The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, December 01, 2018, Image 8

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The times., December 01, 2018, Image 8

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Newspaper Page TextL2J OUR REGION Shannon Casas | Editor in Chief 770-718-3417 | news@gainesvilletimes.com The Times, Gainesville, Georgia Saturday, December 1,2018 Report: Man planned to meet juvenile for sex BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville man allegedly planned to meet a juvenile in a Flowery Branch parking lot after “sexually explicit conversations” until he was met by Hall County Sheriffs Office detectives, accord ing to authorities. Authorities said Adam Lee Epps, 32, arrived in the park ing lot of a Spout Springs Road shopping area after “arranging to meet a juve nile for the purpose of sex ual contact,” according to Sheriffs Office spokesman Derreck Booth. “Epps had been in con- g__ s tact with a person he knew to be a child using a mobile app. He held sexually-explicit con versations with the indi vidual up until Wednes day’s meeting,” Booth wrote in a news release. When Epps pulled up in a pickup truck around 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29, at the shop ping area, investigators arrested him. He was charged with criminal attempt to commit aggravated child molestation and electronic enticement of a child. Booth said no child was ever in danger during the two-week investigation. Booth did not release the age or gender of the juvenile Epps was allegedly expecting to meet nor the application used to contact the suspected juvenile. “This was an undercover oper ation, and investigators aren’t releasing those details at this time,” Booth wrote in an email. No information was available Friday, Nov. 30, with Hall County Magistrate Court regarding Epps’ retention of an attorney. The case is still under investigation. Forsyth authorities in search of ‘sophisticated’ home burglars For The Times These individuals are wanted in connection with an attempted burglary that took place Thursday in Forsyth County. BY ALEXANDER POPP apopp@forsythnews.com Local authorities are on the lookout for a pair of burglars that were caught on camera attempting to break into a south Forsyth resi dence on Thursday. Cpl. Doug Rainwater, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, said that the sus pects were caught on a doorbell camera loudly knocking and ringing the doorbell of a resi dence in the Southgate Village subdivision in south Forsyth, wearing latex gloves and commu nicating with a lookout car via a wired earpiece. A be-on-the-lookout notice put out about the incident states that at about 12:45 p.m. Thurs day, a white Volkswa gen sedan considered to be a possible getaway vehicle was seen driving through the neighbor hood at a slow speed. “They ring the door bell numerous times, nobody answers, then they put on surgical masks, walk around to the back of the house where we found pry marks,” Rainwater said. Rainwater said that the sheriff’s office received a call from the homeowner, who was away, letting them know about the suspicious indi viduals, but when depu ties arrived on scene, the suspects had already fled without making entry into the residence. “So I’m sure when our deputies started com ing in the subdivision to the address, the guy in the car communicated with the two in the back and they fled,” Rainwa ter said. “I’m sure they went one or two streets over and met back up with the Volkswagen.” The sheriff’s office isn’t sure how many local burglaries these suspects may be con nected to, but Rainwater said they may have been responsible for a bur glary that took place just a few days prior in Johns Creek. Besides the surgi cal gloves and masks, Rainwater said the suspects were dressed like joggers to blend into the neighborhood environment. “But yet they have one desire: take your stuff,” Rainwater said. Regardless, Rainwa ter said that the circum stances of this burglary attempt and the sus pect’s attitudes makes the sheriff’s office “very interested” in finding or identifying them as soon as possible. “This is not your ordi nary random burglary,” Rainwater said. “This group is very sophisti cated in terms of how they dress, they have lookouts, and that’s why we want to catch them.” The sheriff’s office asks that anyone who has any information about the pictured indi viduals or vehicle should call Detective William O’Haire at 770-781-2222, Ext. 3321. UN G s networks grow with India, Taiwan partnerships The University of North Georgia has inked an agree ment to form a science and business partnership with BML Munjal University in India, as well as faculty and student exchanges. “I am delighted that UNG has an academic connection with BML Munjal University so that our students, faculty and staff can learn more about India’s culture, as well as the institution’s academic and industrial innovations,” Sheila Schulte, associate vice president for interna tional programs at UNG, said in a press release. J.B. Sharma, assistant department head of physics at UNG, visited BML Mun jal recently when he was in India to see family. “Engagement between the oldest democracy and the largest democracy in the world is very important,” Sharma said. “It will be ben eficial for both societies.” Earlier this year, UNG announced two new partner ships in Taiwan to help UNG create opportunities for its Chinese-language learners, as well as those interested in East Asian studies, by providing key locations for learning through UNG’s expanded global footprint. Taiwan’s Management College, National Defense University, and UNG signed an agreement Aug. 22 facili tating the exchange of stu dents and faculty. And on Aug. 27, UNG signed an agreement to extend its partnership with the Republic of China Mili tary Academy, a relationship that began in December 2012. UNG now has military student exchanges with 11 schools. Joshua Silavent PEGGY C0ZART, UNIV. OF N. GEORGIA I For The Times Dr. MB Srinivas, dean of BML Munjal’s College of Engineering and Technology, shakes hands with University of North Georgia President Dr. Bonita Jacobs after signing a partnership agreement between the schools on Nov. 6. Engine failure leads to plane crash at Kennesaw State BY ZACHARY HANSEN AND GREG BLUESTEIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A small plane crashed on Kennesaw State Univer sity’s Kennesaw campus Thursday