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Shannon Casas | Director of Content
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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia
★ Saturday, October 27, 2018
Police: Man showed girl pornography, molested her
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Flowery Branch man is
accused of exposing a young
girl to pornography and then
engaging “in inappropriate
sexual behavior” with the girl,
according to authorities.
Jonathan Dean Edwards,
20, was charged with child
molestation and enticing a
child for indecent purposes.
He was booked Thursday, Oct.
25, in to the Hall County Jail,
where he is being held without
a bond.
Hall County Sheriffs Office
Lt. Scott Ware said Edwards
and the girl — described by
Ware as under the age of 10
— were acquainted with one
another.
Ware said Edwards alleg
edly took the girl on Oct. 6 to
a Flowery Branch residence
and “exposed her to viewing
pornography.”
“Edwards also engaged in
inappropriate sexual behavior
with the child as well,” Ware
wrote in a news release.
The case is still under
investigation.
Hall County Magistrate
Court officials said Edwards
had requested a public
defender but one had not
been assigned as of Friday,
Oct. 26.
Edwards
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks to a crowd at Brenau University’s Pearce
Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 26.
ABRAMS
■ Continued from 1A
Sarah Riggs Amico, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia, speaks
to a crowd at Brenau University’s Pearce Auditorium.
Attendees gather at Brenau University’s Pearce Auditorium for a “We Are Georgia” bus
tour event with Stacey Abrams, Sarah Riggs Amico and Charlie Bailey.
Abrams also said she
hopes to create jobs, but she
also wants those jobs to pro
vide living wages.
“You shouldn’t have to
move to make a living. ...
The current governor has
done a good job of bringing
jobs to Georgia,” Abrams
said. “The problem is too
many of us have too many
of those jobs. You should
only have to have one job to
make a living in the state of
Georgia.”
Abrams said she hopes
to create a $10 million
small business financing
fund because the state has
attracted large businesses,
but she also wants to support
“Main Street businesses.”
Renewable energy can
also be a job creator, she
said.
But at the root of the
other issues is health
care, Abrams said, so she
vowed to improve health
care access for Georgians.
Abrams said her first pri
ority as governor would be
Medicaid expansion.
Abrams stressed the
importance of not just
physical health but men
tal health, noting that the
state’s prison system is a
major provider of mental
health services.
“We ask our law enforce
ment to act as doctors,” she
said. “They arrest folks not
because they’re dangerous,
because they’re sick. We
know that a lot of folks who
have substance abuse issues
have them because they’re
self-medicating mental
health challenges.”
Abrams said her brother,
Walter, has been in and out
of prison and rehab due to
a heroin addiction. Walter
was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder and was able to get
the medication he needed
while he was in prison. He
became stable and sober
when he was able to get
medication, Abrams said,
but lost that health care
access when he left prison.
He struggled to find
employment or housing
because of his criminal
record, she said.
Riggs Amico, the lieu
tenant governor candidate
and a business owner from
Marietta, who spoke before
Abrams at the event at Bre
nau, said she had many of
the same priorities, includ
ing school funding and Med
icaid expansion.
Riggs Amico told sup
porters to encourage people
they know to vote.
“I need you to talk to
every friend, family mem
ber, neighbor, colleague.
... You tell them their vote
matters,” she said.
Myrtle Figueras, a for
mer Gainesville mayor and
councilwoman, said people
in Hall County are excited
about the Abrams cam
paign. Figueras said she has
followed Abrams’ career
in the state legislature and
trusts her leadership.
“She is invested in human
beings. She believes in ser
vice to all,” Figueras said.
“She feels the pulse of the
nation and of this state. ”
Sisters Audrey Simmons
of Gainesville and Val Coley
of Flowery Branch also
attended Friday’s rally to
show their support.
“She’s verbal, she’s sin
cere. It’s not just politics
with her. She cares,” Sim
mons said.
Abrams is honest, Sim
mons said, and has been
forthcoming in explaining
controversies such as her
involvement in the burning
of a state flag that featured
a Confederate symbol while
she was in college.
Simmons said she likes
how Abrams has reached
across the aisle to work with
Republicans.
Coley said she appre
ciates that Abrams is
family-oriented.
“When someone cares
about their family, they care
about everyone,” Coley said.
Democratic Attorney
General candidate Charlie
Bailey and Josh McCall,
who is running for the U.S.
House of Representatives
District 9, also spoke at Fri
day’s rally.
