Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth CountvNews
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 w 306
Vol. 94, No. 205
Medical evidence allowed vs. Turner
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
MARIETTA A Cobb County
judge on Saturday ruled in favor of
allowing medical evidence from the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime
lab to be used at Lynn Turner’s
February murder trial.
In a rare weekend court session.
Turner’s attorneys had asked the judge
to toss out the GBl’s test results for
ethylene glycol, calling it “unreliable
pseudo-scientific evidence of question
able reliability.”
Removing the GBl’s toxicology
tests from the case would essentially
remove any proof either alleged victim
Buford Dam,
officials at
airport taking
precautions
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
As the nation’s terror alert remains
at the high, orange level, officials both
at Buford Dam and Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport are taking extra
precautions to pro
tect Atlanta-area
residents.
Airport officials
are asking holiday
passengers to arrive
at least 90 minutes
early for their
flights.
SEVERE
w
ELEVATED
LOW
Following a weekend announce
ment by Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge that intelligence sources
suggest an increased chance of a ter
rorist attack this holiday season,
Atlanta Police Department officers and
private security began conducting ran
dom searches of vans, trucks and cars
on access roads leading to the airport.
While each inspection is not
expected to last more than a few min
utes, traffic leading to the airport likely
will be heavy, especially during the
peak holiday travel before Christmas,
said airport officials.
The federal Transportation Security
Administration also is requiring pas
sengers to unlock bags they plan to
check so security screeners do not have
to break the lock if an inspection is
necessary. Security measures at the air
port stem from the national terror alert
being raised from yellow to orange,
meaning the risk of terrorist activity
has increased from elevated to high.
“The U.S. intelligence community
has received a substantial increase in
the volume of threat related intelli
gence reports. These credible sources
suggest the possibility of attacks
against the homeland around the holi-
See TERROR, Page 2A
THE NEW LOOK OF JUSTICE?
———————— ——————I ‘
Viti i imi»ll ■ ■■« i. i ■
|TatTl4.XiiAil mitl •ITiHXUXILmdT—] |l WR RIP mt kb
Graphic/Submitted !
Artist renderings of the proposed judicial center, left, and parking deck depict rectangular buildings with brick facades in a tribute to late 19th century architecture as con
ceived by consultants with Heery International and members of a grand jury-appointed task force. Voters will decide whether to assume $65 million in debt for construc
tion of the two buildings, plus a detention center and other public facilities on March 2.
Missed paper policy:
For a replacement paper, call
8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. -1
p.m. on Sunday - (770) 887-3126.
Copyright © 2003 Forsyth County News
90994 04001
WEDNESDAY December 24,2003
Turner
Ethylene glycol is a sweet, odorless
chemical found in antifreeze as well as
other automotive and cleaning prod
ucts.
Turner, 35, has pleaded not guilty
to a single count of murder in Cobb
THE CLAUSES VISIT CUMMING
f 'CTM
■w w » Iwi
t If
MF
\ > iMQF *> H. fl
*SSI -w "TnSHKak jifl
V JI
Photo/David McGregor
Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus stopped by the home of Carol and
Dan Thalmer, just prior to returning home to the North Pole. The
Thalmers’ home is a wonderland of Christmas trees and
Christmas decor. The couples became acquainted after mutual
friends noticed the striking resemblance between the Clauses
and the Thalmers.
INDEX
Abby 4A
Classifieds 8B
Deaths 2A
Events 5A
Horoscope 4A
Legals 3B
Opinion..... 6A
Sports lß
ever ingested the
poisonous sub
stance, a move that
would further hin
der a prosecution
which already
hinges on circum
stantial evidence
linking the same
woman to two men
who died under
similar conditions.
| Inside
Alleged bribery
lands Duluth woman
in jail.
Page 3A
County, a charge stemming from the
1995 death of her police officer hus
band, Glenn Turner.
She also has been called a suspect
in the 2001 death of Randy Thompson,
a Forsyth firefighter and the father of
her two children.
Following the death of Thompson,
the GBI reportedly found evidence of
ethylene glycol in the bodies of both
men.
