About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2020)
Save up to $112 COUPONS INSIDE SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23,2020 | $2.00 | GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Deportations can doom court cases Defendants expelled prior to prosecution means some suspects never face a jury BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com In 2017, authorities descended on an Oakwood home looking for drugs. According to court documents, a confidential informant had told Hall County law enforcement that 25-year-old Ricardo Pascual- Brito was receiving narcotics and sending money to Mexico. And a person arrested by the DEA had also pointed to Pascual-Brito as a supplier. “Multiple witnesses had been able to testify that he was moving a large amount of drugs in this coun- R. Pascual-Brito M. Pascual-Brito try. It was a sophisticated operation with ties to drug cartels in Mexico,” according to court documents. So authorities executed a search warrant at the home. They found 61 kilograms of cocaine, 1 kilogram of heroin and two semi-automatic assault rifles. In all, they discovered more than $6 million in drugs. Two women in the home were arrested. Ricardo’s sister, Monica Pascual-Brito, 24, and Karla Alva rez, 28, a teacher who owned the home, were charged with traffick ing and possessing with the intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. Ricardo Pascual-Brito, however, couldn’t be found. But at some point, court docu ments say, Ricardo Pascual-Brito was stopped leaving a wire trans fer store and found “in possession of money straps representing large amounts of currency as well as receipts that showed large trans fers of currency to Mexico.” Exactly when that was still remains unclear. But what is known is both he and Monica Pascual-Brito were deported because of their immi gration status, meaning neither showed up for arraignment, said Northeastern Judicial Circuit Dis trict Attorney Lee Darragh. “Since both (Pascual-Britos) did not appear at arraignment, an additional bench warrant (was) issued for Ricardo, and a bench warrant for Monica, and eventu ally the case was placed on the dead docket,” Darragh wrote in an email. That left just Alvarez “to answer for the drugs and weapons located at the residence,” according to court documents. But the charges against Alvarez were dismissed by Darragh, who said there did not “appear to be evi dence beyond a reasonable doubt that she had actual knowledge or that she was in any way a member of this criminal organization.” That means unless the Pascual- Britos are located and returned, there is a possibility no one will ever face a jury in a $6 million drug trafficking case. ■ Please see DOCKET, 4A ‘I wanted... to be vindicated’ SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Retired Gainesville Police Officer and Eagle Scout Jim Lloyd holds a photo of himself during his scouting days as a youth. Lloyd has recounted for years his abuse while in the Boy Scouts in the 1970s in a troop led by Fleming Weaver. Census goal: Count every Hall resident BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com The census, a once-a-decade population and housing count in the United States, aims to reach every household and account for every person in the country. That’s more than 300 million people to reach, and an estimated 200,000 in Hall County. But a local committee, which is partnering with busi nesses, churches, nonprofits and other commu nity groups, is working to inform people about the Census to keep the count as accurate as possible. Hall County’s six-member Complete Count Committee is one of many groups around the nation focused on reaching populations that may be hard to count, by informing their com munities about how Census data is used and how to complete the census. Phillippa Lewis Moss, director of Gaines- ville-Hall County Community Services, said the Census will take the average family about 10 minutes to complete. Every household will be mailed a postcard between March 12 and 20 with instructions about how to complete the Census form, which Former Boy Scout hopes justice finally coming for fellow abuse victims BY LAYNE SALIBA lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com Jim Lloyd said he was raped for almost five years. “I’d say it probably hap pened over 300 times, and that might not be enough,” Lloyd said, sitting back in a rocking chair in the Flowery Branch home where he lives with his cousin. Lloyd, now 64, was a Boy Scout in Gainesville’s Troop 26, sponsored by First Bap tist Church on Green Street. Lloyd said R. Fleming Weaver Jr., a former deacon at the church and a longtime scout master, took advantage of him and myriad other Scouts in the tents on camping trips and in the Scout cabins on the church’s property. “If it wasn’t for my sense of humor, and my laughter, I would have been gone a long time ago,” Lloyd said. “That’s the only wall I have between me and a very dark place that if I go to again, I won’t make it back.” With the news of the Boy Scouts of America’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Lloyd is happy to see there will be some sort of repayment made to all the victims of sexual abuse who have suffered at the hands of the Boy Scouts’ alleged negligence. Though this may be the beginning for some Scouts, Lloyd said it was over for him as soon as those who covered up the abuse admitted what they had done. Vindication is a word that rolls off his tongue effortlessly. “I didn’t get in this to sue anybody,” Lloyd said. “I wanted to get in it to prove what I was saying, to be vin dicated. I didn’t want to sue anybody.” Lloyd was part of a lawsuit filed in Cobb County along with two others in 2017, though the plaintiffs’ attorneys voluntarily ■ Please see SCOUTS, 5A ■ Please see CENSUS, 4A SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Census forms will be mailed out in March and Phillippa Lewis Moss, of the Hall County Complete Count Committee, is making sure that the word gets out in Hall County. 0 INSIDE 40901 06825 Advice 1E Business 4D Calendar 2A Classified 6C Comics Inside Fun+Games 1E Kitchen 3D Life 1D Lottery 2A Opinion 6A Our Region 1C Sports 1B WEATHER 2A High Low 55 41 Lake Lanier level: 1,076.53 feet Full pool 1,071. Down 0.17 feet in 24 hours DEATHS 2C Carolyn Brown, 91 Myron Frazer, 69 Vivian Gooch, 75 Ralph Holland, 63 Joe Lewis Sr., 85 Virginia Martin, 96 Alice Matherly, 75 Allene Morrison, 84 Karen Sorrells, 59 Johnny Vickers, 44 AND THE BEAT GOES ON. 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