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L2J OUR REGION
Nate McCullough | News Editor
770-718-3431 | news@gainesvilletimes.com
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia
Friday, June 28, 2019
Man charged
with child
molestation
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
Authorities said they began investigating
a 20-year-old man this month in an alleged
molestation case dating back to 2014.
Daniel Thomas Adams was the subject of
that probe, started earlier this
month.
Hall County Sheriffs Office
Lt. Scott Ware said the depart
ment began the inquiry “after
learning that Adams had sex
ually molested” a young girl
in 2014.
Ware said the two were
Adams previously acquainted.
Adams was charged with
aggravated child molestation and incest. He
was booked in to the Hall County Jail Saturday
and released Tuesday.
Attempts to reach Adams’ attorney for com
ment were unsuccessful.
Ware did not respond to questions regarding
the genesis of the investigation or release fur
ther details on the case.
The case is still under investigation.
Clayton woman
charged after
toddler’s death
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Clayton woman was charged with second-
degree murder after her toddler was alleg
edly left unsupervised in a pool, according to
authorities.
Authorities responded around 1 p.m.
Wednesday, June 26, to a Grapevine Lane resi
dence in Clayton.
“It was determined that a (18-month-old)
child was found in the pool at the residence
after being left unsupervised. The child was
transported to a local hospital and later pro
nounced dead,” Georgia Bureau of Investiga
tion spokeswoman Natalie Ammons wrote in
a news release.
The Rabun County Sheriffs Office requested
the help of the GBI, which performed the
autopsy Thursday, June 27. The death was
deemed a drowning.
The child’s mother, Jacklyn Frady, 26, was
charged with second-degree murder and child
cruelty.
The case is still under investigation and will
potentially head to the Mountain Judicial Cir
cuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Flowery Branch tax rate
to remain the same
Flowery Branch’s property tax rate is staying
the same.
The City Council voted Thursday, June 27, to
keep the rate at 3.264 mills, with 1 mill equal to
$1 per $1,000 in assessed property value. Under
that formula, a $250,000 home — believed to be
the median home value in Flowery Branch —
would be taxed at $326.40.
The council also voted to adopt the fiscal
2019-20 budget, which takes effect July 1.
The budget includes, among other things, a 2.5
percent cost-of-living raise for city employees.
-Jeff Gill
COURT
■ Continued from 1A
“Except (for) the jury deliberation room, he’s
ready to go,” said Forrester, saying there is some
carpeting work still needed in that room.
The courthouse annex formerly housed
county offices after the current courthouse was
constructed. Both are located on Green Street
just off the downtown Gainesville square.
Hall County government relocated in 2012
to the Hall County Government Center at 2875
Browns Bridge Road.
The annex now houses Juvenile and Probate
courts. Probate Court staff settled in its new
space in May 2018, and Juvenile Court finished
the move in August.
Magistrate Court, formerly on the second
floor, is up and running on the third floor of the
main courthouse since last month, which cleared
the space for Bearden and Baldwin.
Hall County spokeswoman Katie Crumley said
the certificates of occupancy had been secured
for the courtrooms and the judges’ chambers.
“Crews are now completing punch list items
and should finish up with that any day now,” she
said.
Crumley said the expenditures for the year to
date were $512,512.50.
SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Renovations to a former Magistrate Court are
now complete.
Homeward bound
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Dan Sobovitz, right, and Greg Merly leave the Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit Wednesday, June
26, with Theo, one of their two sons born on Father’s Day, June 16.
New fathers prepare to take sons home; grateful for help of NGMC
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
The last leg of a long journey to father
hood — made possible through a North
east Georgia surrogate — has begun for a
European gay couple.
Dan Sobovitz and Gregory Merly left
Northeast Georgia Medical Center in
Gainesville on Wednesday, June 26, with
the last of two sons who had been in the
hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit
since their births on Father’s Day, June
16.
“We’re extremely full of gratitude to
the hospital and the staff of the NICU,”
Sobovitz said. “They did everything to
help and accommodate us, and they were
very sensitive to the fact that we’re from
the other side of the world.”