around 7 p.m., police confirmed. The crash happened at the intersection of Bar tow Avenue and Campus Loop Road, KSU’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) said in a tweet. The tweet also said there are no reports of damaged build ings or injuries to KSU stu dents, faculty or staff. Two people were in the plane, and they were taken to an area hospital, OEM said in a later tweet. They were seen sitting up on their stretchers and were conscious. Cobb County Fire told Channel 2 Action News engine failure led to the crash, and the passengers were on their way from Omaha, Neb., to Charlie Brown Field in Fulton County. Video obtained by Chan nel 2 appears to show the plane crashed into a tree. A large parachute is believed to have deployed from the plane shortly before impact. Abby Rodriguez, a KSU graduate student, captured video of one of the crash’s survivors waving his hand. “I just thought it was a bridge that collapsed,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We went to the parking lot, and I thought it was an explosion.” Another graduate stu dent, Megan Allen, said it was a deafening boom. “It almost sounded like 1-75 was collapsing... It was so loud it was hard to com prehend what happened,” Allen said. Tammy DeMel, Assistant Vice President of Commu nications at KSU, said the campus will be fully opera tional Friday. Cobb County police said the Federal Aviation Administration are inves tigating the crash, and a portion of campus may be closed as a result. ‘It was not by coincidence that Daniel ended up working with Alan. I think it speaks to just how good this generation is and I think we forget that. All that crap we hear on television, I’m sorry, it doesn’t get any better than this generation.’ Will Schofield, Hall County Schools Superintendent SAVE ■ Continued from 1A at Jones in the Chicopee Mill area of Gainesville, and were driving off to the next job. At a stop sign, Marceleno recalled seeing Moore begin to lose consciousness. “I noticed him a little shaky,” he said. “I asked him, ‘Hey, are you OK?”’ When Moore responded, “I don’t think so,” Marceleno sensed real trouble. Moore had gone into cardiac arrest behind the wheel. Marceleno, thinking and acting quickly, immediately reached over and put the car in park and called 911. He applied CPR as the dispatcher instructed until paramedics arrived. Marceleno said he was kind of in shock and caught up in the moment. “I didn’t know how to really react,” at least until he returned to school later, he said. “That’s when it started kicking in more.” But he appears to have made all the difference. Nationally, only about 10 percent of individuals who experience a “sudden death” cardiac event out side of a hospital are revived. But Moore was on hand to thank Marceleno at the Board of Educa tion meeting, standing tall after his recovery, where the young student received a certificate of “bravery and courage” for his actions. Moore’s family spoke of the bond they’ve developed with Marceleno, including a mold of hands holding a heart, itself a nod to a passage in the Bible’s Book of Daniel that begins, “A hand touched me...” Schofield also reflected on Marcele- no’s hand in saving Moore’s life. “It was not by coincidence that Daniel ended up working with Alan,” he said, referencing the scripture. “I think it speaks to just how good this generation is and I think we forget that. All that crap we hear on televi sion, I’m sorry, it doesn’t get any bet ter than this generation.” COLLINS ■ Continued from 1A his bid away from chair man of the committee and run for ranking member instead. Even with Demo crats controlling the House, Collins said he hopes the two parties can work together. “If they want to actually legislate, we can do some thing that is good for the American people, then I assure we will be doing that as well,” Collins told The Times Friday. He said he expects issues like criminal justice reform and intellectual property to be sources of common ground for the committee. “It really depends on what the Democrats want to do,” Collins said. “If they want to waste their time on (an investigation), then we’ll meet them and defeat them on that. If they want to work together to find some legislative solutions, we’ll be there for that as well.” Collins, a Gainesville native, was first elected to Congress in 2013 and was re-elected Nov. 6 to repre sent Georgia’s 9th District. He was formerly a pastor at Chicopee Baptist Church and also worked as a law yer. As a U.S. Air Force Reserve chaplain, he was deployed in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. Collins also serves on the House Rules Committee. 2 arrested during search for drugs, stolen items BY NICK WATSON nwatson@ gainesvilletimes.com After hearing complaints about illegal narcotics and stolen items, authorities in White County visited 31 resi dences and asked “nicely” to search for those things. One Clermont man ran as soon as officers pulled up, according to authorities. Adam Chadwick Moody, 41, was charged with traffick ing methamphetamine after 4 ounces of the drug were found. Moody was arrested on Skitts Mountain Road. Georgia Bureau of Inves tigation Special Agent in Charge Mitchell Posey said Moody “ran as we pulled up, so we got him without searching anything. ” The 31 residences searched came from infor mation provided by the public. “White County authorities responded to the public’s out cry by going to each of the residences and asking nicely to search for illegal narcotics and stolen items. The goal of this operation was to remove all illegal narcotics from our streets and to deter drug dealers from selling illegal narcotics or being in posses sion of stolen items in White County,” Posey wrote in a news release. Authorities from the Appa lachian Drug Enforcement Office also charged Angel Nicole Piper, 30, with posses sion of methamphetamine at her Cleveland home after authorities reportedly found a small quantity of the drug at the residence. The estimated total street value totaled $13,000, and both arrestees were taken to the White County Detention Center. Cleveland Police, the Department of Commu nity Supervision, the White County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Department of Corrections K-9 unit assisted in the operation. Courtesy APPALACHIAN REGIONAL DRUG ENFORCEMENT OFFICE White County authorities searched 31 residences on Friday, Nov. 30, discovering $13,000 worth of methamphetamine.