arms, were in Atlanta on business and returning home. She tells WSB-TV she asked a skycap to help her with a self-help ticket kiosk when the insults began.
“What’s wrong with your hands? Are you disabled too?” she says the skycap questioned her.
Bradley Sorman then asked for a supervisor. The police were called to the area, but their accounts of what happened greatly differ.
Tamara Sorman claims, “This policeman tripped him, threw him on the ground with blood flying everywhere, handcuffs him. It’s horrendous that anybody, anybody would treat this man like this.”
The police report the officer was simply defending himself after Bradley Sorman used abusive language and bumped the officer twice.
“There were about 4 witnesses to this incident,” Maj. Shawn Jones of the Atlanta Police tells WSB-TV. “The traveler bumped the officer twice.”
Tamara Sorman says her husband can barely move his arms because of his disability.
“My husband didn’t bump anybody, couldn’t bump anybody.”
Bradley Sorman was arrested and charged with obstruction and simple battery. He was given a $10,000 bond during a court hearing Tuesday.
“He has hit my husband in the face. Knocked, broken his beautiful teeth. Caused him to have 14 stitches in his jaw,” said Tamara Sorman.
Part of the incident was caught on surveillance cameras, but the airport isn’t releasing the video at this time.
WSBTV.com

Posted in Aviation Law, Civil Rights, Criminal Law | No Comments »

Georgia County Files Suit In Drought Dispute

October 15th, 2008

POSTED: 6:07 am EDT October 15, 2008

JEFFERSON, Ga. — A northeast Georgia county claims its neighbor is using too much water from a regional reservoir in times of drought and wants a judge to stop it.

Jackson County filed suit Tuesday in Superior Court seeking a judgment that the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority is allowing Athens-Clarke County to exceed its proper allocation from the Bear Creek Reservoir under a 1996 agreement.

The lawsuit says the four-county authority has not adjusted total withdrawals to account for the area’s drought. It claims that if Athens-Clarke takes its 44 percent allotment based on the pre-drought formula, it is to the detriment of Jackson County.

Other authority partners say Jackson officials are misreading the agreement.

The Associated Press

Posted in Environmental Law, Zoning, Planning and Land Use | No Comments »

Bigfoot Hoax Suit Gets $200K In Bids On eBay

October 15th, 2008
POSTED: 9:01 am EDT October 15, 2008
UPDATED: 11:28 am EDT October 15, 2008
JONESBORO, Ga. — A monkey suit purported to be the corpse of Bigfoot is drawing more than $200,000 on eBay.
The suit was at the center of a hoax cooked up by a former Clayton County police officer Matt Whitton and his friend, Rick Dyer. The two held a news conference in August in California with Searching for Bigfoot Inc. director Tom Biscardi, toting photos of the suit and DNA results to prove they had killed the legendary man-ape in the north Georgia mountains.
Eaton, Ind., resident William Lett, who gave Biscardi $50,000 to buy the alleged corpse, is trying to recoup his losses by selling the suit. He’s getting help from the Asheville, N.C.,-based Shadowbox Enterprises, owned by paranormal researcher Joshua P. Warren, who will keep profits made from the sale.
Bidding on the suit closes at midnight Thursday.
In the meantime, former Clayton County Officer Matthew Whitton has filed an appeal of his August termination.
Chief Jeff Turner says he fired Whitton because the officer ruined his credibility when he and Rick Dyer sought media attention, saying they found the body of the legendary man-ape.
“Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity,” Turner said. “He has violated the duty of a police officer.”
“I don’t believe it does affect my credibility at all because this is bigfoot,” Whitton told Channel 2 in August. “It would be one thing if I came out and said that I had something else that is tangible or real, but right now, as far as I’m concerned, there is no real bigfoot.”
WSBTV.com

Posted in Off The Beaten Path | No Comments »

