Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth Count
Vol. 95, No. 023
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Photo/Audra Perry
Walk America Begins
Forsyth County Walk America Co-Chair Jackie Meadows greets Katharine Hewell, the 2004
Ambassador for Walk America in Forsyth County. A kickoff event was held on Thursday to begin prepa
ration for the April 17 event, which benefits the March of Dimes. Katharine is the 6-year-old daughter
of Mark and Elizabeth Hewell of Cumming.
Justice Center is town hall meeting topic
By Todd Truelove
Staff Writer
The Forsyth County Republican Party’s Town Hall
meetings series kicks off this Tuesday at Cumming City
Hall with a discussion regarding the March 2 bond refer
endum for new facilities in downtown Cumming
including a jail and courthouse.
Moderator and Town Hall Meeting director Gray
Smith said Friday all county residents are invited to
attend regardless of their political party affiliation.
A five-member panel consisting of Sheriff Ted
Paxton, Solicitor Leslie Abernathy, Clerk of Courts Doug
Sorrells, County Commissioner A.J. Pritchett and Board
of Elections member Brant Meadows has agreed to
answer questions posed by attendees.
In addition, Mayor H. Ford Gravitt will be present to
offer the city's opinion of the proposed project.
“It’s not going to be a debate format,” Smith said.
Traffic Court
Paying a fine is all that’s necessary for some road
violations, but others require a visit with the judge
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
The difference between pay
ing a speeding ticket and being
forced to face a judge as a crimi
nal defendant often turns on a few
miles per hour. Driving 59 mph
where the posted speed limit is 35
mph, for example, would require
the speeder to appear in Forsyth
County State Court while travel
ing 58 mph would require the
same motorist to pay a $96.75
fine.
Welcome to the nuances of
Forsyth County’s Traffic
Violations Bureau.
Like other judicial circuits in
Georgia with no full-time traffic
court, the bureau has a home in
the clerk’s office, located on the
ground floor of the county court
house in Cumming.
Forsyth County Clerk of Court
Douglas E. Sorrells regularly
receives copies of all Citations
that do not require a motorist to
appear in court from sheriff’s
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For a replacement paper, call
8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. -1
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Copyright © 2003 Forsyth County News
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deputies and state troopers.
Paying the citation to the clerk
normally will end the case. The
route is a popular one evi
denced by the $1.95 million in
fines collected last year by the
clerk’s office for Forsyth County
State Court.
The payment of a ticket, how
ever, comes with a cost.
' “When you pay the ticket, you
are pleading guilty,” said
Cumming attorney James E.
Hardy 11.
Pleading not guilty to a traffic
ticket will result in the Office of
Solicitor General becoming
involved in the matter. The solici
tor’s office, which prosecutes
misdemeanor offenses such as
DUI and simple battery, can elect
to prosecute a case or negotiate
with the motorist.
If the motorist takes the case
to trial and loses, the judge is not
bound by the fine list kept in the
clerk’s office. In other words, if a
motorist fights a ticket and loses,
simply paying the original fine
INDEX
Abby 6B
Births 4B
Classifieds 3C
Deaths 2A
Forsyth Life IB
Horoscope 6B
Opinion 10A
Sports 1C
SUNDAY February 8,2004
“We will have a panel of five people that will be there to
answer questions from the public.”
The meeting is separate from additional informational
meetings scheduled later this month and sponsored by the
“Let’s Build It” committee, which is backing the plan.
“The bottom line is this meeting is not intended to
endorse nor oppose the justice center, but to provide
information,” Smith said.
“1 know that I have many questions that have not yet
been answered, and I’m hoping to learn more about this
on Tuesday night,” he said.
The most pressing question, he said, seems to be the
cost associated with building the facilities and acquiring
the land on the Cumming Square that’s now owned by
Goodson pharmacy and Wachovia Bank.
Though registered voters will be choosing whether to
approve bonds totaling $65 million. Smith said taxpayers
See CENTER, Page 2A
may no longer be an option
because the judge can impose a
more severe sentence. On the
other hand, a prosecutor may
offer to reduce the charge if the
motorist has a good case, Hardy
said.
For some offenses, paying the
fine and going home is never an
option. Those cited for speeding
in excess of 23 mph of the posted
speed limit, reckless driving, rac
ing, failure to report an accident
or driving on a suspended license
must appear in court to answer
for the traffic misdeed.
All cases involving an acci
dent must go to court.
Lesser known offenses requir
ing a driver to appear in court are
failing to obey an officer directing
traffic, overtaking a school bus,
permitting an unlicensed person
to drive and crossing a fire hose.
