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Weekend Edition - FEBRUARY 16-17,20241 $2.00 I GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA I gainesvilletimes.com
Local churches offer ashes
on Gainesville Square for
Ash Wednesday, region, sc
Honestly Local
Trucking company, family settle suit for $10M
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A North Carolina trucking
company and its insurer have
settled a case for $10 million
involving a Gainesville
woman killed in a crash in
2016 on Interstate 85.
Taliah Freeman, 32, of
Gainesville, was killed in
an April 23, 2016, wreck
in Gwinnett County after
a chain-reaction collision.
Nearly eight years
later while the jury was
deliberating the case, the
parties reached a settlement,
with roughly 95% of it going
toward Freeman's family.
The case was brought
by Freeman's mother,
Sandra Gallo, on behalf of
Freeman's son, who was 6
years old at the time of her
death. The defendants were
C&T Durham Trucking
Company, of Greensboro,
North Carolina, and ACE
American Insurance
Company.
“To see the insurance
company finally
acknowledge responsibility
with this payment,
after presenting a mean-
spirited, meritless defense
was satisfying for our
clients,'' attorney Matt Cook
said in a statement.
The plaintiffs were
represented by Cook, Shane
Lazenby, Nathan Nicholson,
Josh Bearden, Jon Greer,
Brittany Rowe and Walter
Rucker.
See Settle 14A
‘A very inadequate response’
Scott Rogers The Times
Gainesville-Hall County Senior Life Center members line up to board buses Wednesday, Jan. 31, to go home. Seniors at
the center have filed complaints about the bus company, T&T Transportation.
Bus company under fire after complaints from Hall agencies
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
When 77-year-old Ruth
Higgins boarded the bus in the
early morning hours of Nov.
16, as she had done many times
before, she could have scarcely
imagined that she would soon
make a chilling brush with a
fiery fate.
The bus, owned and oper
ated by a state-contracted
company that provides trans
portation services to agencies
throughout Northeast Georgia,
pulled up to Higgins's home in
Lula, parked at the edge of her
driveway and swung open its
doors.
Higgins boarded the bus
around 5:45 a.m. and took her
seat as the first passenger of the
morning commute, bound for
the Gainesville-Hall County
Senior Life Center, where a
day of activities awaited her.
But before she could fasten
her seatbelt the driver ordered
her to get off the bus.
See Bus 15A
Homeowners
file lawsuit
against HOA
in Oakwood
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com
Three residents in an Oakwood subdivision
have sued their homeowners association in civil
court amid allegations they were targeted by
board members and buried in fees for spurious
violations and that “unreasonable'' actions were
“taken in bad faith.''
Since last year, Laurel Glen homeowner
Marianne Thomas has been hit with more than
$3,000 in HOA fines — as well as a “special
assessment" for the board's attorney fees — for
violations she said aren't in the neighborhood's
covenants. Thomas and her neighbors, Doug
and Gail Harris — who also received a $3,000
“special assessment” — have filed the lawsuit
to force the HOA board to drop the fines against
them.
Lazega & Johanson, the legal firm represent
ing the HOA board, could not be reached for
comment. Secretary of Laurel Glen's HOA
Ellen Spaeth and former president Andrew Rod
gers, who stepped down late last year, also could
not be reached.
“We just want them to erase the fines,”
Thomas told The Times. “We just want our legal
fees (paid), and don't want to pay theirs.”
The lawsuit filed in Hall County's Superior
Court states Thomas was cited for a wide-range
of violations that include the location of her
trampoline, “five weeds present in Thomas'
yard” and fig trees Thomas said she “purchased
and planted” two years before notice she'd be
See HOA14A
Man acquitted in July 4 shooting on Dawsonville Highway case
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
A Gainesville man accused
of shooting at another man and
a rideshare driver was found not
guilty on all counts after a three-day
trial.
Emcee Dante Weaver was
acquitted on a 10-count indictment
stemming from a shooting July 4,
2023 on Dawsonville Highway at
McEver Road in
Gainesville.
Weaver
was indicted
on six counts
of aggravated
assault, two
counts of first-
degree criminal
damage and one count each of
terroristic acts and possession of a
firearm during the commission of a
crime.
In his opening statement,
Assistant District Attorney Dexter
Riley detailed a love triangle
involving Weaver, a woman with
whom he has a child and another
man.
The prosecutor told the jury about
the danger the shooting placed on
the county's citizens as shots were
fired from one car into another.
Defense attorney Blake Skipper
told the jury the state's case “might
look good from far” but was “far
from good” when examined up
close. He argued to the jury that
it was based on circumstantial
evidence and coincidences.
The defense attorney said he
believed the district attorney's office
got “tunnel vision” after learning of
Weaver's identity and the matching
vehicle description.
The jury took the case before 11
a.m. Wednesday and returned with a
verdict at 4 p.m.
“We worked hard on this case
and I think the jury reached the
right decision,” Skipper said in a
statement to The Times. “I'm just
happy for Mr. Weaver. I hope he can
put this behind him and move on
with his life.”
Weaver has another pending case
of second-degree criminal damage
to property.
Weaver
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Calendar 2A Life
Classified 7C Opinion
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