My Fox Atlanta
Courthouse Security Budget Gets Boost
Updated: Friday, 13 Aug 2010, 6:56 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 13 Aug 2010, 6:45 PM EDT
By: MORSE DIGGS/myfoxatlanta
ATLANTA - An outcry over security funding to protect the Fulton County courthouse may be getting some results. The county chairman said Friday that millions have been put back into the budget for security improvements.
The move comes five years after defendant Brian Nichols overpowered a female deputy and went on a shooting spree inside the courthouse.
Chairman John Eaves says a project list has been revised again after some public and private negotiations.
The public part came on Wednesday through lobbying by courthouse occupants and an observation by the district attorney that it is more dangerous today than when Nichols went on his rampage.
The district attorney delivered a warning in an ominous tone regarding the state of security some five years after a shooting rampage left a total of four people dead, three at courthouse. Nichols fired the shots and is serving jail time.
A controversy simmers over a decision by Fulton County's political leaders to leave out millions for courthouse security in a new capital budget. The chairman signaled the commission will reverse itself.
Eaves and the other commissioners have gotten phone calls and emails asking for an explanation about their funding priorities. Citizens want to know how major security improvements for the downtown courthouse could be left off the list.
Four votes are required to approve the new funding.
Eaves stopped short of saying those votes are completely locked down, but added that he expects a favorable decision.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Aug. 6, 2010 News Clippings
Daily Report
Chief judge of Fulton State Court resigns
8:09 pm, August 5th, 2010
Fulton County State Court Chief Judge Albert L. Thompson resigned his judgeship Thursday, saying in a brief resignation letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue that after 30 years in service to the state, “it is time to move on.”
Thompson’s four-line letter said his resignation will be effective Sept. 6. “It has been a distinct pleasure and a priviledge [sic],” the judge concluded. “Thank you and all the citizens of Georgia.”
Perdue’s executive counsel, Nels Peterson, said that he was in a meeting when he received Thompson’s resignation letter by a member of the governor’s staff. Peterson said he did not know what prompted Thompson’s resignation.
Thompson’s chambers were closed when the Daily Report telephoned them around 5:15 p.m. Thursday.
Thompson, a Morehouse College graduate who earned his law degree from Boston Colletge in 1972, has been a Fulton County State Court judge since 1985. He became chief judge in 1998, a post he has held for the past 12 years.
Greg Land contributed to this report.
Contributor: R. Robin McDonald
GAVOICE
Teens arrested in anti-gay crime charged as adults
BY DYANA BAGBY
FRIDAY, 06 AUGUST 2010 00:00
The six male teens charged with felony armed robbery in the bias crime against a gay pastor and his friend will be charged as adults and face a bond hearing Aug. 19.
The teens, ages 13 through 19, have been indicted for felony armed robbery and were arraigned Aug. 2 in Fulton Superior Court when the bond hearing was set.
Those charged are Sam Johnson, 17; Benjamin Johnson, 16; and Daequan Lewis, 15, who are all listed as living at the same residence in Stone Mountain. Also charged is Jarvis Johnson, 19, of Parkway Drive in Atlanta. Sam Johnson was identified by APD as the gunman. Atlanta Police reports identified Jamal Bryant, 13, and Tyrone Smith, 16, as two other suspects who are also charged as adults.
Rev. Josh Noblitt of Saint Mark United Methodist Church, one of the victims of the armed robbery on July 2, attended the court hearing on Aug. 2 and said Senior Patrol Officer Patricia Powell, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison, was with him the entire time.
He said that before he and his friend, Trent Williams, were attacked last month while having an evening picnic in Piedmont Park, three of the suspects walked up to them and asked, “Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that.”
The three youths walked off and returned later with a stick and got into a fight with Noblitt and his partner. During the fight, Noblitt called police from his cell phone. At the same time one of the three youths called for reinforcements, according to Noblitt and APD reports.
Several more teens showed up on the scene and one pulled a gun on Noblitt, held it to his head, and demanded their money.
Despite the seriousness of the crime, Noblitt admits he is torn about some of the teens being charged as adults. Knowing one of the suspects is 13 is “heartbreaking,” he has said.
“I honestly don’t know how I feel about these young people being tried as adults, because I don’t know a lot about the differences between the adult system and the juvenile system, and whether in these type of circumstances either one of them offer any meaningful rehabilitation other than prison time or paying a fine,” Noblitt said after the Aug. 2 hearing.
“I still know nothing about these young people,” he added. “Why were they in the park to begin with that night causing trouble? Have they done this before? What is their home life like? Do they have any mental health problems that have been undiagnosed or untreated?
“Where did they get their anti-gay rhetoric from and what led them to believe that they were justified in committing acts of violence on someone because they were perceived to be gay?
Noblitt noted that he is “also interested in examining ways in which we can change the climate of our culture so that young people do not end up in these situations.”
“Better yet, I’m interested in changing the hearts and minds of young people so that they will embrace diversity and understand sexual orientation and gender identity to be just another part of who a person is the same way that things like being left handed, tall, curly haired or introverted are,” he said.
At a July 22 LGBT town hall forum with top brass of the APD including Chief George Turner and Powell, the LGBT liaison, Noblitt asked what the city was doing to try to curb juvenile crime in the city.
