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LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, Jan. 1 - 7, 2015
NEWS BRIEFS
Ethics board clears Commissioner Larry
Johnson
The DeKalb County Board of Ethics dis
missed charges against DeKalb County Com
missioner Larry Johnson which involved
several payments to the Porter Sanford III Per
forming Arts & Community Center.
“The arts support the education of our chil
dren and provide wholesome entertainment
for families of all ages,” said Johnson, in a state
ment. “All of my expenditures have been for a
public purpose and this is no different. I will
continue to support this type of programming
in District 3 to the extent I am able.”
The complaint, filed in May by resident
Rhea Johnson, claimed misuse of the commis
sioner s purchasing card.
Johnsons attorney, Mawuli Mel Davis, said
the ethics complaint was frivolous and should
never have taken so long to resolve.
“It’s those kinds of wild allegations that will
cause people to lose faith in their public ser
vants,” Davis said.
GBI ends investigation of 2013 death of jail
academy recruit
Following DeKalb County Sheriff Jeffrey
Mann’s request in November for an indepen
dent review, the Georgia Bureau of Investiga
tions (GBI) has released its report on the cir
cumstances surrounding the death of recruit
George Ward.
The GBI does not plan to take any further
action on the case, according to the Sheriff’s
Office.
Ward was a detention officer recruit who
died unexpectedly in May 2013 during the sec
ond day of the jail academy training program.
“We understand that Mr. Wards family
continues to grieve his loss, and they have our
sympathies,” Mann said. “After reviewing the
report, however, I remain confident that this
agency acted responsibly with regard to his
tragic death and to our training program during
retired Sheriff Thomas Brown’s administration.
We continue to do so today. When Mr. Ward
became ill while training, we responded swiftly,
professionally and appropriately.”
According to initial reports by the DeKalb
Medical Examiner, Ward was a victim of seri
ous pre-existing medical conditions. This was
reconfirmed by the GBI Medical Examiner as
part of its review.
Mann referred to the DeKalb Sheriff’s Of
fice training program as a “textbook” for law
enforcement agencies and he said it is managed
by experienced officers who share recruits’ de
sires to succeed.
“Given the nature of the detention officers’
job, it is critical that all our officers are well-
trained physically, emotionally and mentally,”
Mann said. “They must be able to function
effectively in the life-or-death situations that
occur inside the jail. While hundreds of offi
cers have successfully graduated from our jail
academy, those few who found it to be too chal
lenging were either released or left the program
voluntarily.”
DeKalb Police awarded $68,300 grant
The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety
has announced that the DeKalb County Police
Department is one of 17 law enforcement agen
cies in Georgia to receive a Highway Enforce
ment of Aggressive Traffic grant for the 2015
grant season. Referred to as a H.E.A.T. grant,
the DeKalb County Police Department’s award
totals $68,300.
The goal of the H.E.A.T. program is to com
bat crashes, injuries and fatalities caused by im
paired driving and speeding, while also increas
ing seatbelt use and educating the public about
traffic safety and the dangers of DUI.
The DeKalb County Police Department
H.E.A.T Unit will use the grant from GOHS to
develop and implement strategies to reduce lo
cal traffic crashes due to aggressive and danger
ous driving behaviors.
“Agencies like the DeKalb County Police
Department receive this H.E.A.T. grants be
cause they have showed a particular dedication
to protecting their citizens from impaired driv
ers,” said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood.
“This dedication is crucial because alcohol-
related crash deaths still account for 25 percent
of traffic fatalities in Georgia. We are grateful
to Chief [James] Conroy and his staff for their
continued hard work.”
Totaling $3.2 million for 2015, H.E.A.T.
See Briefs on page 20A
Charity flows from Decatur to Haiti
by Kathy Mitchell
Decatur lawyer Ed
Buckley said he’s astonished
at how what he started 11
years ago as a small project
to provide fresh water to
a village in Haiti has bal
looned into a series of water
systems that now serve be
tween 350,000 and 450,000
residents of the small island
nation.
Buckley and those who
volunteer with him have
now built more than 300
wells and other water sys
tems worth more than $1
million.
“I sort of fell backwards
into this,” Buckley explained.
“I was reading about people
building small fresh water
systems in Africa that were
making a big difference in
the quality of life for people
in the areas where the sys
tems were built. I started
looking into how I could get
involved in something like
that.”
Buckley researched
nonprofits involved in such
work and selected Food For
The Poor as the one that
best met his needs. Ear
lier this year, Food For The
Poor’s Executive Director
Angel Aloma named Buck-
ley and two other Atlanta-
area residents Ambassadors
For The Poor at the charity’s
seventh annual Dreams
Across The Sea event.
Buckley, managing
partner at The Buckley
Law Firm, was recognized
along with the Rev. William
Thomas Deneke, an Episco
pal priest from Decatur; and
Amanda Farahany, a part
ner at Barrett & Farahany in
Atlanta.
“The great thing about
this organization is that it
has people in Haiti who
understand how things are
done there and cut through
the red tape so projects can
be completed quickly and
cost effectively,” Buckley
said.
He takes a small group,
usually four five people, ap
proximately twice a year to
Haiti, where they look at
areas that need water. The
groups work with engineers
to help determine the feasi
bility of building a system.
“Most of the systems we
build are in rural areas, so
we have to look at whether
it can be done and what it
will take to do it. From there
we can figure out how much
money the project will take
so we have a fundraising
goal when we go back to the
United States,” Buckley ex
plained.
Some of the proceeds
from the Dreams Across the
Sea event will further the
mission that got Buckley
involved with the charity.
They will be used to bring
clean, safe drinking water to
Dalon, Haiti, through the in
stallation of a 10,000-gallon
concrete cistern and water
kiosks. Currently, residents
walk more than a mile to
reach the local spring, and
because of the heavy reli
ance on this resource, resi
dents usually have to wait
45 minutes to collect water,
according to Food For The
Poor.
Proceeds from the event
also will help fund com
ponents for a water proj
ect at the Baptist Hospital
in Quartier Morin, Haiti.
“There is no piped water
in Quartier Morin,” a state
ment from the charity notes.
“The several shallow, hand-
dug wells at the Baptist Hos
pital are inefficient because
they are susceptible to the
region’s dry spells, as they
are replenished by rainfall.
When necessary, water is
pumped by hand and de
livered in wheelbarrows to
the hospital from the nearby
children’s home. That well
was generously installed
in 2012 by Ed Buckley and
members of Leadership At
lanta.”
Buckley called the need
for clean drinking water
“the most fundamental of
human rights.” He added,
“Without clean drinking wa
ter we cannot fully exercise
our other God-given rights.
For example, a child can’t
enjoy her right to education
with parasites roiling in her
belly because she does not
have clean drinking water. A
woman can’t engage in com
merce if she has to spend
five hours a day hunting for
clean water and bringing a
five-gallon bucket back to
her home, only to repeat the
same thing the next day.”
He said his appreciation
of the need to serve oth
ers increased during what
he termed “a recent health
scare,” which he credits
Decatur nurse Susan Parry
with helping him through.
“She brought me back to
the land of the living. I feel
a huge debt of gratitude to
her,” Buckley said. Earlier
this year, during a trip to
Haiti Buckley and his group
honored Parry through the
inauguration of a new water
well and cistern at Bernard
Mevs Hospital in Port-au-
Prince.