Newspaper Page Text
October 15, 2008
Reporter
PAGE 11A
Shame: 3-year-old child tests positive for drugs
Authorities raided a Pickney
Circle home and made six arrests
last month after two children
inside the home, ages 3 and 4,
tested positive for cocaine and
marijuana.
On Sept. 13 officers with the
Forsyth Police Department and
deputies with the Monroe County
Sheriff’s Office executed a search
warrant at 281 Pinkney Circle in
Forsyth and made six arrests. On
Sept. 11, Department of Family
and Children Services workers
contacted the police department
after drug tests on a family came
back positive for cocaine and mar
ijuana. What led police to the
home were positive cocaine and
marijuana tests on a 3 and 4 year
old child, said Maj. Matt Perry of
the Forsyth Police Department.
Police investigators found that
there was drug use in the home
and secured a search warrant.
Warrants stemming from the chil
dren’s positive drug tests were
also signed on family members
and residents of the home.
Arrested at the home were:
Reginald Middlebrooks, 32,
Forsyth, charged with cruelty to
children, contributing to the dep
rivation of a minor, disorderly
house and reckless conduct; the
mother of the children, Trevino
Jones Middlebrooks, 25, Forsyth,
charged with charged with cruelty
to children, contributing to the
deprivation of a minor, disorderly
house and reckless conduct and
possession of marijuana; Ulysses
Jones Sr, 55, Forsyth, charged
with cruelty to children, con
tributing to the deprivation of a
minor, disorderly house and reck
less conduct; Nikitta Jones, 19,
Forsyth, charged with cruelty to
children, contributing to the dep
rivation of a minor, disorderly
house and reckless conduct;
Montavious Avery, 20, Forsyth,
charged with possession of mari
juana; and Tenisha Rena Weeks,
28, Macon, charged with felony
probation violation.
When officers entered the home,
they found evidence of marijuana
and cocaine use in all the rooms.
Mr. Avery and Ms. Weeks’s arrests
were not associated with the
DFCS case. Mr. Avery was in pos
session of marijuana and Ms.
Weeks had a felony warrant from
Bibb County.
WEEKS
AVERY
MIDDLEBROOKS
JONES
MIDDLEBROOKS
Jtuy clears local man of child molestation charges
BY WILL DAVIS
A local man and Iraq War vet
eran was cleared on Sept. 30 of
nine counts of child molestation.
A Monroe County jury deliber
ated for about 40 minutes before
acquitting 26-year-old Robert
Hooks on all charges brought by
his former step-daughters.
Hooks, who lists a Jackson
address, was accused of nine
charges, ranging from aggravat
ed sexual battery to child
molestation.
District attorney Richard
Milam said Hooks’ stepdaugh
ters accused Hooks of molesting
them in December 2004 when
he was home on Christmas
leave from the Iraq War. The
girls, now ages 17 and 15, testi
fied against him in the two-day
trial, said Milam.
But Hooks’ attorney, Lee
Sexton of Jonesboro, said the
girls didn’t even lodge their
complaints with authorities
until Hooks returned from Iraq
in September 2005, nine months
later. Sexton said the girls didn’t
like Hooks because he was a dis
ciplinarian, making them do
chores and homework, while
their grandmother had let them
run wild during his absence.
Sexton said there was no med
ical evidence that the girls had
been molested.
“The scary thing is in Georgia
the simple allegation (of
molestation) can ruin your
whole reputation,” said Sexton.
But assistant district attorney
Mark Daniel, who prosecuted
the case, said the trial may have
had a different outcome if
Hooks’ statement to Butts
County sheriff’s investigators
had been admissible. But presid
ing Judge Tommy Wilson ruled
it was inadmissible because
investigators offered Hooks
rewards for his testimony, said
Daniel.
Forsyth native: Knows where county line ferry was
BY WILL DAVIS
A 74-year-old Monroe County native
says she could have helped resolve the
Monroe-Bibb county line dispute and
saved the counties the $346,180 they’re
paying a surveyor to do it.
Minnie Smith, who now lives in Upson
County, says she knows the exact loca
tion of the Turrentine Ferry, the now-
gone Ocmulgee River landmark used by
state law to establish the county line in
1822.
“I know what I’m talking about,” said
Smith. “And I can prove it.”
Smith said when she was a little girl
her father used to take her on the ferry
to cross the Ocmulgee River into Jones
County. She said the ferry moved across
the river along a cable that spanned over
the water. She also recalled she would
get scared on the ferry because it had a
hole in it and she thought “it was going
down.”
Smith said there are identifying marks
at the site and that she could positively
identify the ferry’s location today if she
wasn’t disabled and had transportation.
“This ain’t no guessing,” said Smith.
Smith wouldn’t say what the identifying
marks of the site were.
Monroe County surveyor Hugh Mercer,
who has studied the county line at
length, said Smith might be able to help
the surveyors. But he said her testimony
probably couldn’t be used as absolute
because no one alive knows where the
ferry was in 1822.
“What you need is a lady who is 200
years old and has a photographic memo
ry,” said Mercer.
Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed Warner
Robins surveyor Terry Scarborough in
2005 to settle the impasse over the
boundary. Scarborough began his work
on Aug. 1, and said it’ll take 6-9 months
to finish.
The two counties are expected to split
the costs of $346,180 for the survey.
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