Featured GA News Stories:
Victim to be Reunited With Child
Minnie Bridgers
10 Dec 2006 11:58 am
Plans are underway for an emotional reunion between a rape victim and her 7-year-old daughter.
As early as this week, the pair could be together, again, for the first time since they were torn apart last month by a violent crime.
The little girl has been in foster care for about five weeks to give her mom time to heal from critical injuries she suffered during a brutal rape.
On November 5, the mother was attacked in her Cherokee County home by [a man], while her daughter ran to a closet to hide.
Investigators say [he] raped her, beat her in the head with the butt end of a shotgun, and threatened to rape her daughter, before the woman grabbed a butcher knife and fought back.
She stabbed him so many times; he died after a long struggle.
The woman was also stabbed about 25 times. While she continues to recover physically and emotionally, friends told 11Alive News she is focused on regaining custody of her daughter.
"Right now she's dealing with one thing only, getting her family back together before the holiday. Emotionally, she's still dealing with it," said Kim Chester, Victim's Friend.
The mother, whose name 11Alive News is not using because she is a rape victim, will have to complete a psychological evaluation before regaining custody of her daughter.
That evaluation could happen sometime this week.
Look for Danger When Good Guys Act Like Bad Guys
Ann Woolner
08 Dec 2006 12:00 am
At 90, give or take a couple of years, Kathryn Johnston had grown fearful living in her crime-ridden neighborhood, especially since hearing recently of the rape of an elderly woman.
So when she heard men bursting through the burglar bars on her front door, she opened fire. The men fired, too, and when the shooting stopped, three of the intruders had been wounded and the elderly lady lay dead.
The intruders turned out to be neither robbers nor rapists but cops, eight of them, from the Atlanta Police Department's narcotics unit. They had come looking for a man known only as Sam, who had supposedly sold an informant $50 worth of crack there at the tan brick, green-shuttered house with a long wheelchair ramp out front, a police affidavit says.
A cop's sworn statement claiming that a minor drug sale occurred is all it took for a magistrate to grant a no-knock warrant at the home of a scared old lady.
Okay, so sometimes mistakes occur, and occasionally tragedy results, right?
The truth is that errors in no-knock raids occur more often than most of us imagine, and no doubt more often than is ever reported.
And we aren't just talking about an unhinged door here or there. At various times, police, sometimes masked or hooded, have used tear gas, flash-bang grenades, explosives and battering rams. They have made pregnant women lie on the floor, dragged people out of showers and out of beds, cuffed toddlers, put guns to the heads of innocent people, stepped on backs and caused cuts, bruises, hospitalizations and trauma. A 9-year-old with Down Syndrome had a seizure during a Waco, Texas, raid at his grandparents' home.
And that is when no one fires a gun.
Woman, 92, slain in shootout with police
Associated Press
22 Nov 2006 10:08 am
The niece of a 92-year-old woman shot to death by police said her aunt likely had reason to shoot three narcotics investigators as they stormed her house.
Police insisted the officers did everything right before entering the home Tuesday evening, despite suggestions from the woman's neighbors and relatives that it was a case of mistaken identity.
The woman, Kathryn Johnston, was the only resident in the house at the time and had lived there for about 17 years, Assistant Chief Alan Dreher said. The officers had a legal warrant, "knocked and announced" before they forced open the door and were justified in shooting once fired upon, he said.
Sarah Dozier, the niece, told WAGA-TV that there were never drugs at the house.
"My aunt was in good health. I'm sure she panicked when they kicked that door down," Dozier said. "There was no reason they had to go in there and shoot her down like a dog."
Weird, sick and frightening
Stephanie Ramage
03 Nov 2006 12:00 am
Jim King, a resident of the Chastain Park neighborhood, was looking forward to Halloween trick-or-treating with his children when something truly scary happened. A neighbor claimed to have seen John Mark Karr walking down the street just three blocks from the neighborhood playground. The rumor made sense. Karr, after falsely confessing to the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey in late August and then being released when DNA evidence did not match his own DNA, had said he was thinking of moving to Atlanta where his father lived. The older Karr lives in the Chastain Park neighborhood.
After California authorities lost evidence in a child pornography possession case against Karr, he was free to go wherever he chose: He was not a convicted sex offender of any kind and, so, would not be listed on any sex offender registry. It stood to reason that he would come back to his father’s house in Chastain Park.
