Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, June 18 - 24, 2015
OPINION
Page 5A
Justice can be long and painful
It was my first big story
for The Champion. On Nov.
22, 2010, just 12 days after I
joined the county’s legal or
gan, I was assigned to cover
a news conference at the
Dunwoody Police Depart
ment.
Four days before the
news conference, Rus
sell Sneiderman, 36, was
gunned down at point-blank
range after dropping his
child at Dunwoody Prep, a
private preschool on Cham-
blee-Dunwoody Road.
At the media event,
the Sneiderman family an
nounced that it was offering
a $10,000 reward for infor
mation that would lead to
the arrest and conviction of
t
Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp.com
Managing Editor
@AndrewChampNews
the gunman. Crimestoppers
had already offered a $2,000
reward.
“The whole family has
lost its brightest light and we
don’t know why,” said Steve
Sneiderman, the victim’s
brother.
In the trials that fol
lowed, prosecutors tried to
answer the “why” question.
They alleged that Russell
Sneiderman’s wife Andrea
was having an affair with her
boss Hemy Neuman. Prose
cutors presented evidence of
the affair: a love letter, travel
records, and people who
witnessed public dancing,
kissing and groping between
the two.
In the end justice was
served with Neuman sen
tenced to life in prison with
out the possibility of parole.
He had pleaded not guilty by
reason of insanity.
Andrea Sneiderman was
convicted of lying under
oath. She was sentenced
to five years, and paroled
June 2014 after serving 10
months.
In January 2015 Andrea
Sneiderman’s attorneys filed
a motion for a new trial.
That request was denied a
month later.
On June 15 Neuman
received word from the
Georgia Supreme Court
that his conviction had been
overturned on a technicality.
Now, DeKalb District Attor
ney Robert James is plan
ning to retry Neuman.
The family of Russell
Sneiderman has had some
setbacks in its pursuit of jus
tice for Russell Sneiderman’s
murder.
“Every night we go to
sleep hoping it was all a bad
dream. Every morning we
wake to the same night
mare,” said Steve Sneider
man.
After Neuman’s trial,
James said the process of
healing finally would begin
after a year and a half.
I don’t know if the night
mares can ever go away in a
case like this, but I know the
back-and-forth justice can’t
help.
It was my first big story
at The Champion, and five
years later, it still isn’t over.
And justice is still not satis
fied.
ONE MAN'S OPINION
The latest tempest
Summer’s onset often has
me strolling down memory
lane, and repeating visits
(at least in my head) to our
favored family vacation spot,
Georgia’s Jekyll Island.
The Georgia Press As
sociation recently returned
to its tradition of annually
gathering there for con
ventions, which also helps
guarantee my return to these
family fun roots.
Once the playground of
America’s old money and
industrial elite, the historic
village on the Jekyll River
side of the island, with its
majestic Jekyll Island Club
and unique accommoda
tions, remains in demand
year-round.
Business on the beach
side had been losing out to
newer competition nearby as
well as up and down the east
coast and Gulf, as well as in
addition to being dominated
by many properties showing
their age and lack of ameni
ties. But new hotels as well
as significant renovations
and improvements to older
properties have both visita
tion numbers and tourism
dollars on the rise.
Meanwhile over the past
decade, almost with the
consistency of swallows re
turning to Capistrano, there
is a new island tempest,
bill.csicrane@gmail.com
Columnist
and whirlwind of protest or
complaint wrought by local
island retirees and residents,
most of whom have relo
cated to Georgia and Jekyll
from elsewhere, and many
who seem to view the public
state park as their own pri
vate island community or
retreat.
Last year the locals were
up in arms about the poten
tial thinning of the white tail
deer herd whose population
is not native and which has
become both a safety and
sanitation nuisance on the
island. Deer and other non
native species were origi
nally imported to the island
as hunting stock for the
aforementioned millionaires
back in the day.
This year’s cry to arms
from the Birkenstock and
blue-rinse set on Jekyll re
gard the heinous crimes
of causeway mowing and
transport of beach deck
chairs to the island beach in
front of the new Westin Ho
tel and Conference Center.
I’m not kidding.
Jekyll and nearby St.
Simons and Sea Island are
connected to the mainland
by a series of bridges and
long causeways constructed
across marshland along the
Georgia coast. High and fast
growing weeds and grasses
can easily grow several feet
tall, right up to the road
shoulder.
The causeways are not lit,
but both during daylight and
after dark, the tall grass sub
stantially reduces visibility,
particularly as it relates to a
darting deer, or slow mov
ing sea turtle, both known to
often traverse the marsh as
well as the causeways.
In the case of transport
ing the beach chairs, a local
businessman, using a single
all-terrain vehicle, daily
traverses roughly a third of
mile of beach to deliver, set
up and at evening return
and pack up, rental chairs
and umbrellas. This same
path is already in use by the
Jekyll Island Authority (JIA),
Sea Turtle Center and Geor
gia State Patrol. The rental
chairs may only be on the
beach from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30
p.m., and must remain at
least 50 feet at all times from
sea turtle nesting areas.
Protests led by the ever
vocal David and Mindy
Egan, Jekyll’s self-appointed
protectors, propose that the
Westin or the JIA construct
a permanent storage shed on
the beach or nearby at the
soon to be constructed Jekyll
Island Suites, and the equip
ment then rolled across sand
by hand truck.
I suspect that a majority
of these southern transplants
have never attempted rolling
a loaded hand truck across a
sandy beach.
Costs of building, main
taining and securing a
year round structure are
year-round, significant and
not helpful to beach eco
systems. And other than
the late October Georgia/
Florida game weekend, the
majority of Jekyll tourism
remains seasonal.
Jekyll is a unique, beauti
ful and historic place which
all Georgians and others
should experience at least
once. The seven-mile bar
rier isle is not part of a land
conservation easement or
trust, nor is it a nature pre
serve; it is a public park,
intended for tourism and
visitation. State and federal
law significantly limit any
potential development rang
ing regulating details from
height limitations to beach
frontage to the amount of
natural green space on the
island which can be in any
way “disturbed” by man.
So if summer gifts you a
stroll along the Jekyll shores
or riverside, or a conven
tion/conference brings you
there, please do me a favor,
take a load off, and rent a
beach chair for the day, and
while you are lounging, per
haps sign a petition, because
even in 2015, it appears that
the pen is often still mightier
than the sword—unless of
course you are cutting grass
along the causeway, then go
with a strong blade.
Bill Crane also serves
as a political analyst and
commentator for Channel
2’s Action News, WSB-AM
News/Talk 750 and now 95.5
FM, as well as a columnist
for The Champion, Cham
pion Free Press and Georgia
Trend. Crane is a DeKalb
native and business owner,
living in Scottdale. You can
reach him or comment on
a column at bill.csicrane@
gmail.com.