On Saturday, Dr. Mark Koponen,
deputy chief medical examiner at the
GBI, said the law enforcement agency
considers the presence of ethylene gly
col during an autopsy to be an indica
tion of poisoning.
“It’s an ethylene glycol poisoning
case unless proven otherwise,”
Koponen said Saturday from the wit
ness stand.
A vast majority of people will not
have any ethylene glycol in their body
when they die, the doctor said, adding
that only in “extraordinary cases” will
a deceased body produce the chemical
naturally.
Otherwise, there should not be any
amount of the poisonous chemical in
the body unless the deceased had some
exposure to ethylene glycol in their
job, Koponen said.
Turner’s attorney, Jimmy Berry,
took the GBI medical examiner to task
for calling the mere presence of ethyl
ene glycol an indication of a poisoning
County, city to meet
on water, sewer needs
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
The historic square in downtown
Cumming has become a poker table.
On opposing comers sit the city and
county governments with cards drawn.
Instead of kings, queens, and knaves,
they play with SPLOST dollars, raw
water intake facilities and sewer capac
ity.
The ace is still in the cards.
As requested by Mayor H. Ford
Gravitt, the Forsyth County Com
mission agreed to meet with the
Cumming City Council this week. At
the regular city council meeting on
Dec. 16, the council tabled the issues
of county water and sewer allocations
until the two governments discuss the
validity of all intergovernmental agree
ments.
The county discounted the need for
a meeting between the two govern
ments.
County OKs resolution
for $65 million bond vote
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners in a 4-1 vote
Monday approved a resolution to
conduct a bond referendum March 2,
2004.
County residents will decide
whether to approve a $65 million
bond issue to fund costs associated
with building a new courthouse and
jail.
Commissioners last month direct
ed legal counsel to draft the resolu
tion for the bond referendum.
While similar proposals have
failed twice since 2000, commission
ers followed the advice of a grand
jury committee that studied why
those previous bond votes failed and
recommended the county conduct
Opinion
Robert Novak: Billionaire
supporter going soft on
candidacy of Dean
Page GA
Partly Cloudy
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
. Bee 19 T069.38.ft
r TX Dec. 20 106932 ft
*>K.2l 108933 ft
Dec
High in the lower 50s
Low in the mid-20s
|R SPORTS, 1.
pplers home for holidays
death. Berry pointed out that there’s
been no research into how much ethyl
ene glycol is necessary to kill some
one.
Koponen told the attorney that, for
several reasons, determining what
amount of ethylene glycol is fatal
would be difficult.
First, many instances of ethylene
glycol poisoning are the result of a sui
cide and, since those people tend to
“over-ingest” the lethal substance, ana
lyzing their cases would yield little
information on the minimal levels nec
essary to kill, he said.
On the other hand, researchers can-
See TURNER, Page 2A
“I’m willing to talk to the mayor, I
just don’t know why [he wants to
meet],” Commission Chairman Jack
Conway said.
“I don’t know what he wants from
the county,” he said.
After the county withheld the city’s
15 percent share of special purpose
local option sales tax [SPLOST] rev
enue for September and October with
out explanation, the mayor threatened
to file a lawsuit against the county
unless funds were remitted. Conway
and Gravitt met on Oct. 20 to discuss
the county’s new interpretation of the
SPLOST Intergovernmental Agree
ment. That interpretation calls for
increased accountability for the city’s
portion of SPLOST revenue.
The county also instructed its attor
neys to ask a judge to rule on the valid
ity of the intergovernmental agreement
signed by the city and county to estab-
See SEWER, Page 2A
Artist’s rendering of
courthouse, parking deck,
shown below.
another election.
According to committee chairman
Roger Crow, two of the main reasons
those bonds were turned down were
because the new courthouse site was
located outside of downtown
Cumming and because there was a
lack of information available for the
public to review.
If voters approve the proposed
bond, the courthouse would be built
on the square in downtown
Cumming on land where Goodson
Drug and Regions Bank is now locat
ed.
See BOND, Page 3A