King, as president of the Chastain Park Neighborhood Association, sent out the following e-mail on Thursday, Oct. 19:
Dear Neighbors: This is to let you know that John Mark Karr has moved into his father’s home [the exact location that appeared in the original e-mail has been deleted for privacy] in North Chastain Park. Also, [the edited location] is approximately three blocks north of the Chastain Park playground. As you may recall there have been many published reports in newspapers on Mr. Karr relating to incidents in Colorado, California and Thailand. If you would like to learn more about Mr. Karr, please visit the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/
This e-mail is being sent in response to many emails and phone calls from fellow neighbors that I have received concerning Mr. Karr’s arrival in our community. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Jim King
Karr reportedly left Atlanta soon after and has been sighted in his grandparents’ hometown, where he was raised, in Alabama.
Karr was never convicted of anything. In fact, he was officially cleared of the very child murder at which he claimed to have been present—although he added that 6-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey’s death had been an accident and he was “very sorry.” When he was arrested in Thailand originally, he told police he’d had some form of sex with Jon Benet.
His confession, however false, would seem to justify alerting the neighbors about him.
And the events in the Chastain Park neighborhood look like a chapter in the success of neighborhood awareness. But for Grier Weeks, founder of Protect, a national anti-child-predator advocacy group based in Tennessee, it’s one more chapter in the book of government’s failure at every level to protect our children—even if Karr hasn’t been convicted of anything.
Female circumcision trial may be first in U.S.
Associated Press
27 Oct 2006 3:44 pm
The trial of an Atlanta-area father accused of circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the U.S. as immigrant communities grow.
Khalid Adem, a 30-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children.
Human rights observers said they believe this is the first criminal case in the U.S. involving the 5,000-year-old practice.
Prosecutors say Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in their apartment in 2001. The child's mother said she did not discover it until more than a year later.
"He said he wanted to preserve her virginity," Fortunate Adem, the girl's mother, testified this week. "He said it was the will of God. I became angry in my mind. I thought he was crazy."
The girl, now 7, also testified, clutching a teddy bear and saying that her father "cut me on my private part." Adem cried loudly as his daughter left the courtroom.
Testifying on his own behalf Friday, Adem said he never circumcised his daughter or asked anyone else to do so. He said he grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and considers the practice more prevalent in rural areas.
Adem, who removed a handkerchief from his pocket and cried at one point during his testimony, was asked what he thought of someone who believes in the practice. He replied: "The word I can say is 'mind in the gutter.' He is a moron."
His lawyer, Mark Hill, acknowledged that Adem's daughter had been cut. But he implied that the family of Fortunate Adem, who immigrated from South Africa when she was 6, may have had the procedure done.
The Adems divorced in 2003, and Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was encouraged to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody.
If convicted, Adem, a clerk at a suburban Atlanta gas station, could get up to 40 years in prison.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, using figures from the 1990 Census, estimated that 168,000 girls and women in the U.S. had undergone the procedure or were at risk of being subjected to it.
The State Department estimates that up to 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision as of 2001. Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools often are not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading to infection.
It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth.
Nightmares, depression, shock and feelings of betrayal are common psychological side effects, according to the federal report.
The report estimated that 73 percent of women in Ethiopia had undergone the procedure, based on a 1997 survey.
Federal law specifically bans the practice, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of Fortunate Adem, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. Khalid Adem is not being tried under that law, since it did not exist when his daughter's cutting allegedly happened.
Perdue boosts investigative sex predator staff
Associated Press
18 Sep 2006 12:00 am
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Monday proposed boosting the number of state investigators trolling the Internet for sexual predators who prey on children.
"Anyone who would prey on a child is a vile, disgusting human being," Perdue said at a news conference at Georgia Bureau of Investigation headquarters.
Perdue said he would add eight new agents and five new computer forensics specialists.
The state Legislature would have to approve the funding, estimated at $900,000.
Sex offenders have become a popular political target in Georgia this election year. Perdue has already signed into law a tough bill passed in the Republican-controlled state Legislature which bars convicted sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather.
A court has temporarily blocked a portion of the law that applies to bus stops. A lawsuit by the Southern Center for Human Rights argued that the law was unconstitutional.
Gainesville P.D. Nabs Child Predator
Kevin Rowson
15 Sep 2006 9:37 pm
A Knoxville, Tennessee man was arrested by police when he thought he was meeting a teenage girl in Gainesville. The arrest was made by Gainesville police who recently formed an internet investigative unit.
A contract worker with the Transportation Security Administration is charged with computer pornography. Gainesville police say he traveled all the way to their city to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.
