COMMUNITY
Judge: Family members can
join cemetery lawsuit
Bf DAN WHISENHUNT
danwhisenhunt@gmail.com
A Fulton County Superior Court
judge has ruled that descendants of a
Confederate veteran buried at a histor
ic cemetery can intervene in a lawsuit
that could open the property to devel
opment.
On Jan. 30, Judge Kimberly Esmond
Adams signed an order granting the re
quest of 28 descendants of Judge John
Heard to join the suit.
Heard, who is buried at the Heard
Family Cemetery, in 1900 execut
ed a deed with the intent to protect
the 1-acre graveyard at 0 Heards Drive
from future development.
More than 100 years later, the prop
erty left the Heard family and became
the property of local attorney Chris
topher Mills. He bought the property
from his in-laws in 2012 who obtained
it after it accidentally wound up on Ful
ton County’s delinquent tax list.
The in-laws, Wanda and Henry Cline,
in 2007 paid the back taxes as part of a
neighborhood effort to save the proper
ty. In 2012, Mills sued the city of San
dy Springs after officials denied his per
mit to build on a portion of the property
that he says doesn’t contain graves.
Mills’ lawsuit attracted media atten
tion and the notoriety caught the at
tention of a Heard descendant, Larry
Specht. Soon more descendants came
forward. Attorney Wright Mitchell
signed on to represent the family mem
bers and Mills did not object when he
filed his motion to intervene.
In his response to the motion to in
tervene, Mills says he obtained an arche
ological survey marking the cemetery
boundaries. In the motion to intervene
filed in November, the 28 descendants
say there has not been a “thorough and
complete survey” to determine if graves
exist outside of those boundaries.
“The descendants, now that they have
been formally admitted into the case, in
tend to vigorously prosecute their in
terest in the cemetery and defend their
right to maintain it as the Heard family
cemetery,” Mitchell said.
Mills and his lawyer, Christopher
M. Porterfield, asked the judge to
throw out the descendant’s claim that
Mills trespassed on the property. Ad
ams’ order said “the court reserves the
right” to rule on the trespass claim at
a later date.
Mills has declined to comment on
the case. Attempts to contact Porterfield
for comments to be included in this ar
ticle were not successful.
Planning Commission member
declines reappointment
BY DAN WH1SENHUNT
danwhisenhunt@reporternewspapers.net
City Council during its Feb. 5 meet
ing appointed David Nickles to the city
Planning Commission to replace Da
vid Rubenstein. Rubenstein was up for
reappointment but withdrew his name
after council members asked
whether he could continue to
serve on the commission while
acting as the city’s broker in
real estate transactions.
Rubenstein joined the San
dy Springs Planning Com
mission in 2006 and he’s also
been the city’s real estate bro
ker since 2006. City Attorney
Wendell Willard researched the
issue after Councilman Tib-
by Dejulio and Councilwom-
an Karen Meinzen-McEnerny
questioned the reappointment during a
Jan. 15 meeting.
Willard concluded that Ruben
stein could continue to serve, but, “he
would be limited by the ordinance to
work he can do for the city, not to ex
ceed $2,500.”
It’s not clear how much Rubenstein
has profited from his work as the city’s
broker. He represented the city in 2008
when it paid $8 million for the old Tar
get property at 235 Johnson Ferry Road,
and records show he made $80,000 on
the deal.
Rubenstein told the city he
would like to continue work
ing as its broker.
Council members said there
were no questions about Ru-
benstein’s actions while serving
on the Planning Commission.
“He has been totally open
every time there was some
thing at the Planning Com
mission where he might have
had an interest,” Mayor Eva
Galambos said. “In the inter
est of meeting the ordinance he doesn’t
want to have any questions, so we’re re
tracting that nomination.”
“I think it would be appropriate to
publically thank Dave Rubenstein for
his hard and tireless work on the com
mission since Day 1,” Councilman Chip
Collins said.
David
Rubenstein
ss
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