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Barrow 4 Journal
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Wednesday, November 19,2008
Vol. 1 No. 4 22 PAGES 2 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 25c COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
• Barrow March of
Dimes holds kickoff lun
cheon
page 3A
• Barrow juniors
improve on writing
test page 3A
Opinions:
•It's never too early
to think about 2012
page 4A
Sports:
•Wildcats fall to Rome
in state playoffs
page 3B
•WBHS Swimdoggs
dive into new season
page 6B
Other News:
•School News
pages 8B
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Church News
page 10A
•Obituaries
page 11A
Developer’s Hwy. 211 lawsuit tossed
Judge says lawyers acted in manner to defraud the court ’
Barrow County Judge David Motes
has dismissed a 2007 lawsuit filed
against the Town of Braselton by the
developers of a high profile com
mercial project in Barrow County
on Hwy. 211, saying the develop
er’s lawyers had engaged in judicial
“misconduct.”
Motes dismissed the lawsuit last
month after lawyers for Century
Center at Braselton failed to pay
$18,000 in attorney fees to the Town
of Braselton. The judge ruled in July
that lawyers Barry Armstrong and
Jeremy Moeser, had “knowingly and
willfully present an inaccurate and
false survey to the Court in an effort
to defraud the Court and to subvert
justice and to gain an unfair advan
tage in the case.”
Saying the lawyers also used
“sleight of hand” in eliciting testimo
ny from one witness, Motes ordered
in July the payment of fees to the city
by the developers.
But the fees were never paid by
Century Center or its affiliate firms,
leading to the October dismissal of
the case. Century Center at Braselton,
which is located on Hwy. 211 at
Beaver Dam Road just south of the
1-85 interchange, is owned by Dick
and Chris Gray.
continued on page 8A
CENTER OF
LAWSUIT
Century
Center at
Braselton is
located on
Ga. Hwy. 211
in Barrow
County. The
project will
include high-
end retail
and office
space on
26 acres.
Firefighters stay busy in Barrow
TOUGH BATTLE
Barrow County firefighters had a difficult time with this blaze Friday on McCully
Drive due to absence of fire hydrants near the residence. Firefighters had to
shuttle water to fight the blaze, which caused an extensive operation to bring it
under control, fire officials said. The resident was not at home at the time of the
fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation. For other fire and public safety
reports, see articles starting on Page 6A.
Photo by Lt. Scott Dakin/Barrow County Fire and Emergency Services
Two AHS students arrested
Separate incidents involve gang
activity, fighting with asst, principal
DA defends
videotaping
by police
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Did officials for the
Winder Police Department
secretly record a meet
ing between a lawyer
and his client on orders
from an Assistant District
Attorney?
That was the issue at a
court hearing Tuesday in
Barrow County Superior
Court in a case against a
Winder man facing child
pornography charges.
Defense attorney Seth
Kirschenbaum filed a
motion last month to sup
press the videotape, which
he said had been done by
the WPD on the orders of
ADA Mary Beth Wolff.
But the motion was with
drawn Tuesday and no tes
timony on the matter was
heard in open court before
Judge Joe Booth. Both
Wolff and Kirschenbaum
did hold some whispered
conversation with Booth at
the judge’s bench during
the hearing, but it wasn’t
clear if that was about this
issue, or another defense
motion being heard on the
case.
Wolff said after the
hearing that she was “not
involved” in the vide
otaping and that was why
Kirschenbaum had with
drawn the motion.
“I don’t make a prac
tice of any such thing,” she
said in a brief interview
following the hearing. The
continued on page 8A
Journal
sets early
deadlines
Due to an early pro
duction schedule the
week of Thanksgiving,
the deadline for sub
mitting church, social
and school news to the
Barrow Journal will be
5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21.
Any items received after
the deadline may not be
published. Community
news items may be
emailed to smobley@
barrowjournal.com or
faxed to 678-425-1435.
The Friday deadline
also applies to letters to
the editor and classified
ads. The Barrow Journal
office at 77 E. May St. in
Winder will be closed
Thursday. Nov. 27. but
will reopen Friday, Nov.
28.
