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froggy FORWARD MONROE
Hislorioil Perspective? on Monroe County Businesses
SEE PAGrE iC
Reporter
www.MyMCR.net • Vol. 51 • No. 3
2 Sections, 28 Pages • Wednesday • January 19,2022 • $2.00
INSIDE
New Dollar
General
warehouse
opens in
Juliette
PAGE 3A
Did your
child make
Honor Roll?
PAGES 4-6ES
WELCOME
TO THE FAMILY
Debra Bays
Barbara Hardigree
Kanneth Henderson
Ann Pressley
Richard Rustin
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
OF THE WEEK
DEATHS m6A
Terrence Barkley
An nie Walker
Kenneth Hey
David Buice
Martha Goodman
Ethyle Chambliss
Kwame Vocke
Kevin Smith, Sr
Report: Woman attacks baby daddy
after she left sex toy in baby bag
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
A Forsyth Gardens
Apartments woman was
arrested for attacking her
estranged baby daddy on
Friday, Jan. 14 after he
confronted her about leav
ing sex toys in their infants
baby bag.
Garret Wright of 193
Sharp Street told Forsyth
police officers Jerry Raffer-
zeder and Cpl. Kimberly
Barnett that he was drop
ping off his infant son with
his estranged girlfriend,
Shaneshra Lanese Horton,
who lives in Apt. M-2
at the complex and was
upset about finding female
sexual apparatuses in the
baby’s diaper bag when he
changed his son. He said
he asked the boys mother
why the items were in the
bag and they began to
have a heated argument
when she shut the door on
him.
Wright said he was
leaving when Horton ran
out of her apartment and
became violent, knocking
off his glasses and hitting
him on his right eye, nose,
and forehead. He said she
then grabbed an item from
her apartment
and smashed the
windshield of his
vehicle.
Horton admit
ted to the officers
that she had
attacked Wright
but that he had
refused to allow
her to shut the
door. She stated
HORTON
that she took a “knick
knack” from her
living room table
and used it to
break the wind
shield of his car.
Horton said, “I
know I shouldn’t
have done that.”
She was arrested
and taken to the
Monroe County
Jail.
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A woman lives in this Hwy. 83 camper which the county is hoping to regulate. (Photo/Steve Reece)
County imposes new home maintenance
rules, then rescinds for more debate
By Will Davis
publisher™ mymcr.net
For about 10 minutes last Thurs
day, Jan. 13, it was illegal in Monroe
County to have a window without
a screen, a pool without a fence
or a fence without paint or stain.
But Monroe County commission
ers rescinded 32 pages of property
maintenance rules almost as quickly
as they imposed them. Commis
sioners decided to make sure the
new rules are not overly strict before
approving.
“I think I mis-read the room,” said
District 4 commissioner George
Emami, motioning that commis
sioners rescind the law to give them
a chance to make more changes.
Commissioners have been talking
for over a year with Monroe County
code enforcement officer Jeff Wilson
about ways to clean up dilapidated
and unkempt property, especially in
the High Falls area. Commission
ers especially want to bar people
from living permanently in RVs and
campers.
Commissioners had decided
that the county’s current property
maintenance ordinance, which is just
6 pages, simply didn’t have the teeth
to do that. So last Thursday they
considered a 32-page International
Property Maintenance Code from
the International Code Council.
The ordinance includes a long list
of requirements including:
• The exterior ... shall be main
tained free from weeds or plant
growth in excess of inches.
• Inoperative or unlicensed vehicles
shall not be parked, kept or stored on
any premises.
• Body work on cars is barred un
less done inside approved facility.
• Pools must have a fence of at least
2 feet tall.
• Doors, decks, porches, fences etc
must be painted or treated.
• Every window must have a screen
unless there’s an air curtain or insect
repellant fans.
• All basement windows must have
rodent shields.
• All gates must have latches.
• All refrigerators not in operation
must have their doors removed.
• Every habitable room must have
a window.
• Window space must be at least 8
percent of square footage.
• Living rooms must be at least 120
square feet.
• Bedrooms must be at least 70
square feet.
See LAWS Page 7A
Proposed laws put campers in cross hairs
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
An estimated 400 Monroe
County residents who Eve in
traders and RVs not zoned
as part of a campground
may have to find other living
arrangements if Monroe
County commissioners fol
low through with plans to
adopt a 32-page ordinance
regulating property mainte
nance.
Monroe County has
many approved camp
grounds with sewer, water
and power hookups, such as
the L & D RV Park on Dames
Ferry Road. But many camp
er dwellers Eve in locations
that aren’t considered to be
campgrounds at all, such as
those parked out in a field, on
the side of the road or in the
yard of someone’s permanent
home. Belinda Ward, who
Eves with her young son in a
camper that’s parked among
two others on the side of
Hwy. 83 on her father’s
See CAMPERS Page 6A
A sign on a Hwy. 83 camper says “I own firearms and
a backhoe, indicating the difficulties that lie ahead for
county officials who want to improve asthetics.
Parents
sue over
death of
inmate in
Jan. 2020
By Will Davis
publisher@mymcr.net
The family of a 40-year-
old High Falls man who
died while Monroe County
jailers tried to restrain him
in 2020 has sued the sher
iff’s office for
damages.
Mark
Marshall
and Marcella
Dickinson,
the parents
of the late
Josh Mar
shall, filed
suit in U.S.
District Court in Macon on
Jan. 13, just two days before
the statute of Emitations
expired. It was Jan. 15,2020
that Marshall died while
in custody at the Monroe
County Jail.
In their lawsuit, the par
ents say Monroe County
jailer Rustin Hardesty put
Marshall in a chokehold
not authorized under the
sheriff’s office policy after
Josh Marshall became
violent and delusional. The
parents said they asked
deputies to take their son
to a medical faciEty for an
evaluation but they refused,
showing deliberate indif
ference. The lawsuit claims
that during the 90-second
chokehold, as Josh Mar
shall turned Efeless, limp
and began turning blue,
jail staff failed to provide
any immediate life saving
medical treatment. The suit
said the jailers started to
panic after Marshall turned
blue and began splashing
water on his face, but only
tried to administer CPR
six minutes after Marshall
appeared Efeless. The suit
said an autopsy reported
that neck compression and
the restraint in the prone
position caused his death.
The lawsuit also said
Sheriff Brad Freeman failed
to train jailers and depu
ties in how to handle such
See FATALITY Page 7A
MARSHALL