A meeting was arranged Wednesday night for [him] to meet the girl in Gainesville. The meeting was set up at a local movie theatre. Instead of meeting a 15-year-old girl, [he] was met by Gainesville police.
It is a scenario being played out so often investigators wonder how many predators are out there. Nearly 20 suspects have been arrested since Gainesville police started using the internet as an investigative tool to target sexual predators less that a year ago.
“We have one investigator who does this part time, Lieutenant White said. “It’s not his primary duty but however during different times of the day he does do this type of investigation.”
Lieutenant White says it could easily be a full-time position.
Cronic sued over sex offender law
Ken Stanford
15 Sep 2006 6:40 am
Yet another lawsuit has been filed over Georgia's new sex offender law - and this time the target is the Hall County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Steve Cronic
A convicted Colorado sex offender, now living in Flowery Branch, wants Sheriff Cronic enjoined from enforcing the law - which is being litigated already in state and federal court.
255 years, 75 to serve for child molester
Debbie Lurie-Smith
07 Sep 2006 12:00 am
A grandfather was sentenced to a total of 255 years with 75 to serve last week for charges of molesting a granddaughter and mistreatment of a grandson.
Jackie Whorton was arrested in August 2005 for allegedly molesting his granddaughter. A Jones County jury found him guilty of the charges September 1 after six hours of deliberation. The defendant was sentenced by Ocmulgee Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge William Prior Jr., who presided over the case.
Whorton was charged with one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, seven counts of child molestation, one count of incest, two counts aggravated child molestation, and six counts of cruelty to children.
He was found guilty of 14 of the counts, two of which were aggravated child molestation. Georgia law requires 90 percent of the 30-year sentence for aggravated child molestation to be served before any consideration for parole.
Sheriff says sex offender registry law needs reworking
05 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The issue of school bus stops and how far sexual offenders have to live from them is still waiting to be decided by the courts. The Dougherty County Sheriff says he and other Georgia Sheriff's are asking legislators to draft a more clear sexual offender law, and give them the money to enforce it.
Lt. Rebecca Williamson keeps track of Dougherty County's 253 sex offenders, knowing where they live and work. Sheriff Jamil Saba says it's a tough job that legislators mandated without any money to do it. Saba said "It's hard to get around and make sure where they are, and if they are telling you the truth."
July First, House Bill 1059 said that sex offenders must live more than one thousand feet away from school bus stops, playgrounds, schools, or places where children gather. The bus stop issue is being challenged in courts, so no offenders have been forced to move yet. But Sheriff's officials are enforcing all other parts of the law.
It takes action to safeguard children
KAFFIE McCULLOUGH
16 Aug 2006 12:00 am
It is hard to find a crime more heinous or more tragic than adults preying on and receiving perverted gratification from the sexual exploitation of innocent children. As a community, we don't want to think that fathers and/or trusted friends of the family might "use" our children in ways that destroy their childhood and rob them of their innocence.
Data drawn from the 1997 National Incident-Based Reporting System indicated that although juveniles made up only 12 percent of all crime victims known to police, they accounted for 71 percent of all sex crime victims, with girls more likely to be victims of sexual offenses than boys.
Statistics, though, are just numbers. Each number is one little person — one little girl whose life is changed forever, who when she goes to bed at night will have memories that prevent her from sleeping peacefully, who when she plays with her friends will wonder if there's something wrong with her or if she is different, who when she grows up and enters a relationship will find her relationship terrain strewn with land mines from the past. Outrage for that little girl is not enough. We must take action.
From 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 7, a panel is being held at Atlanta Girls' School called "Keeping Kids Safe in Cyberspace." Katherine Tarbox, author of "A Girl's Life Online," will be the keynote speaker, sharing her experience as a young teenager exploited by an online predator. She will be joined by Sue Dowling from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sgt. Ernest Britton from the Atlanta Police Department and a member of the media. These representatives will highlight what is being done in their respective arenas and provide information on steps that you and I can take to protect our children.
Educate yourself, educate your children. Find the place where your energy and your ideas can take hold and bring results.
Group asks judge to block sex offender law in Georgia county
Associated Press
14 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Opponents of a new Georgia law cracking down on sex offenders filed suit in federal court Monday, asking a judge to bar a second county from evicting offenders who live too close to school bus stops.
Bulloch County's school board voted Thursday to officially designate about 1,700 bus stops. The move triggered a part of the law, passed by the Legislature earlier this year, that prevents people convicted of a sex crime from living within 1,000 feet of many places children gather.