For tickets not requiring a
court date, fines range from sls
for not buckling up to $378 for
See COURT, Page 2A
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Turner trial moved
to Houston County
Poisoning case scheduled for April in Perry
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
Nearly everyone within a 100-
mile radius of Atlanta apparently has
heard or read about the poisoning
murder trial of Julia Lynn Turner of
Cumming.
Because a sufficiently impartial
jury could not be found in Cobb
County, Superior Court
Judge James G. Bodiford
on Thursday moved the
case 125 miles south to
Perry in Houston County.
The case is scheduled to
begin April 26 and
expected to last one
month, Bodiford’s law
clerk Leann Dolin said.
Turner is charged with
one count of murder., She
is accused of poisoning
her Cobb County police
officer husband, Glenn Turner, in
1995 using ethylene glycol. The
sweet tasting poison is the main
ingredient in antifreeze.
Turner is also the prime suspect
in the 2001 poisoning murder, of
Randy Thompson, a Forsyth County
fireman and father of her two chil
dren. Members of the fire depart
ment told investigators that in his
last days, Turner brought Thompson
food and sweet tea while he was at
home sick. Thompson got sicker and
sicker, and in January his co-workers
broke into his house and found
Thompson dead.
It was the tea, some of his co
workers claim, that was sweetened
with poison.
Houston County media have
already picked up on public interest
in the case. Colleen McClintic, chief
deputy clerk in Houston County, said
the news was all over the television
by Friday morning. However,
McClintic still believes the court will
have no problem finding an impartial
jury.
“I suspect it is going to be easier
than it would be in [Turner’s] home-
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Photo/David McGregor
| Inside
Chamber of Commerce
celebrates 50th
anniversary.
Special Section
town,” McClintic said.
Out of a normal jury pool of 250
people, only about 110 show up for
duty, McClintic said. Residency is
transient because Robins Air Force
Base is located in nearby Warner
Robins, she said.
McClintic will meet with Cobb
County Superior Court
Administrator Skip Chesshire this
Turner
The county seat of Perry, where
the trial will be held, has a popula
tion of 9,600 people. The courthouse
sits in a restored downtown and has a
small town feel. The dominant
media outlet is a local daily newspa
per, The Houston Home Journal.
The area is also covered extensively
by newspaper and television outlets
in Macon, about 25 miles away.
“Just somewhere outside of the
general news media coverage area,”
attorney Vic Reynolds said, who is
defending Turner along with Jimmy
Berry.
The prosecution has called more
than 100 witnesses in this case.
Along with the judge, attorneys and
defendant, witnesses will be trans
ported to Houston. Chesshire said
the trial will cost taxpayers around
$25,000, compared to SIO,OOO if the
trial was left in Cobb.
The defense and prosecution will
agree on bond conditions, where
Turner will be held in Houston, clos
er to the trial date, Dolin said. Turner
is currently under house arrest at her
parents’ home in Cumming. An
ankle monitor tracks her location.
Partly Cloudy
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
a. Date Level
Feb-3 1067.98 ft
"Y Feb. 4 1068.00 ft
f Feb. 5 1068.03 ft
W- ■/ W** Feb. 6 1068.03 ft
V Full 1071.
High in the mid-40s. , , " ' . .
Low in the high 20s.
LIFE, 1B
Doctor helps after earthquake
week to determine how
many jurors will be sum
moned. The 12 trial jurors
and three alternates will not
be sequestered, Dolin said.
Houston County has a
population of about
117,000. About 36 percent
of the county is farm land.
The judge and attorneys
were looking for some
where far removed from the
frenzied atmosphere in
Cobb surrounding the trial.
Soldier home
from Iraq faces
drug charges
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
A soldier who recently returned
from Iraq faces felony drug charges in
connection with a traffic stop early
Thursday morning.
Matthew Denbo, 23, of Cumming
was charged by the Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office with possession of
methamphetamine
with the intent to dis
tribute, possession of
LSD and misde
meanor possession of
marijuana.
Denbo later told
sheriff’s detectives he
returned from Iraq
and remains on active
duty in the Army out
of Fort Hood in Texas,
said Capt. Ron Freeman.
The military has been notified of
the arrest, he added.
The arrest resulted from a routine
traffic stop. A deputy responded short
ly after midnight to a report of a “sus
picious vehicle” at a Quick Trip gas
station in the 2800 block of Keith
Bridge Road in north Forsyth County.
The deputy said the car appeared sus-
See ARREST, Page 7A
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Denbo