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QUICK FINDER Business 16A Education 14A Sports 18-19A Opinion 5A Classified 17A DISCORD OVER LITHONIA'S PROPOSED ANNEXATION PLAN LOCAL, 8A REFUGEES GROW AT COMMUNITY GARDEN LOCAL, 9A FORMER DEKALB BAND DIRECTORS FIND SUCCESS WITH JAZZ LOCAL, 12A The Official Legal Organ ofDeKalb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain. Mb Social/ 30 thechampionnewspaper.com SECTION A: VOL. 25 NO. 2 TheChampion S MH O IITTV QIC OA1 E ist Place General excellence Award Winner Georgia Press Association | Better Newspaper Contest’ 2007, 2009-2015 JULY 9 - 15, 2015 500 Ellis is guilty by Andrew Cauthen andrew@dekalbchamp.com T he retrial for suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis ended with the jury finding him guilty of perjury and attempted theft by ex tortion. Ellis, accused of strong-arming vendors to donate to his reelection campaign in 2012, was found guilty July 1 of three counts of perjury for lying to a grand jury in 2012, and one count of attempted theft by ex tortion. The jury deliberated six days. Ellis was found not guilty on three counts of attempted theft by extortion, theft by extortion and bribery. Ellis In the attempted theft by extor tion charge, prosecutors argued that Ellis threatened to end a county contract with Power and Energy Services Inc. after an officer of the company did not contribute money to Ellis’ campaign. Ellis testified that he did not pressure contractor Power and En ergy to contribute to his political campaign. He was, however, con cerned that a representative hung up on him. “When I saw how much business they were doing with the county, that, even more so, made me mad that she would hang up the phone,” Ellis said in June. “If you don’t re spect the office of the CEO, you don’t respect the county.” Kelvin Walton, a witness for the prosecution and Ellis’ former pro curement director, testified that he was told by Ellis to dry up the work See Ellis on page15A District 5 candidates face off before runoff by Andrew Cauthen andrew@dekalbchamp.com T he two remaining can didates for the District 5 seat on the DeKalb County Board of Com missioners discussed various lo cal issues during a “Community Conversation” June 29. In the June 16 special elec tion to fill the seat vacated by interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May, Mereda Davis Johnson, an attorney and wife of Congress man Hank Johnson, received See Runoff on page 15A Pallookaville celebrated Independence Day with its second annual corn dog eating contest. From left, second-place winner Michael Parker, Pallookaville owner Jim Stacy and first-place winner Nick Latham. See more photos on page 20A. Photo by Travis Hudgons 64 116 f CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER □CHAMPIONNEWS PVCHAMPIONNEWSPAPER ©CHAMPNEWS