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Two Apalachee High
School students were arrest
ed last week, one for threat
ening to kill a fellow student
and the other for manhan
dling an assistant principal.
On Nov. 12, a 16-year-old
student was charged with
making terroristic threats
and with being involved in a
“criminal street gang.” The
youth allegedly threatened
to shoot a 16-year-old girl
the previous day.
The next day, according to
a Barrow County Sheriff’s
deputy’s report of the inci
dent, the boy’s sister had
been feuding for some time
with a 16-year-old girl.
Just after school on Nov.
11, the victim was telling her
school bus driver about the
feud, when the boy walked
up and made the first of two
verbal threats.
He allegedly said, “Oh,
I’m tired of you and you
need to stop talking before I
run up on that bus and shoot
you. I’m crazy. You don’t
want me to do it.”
Another male student
took the girl to the back of
the bus and encouraged her
to calm down. But she and
the accused began to argue
again when their two buses
arrived at Haymon Morris
Middle School, the report
states.
During their argument, the
youth said he was going to
the girl’s house and “shoot
her.”
The following day, Deputy
Jeffery Yoder, the school
resource officer, learned that
the youth has a MySpace
page with photographs of
himself holding guns. The
deputy was told that a gun
that had been brought to a
football game came from
the suspect’s house.
The suspect’s MySpace
page showed a background
displaying a “bloods gang”
layout. It also had a photo
graph of the suspect wearing
a red bandana over his face
with the caption “lil killa.”
“There was also a ‘Keepin
it Gangsta Bloods’ photo
graph with several of (his)
friends including his sister,
(name removed) flashing
gang signs,” the incident
report states.
Other photographs
showed the youth “wearing
a red bandana and red pants
with a handgun tucked in the
front of his waist band.”
The youth also was “flash
ing gang signs” and “hold
ing up what appeared to be
two shotguns,” the report
states. Still other photo
graphs included handguns
with the caption “T.B.C.,”
which stands for “Tanner
Bridge Click,” a gang that
has been identified by the
Barrow County Sheriff’s
office as a criminal street
gang, the report states.
The youth was using the
MySpace page “for the sole
purpose of intimidation,” the
deputy wrote.
The deputy then arrested
the youth and turned him
over to the custody of his
parents. The deputy told the
teen’s father to make sure all
weapons in the home were
secure and to expect con
tact by the Department of
Juvenile Justice personnel
about the placement of a leg
monitor on his son.
FIGHT
WITH PRINCIPAL
In an unrelated incident at
AHS on Nov. 13, Pierrelande
“Landy” Jean, 18, Winder,
was charged with disorderly
conduct after a violent strug
gle with Assistant Principal
Dorann Mansberger, who
had stopped her fighting
with a younger female stu
dent in the cafeteria.
Deputy Yoder observed
the incident on video record
ed by school surveillance
equipment.
continued on page 8A
Auburn
couple
shot while
sleeping
Both expected
to recover
BY SUSAN NORMAN
An unknown assailant early
Saturday fired a gun through the
wall of a Parks Mill Road apart
ment and wounded a man and
woman asleep in their bed.
Lt. Lee Lapsky, commander of
the Auburn Police Department’s
Criminal Investigations
Division, said that Kathy Lynn
McCallister, 35, was wounded
seven times. Michael John Borg,
54, was hit once.
“She was struck four times on
the legs and three times on the
upper torso,” Lapsky said. “He
was wounded in the lower abdo
men area.”
Both victims were transport
ed by ambulance to Gwinnett
Medical Center, where each has
since undergone surgery. They
are expected to recover because
the shooter used a small-caliber
gun.
continued on page 8A
Body still
not ID’d
BY SUSAN NORMAN
The Barrow County Sheriff’s
Office and the Georgia Bureau
of Investigations are investigat
ing the death of an unidentified
person whose badly decomposed
body was discovered Sunday
evening behind a vacant house
near Statham.
According to some news
reports, the victim was male
and had been shot and his body
burned.
However, Barrow County
Coroner David Crosby would
not confirm that information
Wednesday morning.
continued on page 8A
BODY DISCOVERED
A body was discovered
behind this vacant house
on Atlanta Highway.
Photo by Susan Norman