Kyle Leineweber,
president of Brenau Col
lege Democrats, which
organized the event, also
addressed the crowd before
Abrams spoke. Abrams was
introduced by Margie Gill,
assistant director of Bre-
nau’s counseling center and
founder of Tabitha’s House,
an organization for traffick
ing victims.
3 people displaced by
Oakwood apartment fire
Three people were displaced as a result of a Friday
afternoon fire on Lanier Mill Circle in Oakwood, according
to Hall County Fire Services.
Firefighters responded around 2:40 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26,
and found the sprinklers were activated.
Capt. Zachary Brackett said the fire around the stove
and above the cabinets had been extinguished.
“The unit is reported to have suffered minor fire damage
but a significant amount of water damage,” Brackett wrote
in an email.
No injuries were reported, and the American Red Cross
has been contacted for assistance.
The cause is undetermined.
Nick Watson
Supreme Court
allows embattled
Griffin judge
to stay on bench
BY BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday unanimously
rejected a request that an embattled judge from the Griffin
Judicial Circuit be suspended from office.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Qualifications Commission rec
ommended that Superior Court Judge Mack Crawford be
relieved of his duties, with pay, while an ethics complaint
against him is pending. In July, the JQC accused Crawford
of theft for directing a court clerk to transfer $15,675 to him
from an account in the Pike County court registry.
Crawford, a former state legislator who once headed
Georgia’s public defender system, hears cases in Fayette,
Spalding, Pike and Upson counties south of Atlanta. He had
already agreed to stop presiding over criminal cases.
Virgil Brown, one of Crawford’s attorneys, has said Craw
ford was entitled to the $15,675 for unpaid legal fees and
as reimbursement for court filing fees and depositions of
witnesses from a 2002 foreclosure case. The JQC contends
Crawford had no right to those funds and its case against
him is expected to be heard early next year. If Crawford
is found to have violated the judicial code of conduct, his
punishment ranges from a reprimand to removal from the
bench.
In its motion to the state Supreme Court, the JQC said
allowing Crawford to remain on the bench posed a “sub
stantial threat” to the administration of justice. But the high
court, in a unanimous and briefly worded decision, said it
had “carefully considered” the JQC’s motion and support
ing documents before reaching its decision.
Month-old landfill fire has
south Fulton residents
concerned about health
BY STEVE BURNS
The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution
A landfill that has been
burning for more than
a month in south Fulton
County has residents fear
ing for their health, accord
ing to Channel 2 Action
News.
“I cannot even walk out
side without putting a mask
on,” said 85-year-old Helen
Goddard, who is already
battling leukemia.
Firefighters were first
called to a woods fire Sept.
20 at the landfill in the 7600
block of Bishop Road, the
news station reported.
Fairburn city officials
said in a Facebook post that
the fire was expected to
burn for days.
However, the continued
burning has altered the
lives of residents.
“We have a little 4-year-
old grandchild that would
love to live outside if he
could, but unfortunately we
have to keep him indoors,”
resident Deborah Stephens
said.
Residents say the smell
of the burning debris makes
it difficult to breathe.
“You call EPA, they say
call code enforcement,”
Goddard said. “Code
enforcement has done
nothing.”
The Georgia Environ
mental Protection Division
is investigating, spokesman
Kevin Chambers confirmed
to AJC.com.
“ It was a recycling facility,
but evolved into an unper
mitted solid waste handling
operation. The owner has
been uncooperative and we
are now working on formal
enforcement action to bring
the facility into compliance
with state rules and law,”
Chambers said.
Residents said they want
the landfill shut down.
“How would it feel if you
couldn’t go to church with
out people smelling you,”
Goddard said. “I have to
wash everything that I
own.”
Atlanta firefighters put out blaze near
Edgewood-Candler Park MARTA
A fire at a MARTA battery maintenance facility in north
east Atlanta was extinguished, but it prompted a response by
the fire department hazmat team, officials said.
MARTA service was not affected, and DeKalb Avenue,
which is near the incident, was reopened to traffic after a
few hours.
“This room supplies battery power to trains if electrical
power goes out,” MARTA spokeswoman Stefany Fisher said.
Potentially hazardous material at the site on DeKalb
and Gordon avenues had firefighters in a defensive mode,
Atlanta Fire Rescue Department spokesman Sgt. Cortez Staf
ford told Channel 2 Action News.
The scene was near the Edgewood-Candler Park MARTA
station.
Two firefighters were taken to a hospital to be treated for
smoke inhalation, Stafford said.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
