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The Official Legal Organ of DeKafb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Ciiambiee, Clarks ton, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain.
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SECTION A: VOL 25 NO. 44
APRIL 28 - MAY 4,2016
Mother files lawsuit in
son's mall guard attack
by Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp.com
T he mother of a teenager
allegedly injured during an
altercation with Stonecrest
Mall security guards in
June 2015 has filed a
lawsuit to seek justice for her son.
“People need to understand that
you cannot go around victimizing
children,” said Chavella Hamm
during a news conference April
20, the day the lawsuit was filed
against Stonecrest Mall, the three
security guards involved in the
incident— John Battle, Howard
Bell and Glenn Russell—and
their employer, Securitas Security
Services USA.
According to the lawsuit,
Hamm’s son, who was 15 at the
time, and a group of his friends
were ordered out of Stonecrest
Mall because they were not
accompanied by an adult per the
mall’s policy.
One of the teens told the guards
that his mother was en route from
a nearby store to pick them up,
according to the lawsuit, but the
guards insisted that the teens exit
the mall immediately.
Because it was raining heavily
outside, one of the teens asked to
wait inside until his mother picked
them up, the lawsuit stated.
In response, one of the guards
“began cursing at the teen and
insisted they exit the mall into the
rain,” the lawsuit stated.
“An animated exchange then
ensued” between the teens and
the security guard who punched
Hamm’s son in the face, according
to the legal document. The other
guards joined the first guard in
physically attacking Hamm’s son,
the lawsuit states.
In a cellphone video recording
of the incident, “you can see [the
guards] throwing punches at [the
Attorneys Harold Spence, center, and Mawuli Davis, right, announce a lawsuit by
Chavella Hamm, left, to seek justice for her son who was injured during an alleged
altercation with Stonecrest Mall security guards in 2015. Photos by Andrew Cauthen
teen’s] head and face, then grab
him and throw him out of the
bushes into a bench,” said Hamm’s
attorney Mawuli Davis during a
news conference last year. Hamm’s
son’s “head hits the bench and his
eye is split open. It is only at that
point, when he is dazed, that [the
guards] stop throwing blows against
him.”
Hamm said the assault was due
to the “unprofessionalism of the
security guards.”
“Once I got the call—I was
there...only right around the corner
from where he was—I was in
shock,” Hamm said about arriving
on the scene after the altercation.
“My child was bleeding. His clothes
[were] off his body. He had all these
scars and scratches.
“To see him like that, it
frightened me,” she said. “I was
really scared. Then when I found
out who did it, I went from scared
to...very upset.”
Hamm said before filing the
lawsuit her “focus was to get these
three individuals in jail where they
need to be because what they did
Chavella Hamm says her teenage
son was attacked by Stonecrest Mall
security guards.
was wrong.”
Davis said his law firm initially
“attempted to secure justice through
the criminal justice system.”
“Unfortunately these three adult
security officers have not been
criminally charged,” Davis said. “We
can’t wait any longer for justice.
“We are here because the
criminal justice system has failed
See Lawsuit on Page 5A
500
County considering
across-the-board
employee pay hike
by Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp.com
DeKalb County employees could
soon receive a 4-percent pay
increase under a plan being
considered by the county’s Board
of Commissioners.
“It has been 16 years since
DeKalb County has conducted
a comprehensive pay and class
study and as a result of that
our salary structure and our
classification plan has fallen
drastically behind the market,
which has made it very difficult
for us to attract and retain
quality talent,” Benita Ransom,
the county’s human resources
director, told commissioners April
19.
The plan calls for 4=-percent
pay increases for eligible
employees in departments under
the purview of the CEO and Board
of Commissioners. Excluded
from this raise are the E911, fire,
police, sanitation and watershed
departments, for which 4-percent
pay raises were included in
the 2016 budget approved in
February.
See Pay on Page 5A
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