They are preparing to take newborns
Yuli and Theo home — first to France,
where family will greet them, and then
Berlin, where they plan to settle.
“Thank you, Georgia, thank you,
America,” Sobovitz said. “You made us
a family.”
The two men, while living in Belgium,
had explored fatherhood options for sev
eral years, finally settling on the surro
gate arrangement in February 2018.
As Europe largely bans the practice for
different reasons, the two men’s journey
led them to Kristina Brady, who lives in
Eastanollee, southeast of Toccoa. They
were matched with her through an inter
national program.
The process was long and complex,
but basically, Brady ended up pregnant
using two eggs from a biological mother
who remained an anonymous donor in
the process. One embryo contained DNA
from Sobovitz and the other contained
DNA from Merly.
“Today’s science allows us to separate
them, so (the surrogate) knows from the
very start that it’s not her kids,” Sobovitz
said in a previous interview.
Brady, who runs a day-care in her
home, said she originally had planned
to serve as a surrogate for a friend, who
later changed her mind. Still, the experi-
Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s Nicole Hutchins, RN, helps Dan Sobovitz, right,
and Greg Merly load up Wednesday, June 26, with son Theo as they check out of the
hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
ence inspired her to eventually agree to
be a surrogate for Sobovitz and Merly.
“I couldn’t imagine .. wanting a baby
and not being able to get pregnant,” she
said.
Sobovitz said he and Merly — who
were married in Stephens County before
the births — have had an overall good
experience.
“We never experienced any negative
comments by anyone,” Sobovitz said.
“We were ready to take the filth, both in
Europe and here, and it never came.”
The focus now is on the babies and
steps to get them home.
“They were in the NICU because they
are showing some difficulties to breathe
and be fed at the same time,” Merly said.
“This lack of coordination continues a
little bit in the first weeks of the (babies’)
lives.”
But otherwise, their “problems are
more or less over,” Sobovitz said.
The couple, staying in Atlanta, are
looking to leave in late July. The main
concern about flying is measles and other
contagious diseases.
“The doctors are saying it’s not the
plane. It’s the airport” that’s the main
concern, Sobovitz said.
“We will have to hide their cuteness
in the airport, just to make sure,” Merly
added with a grin.
Otherwise, there will be expenses to
deal with. At one point, Sobovitz said costs
had reached $130,000.
“That’s the one difficulty in a happy
story,” he said. “We’re coming from a
very different system, where (medical
costs) aren’t anywhere near the costs
here. Our insurances will not pay the
costs here and we’re still trying to find
solutions there.”
City improving Lake Knickerbocker dam
SCOn ROGERS I The Times
The Lake Knickerbocker Dam gets a new look as trees are
removed and the earth bank graded on May 21.
BY MEGAN REED
mreed@gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville is making some
improvements to the dam at
Lake Knickerbocker, a project
that has been several years in
the making.
The 45-acre lake near Chat
tahoochee Golf Club north of
downtown has a dam spanning
either side of East Lake Drive.
The $3 million project, set to
be complete in September,
includes removal of trees from
the dam and the installation of
rip rap, stones that can be used
to keep water back and ward
off erosion.
“If there were very heavy
rain at some point, it is pos
sible that the water could leak
in to the spillway. The water
level might rise and go over
the dam,” Chris McGauley, a
civil engineer with Gainesville
Water Resources, said. “If that
were the case, the stone would
help to slow the water down
and stop it from damaging the
slopes.”
Linda MacGregor, Gaines
ville Water Resources
director, said there will occa
sionally be single lane closures
on the road so the project can
be done.
The project was approved
in 2015, but the city was wait
ing on approval from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers,
which has jurisdiction over
both Lake Knickerbocker and
Lake Lanier, which sits on the
other side of the dam. The city
is responsible for maintenance
of the dam because it has an
easement for water and sewer
lines there, MacGregor said.
When improvements were
first announced, the city was
hoping to stop the flow of silt in
to Lake Knickerbocker, a prob
lem residents had asked to be
addressed.
Lake Knickerbocker was
built in the late 1950s by the
damming of Ada Creek.