Teen Siblings Die In Penn Hills Stabbing; Mom Survives

October 15th, 2008

No Explanation Yet For Killings At Hulton Estates

POSTED: 10:50 pm EDT October 14, 2008
UPDATED: 12:04 pm EDT October 15, 2008
PENN HILLS, Pa. — Two teenage siblings stabbed Tuesday night in a Penn Hills housing plan have died, and their mother survived the attack, which police said came at the hands of her boyfriend.
WTAE Channel 4’s Amber Nicotra reported that Lesha Drake, 18, and Naim Drake, 14, were found dead in an apartment in the 1600 block of Relative Drive in the Hulton Estates.
The victims’ mother, Nikesha Warren, was also stabbed and is recovering at a hospital, Allegheny County police said. Warren’s condition isn’t known, but her injuries are considered to be serious.
Penn Hills police were called to the family’s home at roughly 9:40 p.m., Nicotra reported. County police described the call as a domestic disturbance.
Keith Scott — who Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton said is Warren’s boyfriend — was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with homicide, aggravated assault and attempted homicide.
Nicotra reports Scott is in the hospital and that police will take him into custody once he’s released.
Police have not discussed a possible motive for the killings yet, nor have they said why they identified Scott as a suspect.
It’s not yet clear if Scott was the father of Naim Drake, a Linton Middle School ninth-grader, and Iesha Drake, a recent graduate of Penn Hills High School.
“I would like to express our sadness over the recent events involving members of the Penn Hills School District family. My deepest sympathies go out to everyone affected by this tragedy,” acting district superintendent Dr. Joseph Carroll said in a statement.
ThePittsburghChannel

Posted in Criminal Law, General Practice | No Comments »

Muslim Man Wants Review Of Clearance Revocation

October 15th, 2008

Federal Judge Holds Hearing Over Discrimination Claims

POSTED: 7:18 pm EDT October 14, 2008
PITTSBURGH — A Muslim scientist who lost his security clearance and his job at a nuclear warship components plant deserves an administrative hearing to learn more about why he was fired and to ensure Department of Energy regulations were followed, his attorney told a federal judge Tuesday.
Abdel Moniem El-Ganayni, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the department earlier this year, saying he was wrongly fired for speaking out against U.S. foreign policy and the alleged mistreatment of Muslims by the FBI.
Tuesday’s hearing was not about getting El-Ganayni rehired, but to prevent Energy Department officials from hiding behind a claim of “national security” if he was actually discriminated against, said Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director of the ACLU in Pennsylvania.
“If we win, he doesn’t get his clearance back, he gets a hearing,” Walczak explained after the one-hour session before U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry.
The Egyptian-born scientist has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years. His Energy Department security clearance was suspended in December.
Deputy Energy Secretary Jeffrey Kupfer personally reviewed El-Ganayni’s case and, in May, his clearance was revoked. He then was fired from Bettis Laboratory near Pittsburgh, where he had worked for more than 17 years.
According to El-Ganayni’s lawsuit, Energy Department officials and the FBI had questioned him about speeches he made, his views on suicide bombings and the Quran, and a conflict he had with the Pennsylvania prison system, where he has ministered to Muslim prisoners. But El-Ganayni and his attorneys said he was never told specifically what information led him to lose his security clearance and job.
Government attorneys asked McVerry last month to dismiss El-Ganayni’s lawsuit. Marcia Sowles, the Justice Department attorney on the case, said Kupfer’s review was an administrative review “at the highest level” and that McVerry doesn’t have the jurisdiction to challenge Kupfer’s finding that an administrative hearing could release sensitive national security information.
“What he’s seeking to do here is to second-guess the revocation of his security clearance,” Sowles argued.
El-Ganayni, however, wants a career Energy Department employee, not a political appointee, to review his case.
“What you have here is a political appointee making a decision in an administration that has repeatedly made political, illegal and indefensible decisions” under the guise of national security, Walczak said. That’s why “there’s some comfort in getting those career folks to eyeball what’s going on,” Walczak explained.
Walczak said El-Ganayni almost certainly won’t get his job back even if he gets the administrative hearing. He might learn enough to make a case that he was discriminated against and that the government hid behind “national security” in doing so, Walczak said.
“You could go to the media, you could go to Congress,” with such information, Walczak said.
In seeking to dismiss his lawsuit, the government claimed to have “reliable information” that El-Ganayni had contact with “a saboteur, spy, terrorist, traitor, seditionist, anarchist, or revolutionist, espionage agent, or representative of a foreign nation whose interests are inimical to the interest of the United States.”
Without specifying, the government also says El-Ganayni “engaged in unusual conduct” that showed he was not “honest, reliable or trustworthy.”
McVerry said he expects to rule on the matter soon.
Associated Press

Posted in Civil Rights, Immigration | No Comments »

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