Mayor Kasim Reed, who was also at the forum, explained that his promise to open recreation centers throughout the city to offer young people a place to go and participate in activities such as basketball tournaments and other sporting events was one way his administration was working to address the issue.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Toe typer dismisses skeptics, makes media rounds
By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9:32 p.m. Thursday, August 5, 2010
Amy Windom's "MacGyver moment" has attracted a fair share of skeptics, many of whom can't understand how she managed to unlock her laptop after being tied up by an armed intruder early Tuesday morning in her Grant Park home.
"It's kind of a family joke," Windom told the AJC. "I have really long toes. My sister used to tease me about it all the time."
Windom, along with boyfriend John Hilton, made the rounds on the network morning shows Wednesday, repeating her fantastic story and, at one point, demonstrating her magic digits for a disbelieving talking head. But there's one question the cynics can't seem to answer: Why would she make it up?
"I guess some people think I'm doing it for attention, like I can predict the whims of the media," she said. "Don't worry, I won't be writing a book about it. But I'm grateful that I'm OK and can tell the story."
A quick recap: Windom was home early Tuesday when a thief broke into her home in the 700 block of Glenwood Avenue. He struck her on the head with his handgun, then tied Windom to the bed where she had been sleeping. She struggled in vain for more than five hours before "a light bulb went off."
"You'd be amazed at what you're capable of after being tied up half the night," the 39-year-old AT&T consultant said.
Windom had talked the intruder out of stealing her laptop, telling him it contained a tracking device. She was able to wriggle her toes to open up the computer, using one of her elongated digits to hit the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys. With another toe, she was able to grasp the laptop's power cord, which she used as a makeshift mouse to plunk "Delete."
Once online, she messaged her boyfriend, typing "HELP" and "CALL 911″ to Hilton, who summoned police to her rescue. For the record, Atlanta police spokesman Curtis Davenport said officers "have no reason to believe" Windom's complaint is illegitimate.
Investigators already have recovered her 2009 Acura TSX. They've also identified a potential suspect responsible for a similar incident in July just a couple of miles away from Windom's residence.
"It wasn't like this the last time my home got broken into," she said.
It was last New Year's Eve and Windom's mother was visiting. She was home alone while Windom and Hilton celebrated the onset of 2010.
"They didn't think anyone was home, and as soon as they saw her, they ran," Windom recalled. They took off in her car, which was recovered, stripped bare, three weeks later. The intruder was never caught.
Windom said she was disappointed with the police response; "They didn't even dust for prints," she said.
So when the media came calling after Tuesday's incident, Windom didn't hesitate. Her boyfriend wasn't so sure.
"I'm just doing what she wants," said the unassuming CNN web developer. "I was reluctant, but I'm more concerned with her being OK. I didn't want to be part of any circus."
Windom said she resents any implication that she's milking, or manufacturing, her ordeal.
"If people want to think it's fishy, that's fine," she said. "I understand, what with the balloon boy story and all that. But it's upsetting, as a victim of a crime, to have my motives questioned."
She hasn't returned home yet and isn't yet ready.
"I definitely want to get a new security system," Windom said.
Nearby residents told the AJC that the neighborhood has been plagued by more than a half-dozen break-ins in recent months.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/toe-typer-dismisses-skeptics-585113.html
Fox 5 Atlanta
Man Accused of Killing Roswell Woman Pleads Guilty
Published : Thursday, 05 Aug 2010, 12:36 PM EDT
By: Deidra Dukes
ATLANTA - Emotions ran high in a Fulton County Superior courtroom Thursday morning where a man went back and forth on his decision to plead guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend.
The victim's family watched it all unfold and finally heard Calvin Myers admit to the crime.
Myers was facing charges of felony murder, malice murder on top of an initial charge of aggravated assault in the killing of the mother of his children.
Roswell police say Meyers bashed 40-year-old Minka R. Grogan -- the father of two of Grogan's four children -- with a rock. He says Meyers also crashed his car into the front of her townhome.
An unnamed man who was upstairs showering came out when he heard the car crash. He told police he was there to mow her lawn.
Police say Meyers chased him with a butcher knife, but the man managed to escape.
Myers is expected to be formally sentenced next week.
Copyright AP Modified, Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Daily Report
Hall County Judge Fuller can hear case against county
10:23 am, August 5th, 2010 by Andy Peters
A Hall County Superior Court judge can hear a suit brought against Hall County, even though his salary—like those of his colleagues—is supplemented by county funds, a Gwinnett County judge ruled this week, the Gainesville Times reported.
Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Debra K. Turner ruled that Judge C. Andrew Fuller of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit does not have to recuse from a suit filed by the city of Clermont against Hall County. Clermont accuses the county of reneging on a promise to build a sales tax-funded library in the city. Read more »
Contributor: Andy Peters
Daily Report
Linda Evans named to JQC
8:51 am, August 5th, 2010 by R. Robin McDonald
Gov. Sonny Perdue has named Linda Evans – the wife of former Georgia Republican Party general counsel J. Randolph Evans — to the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Evans replaces Robert P. Herriott, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot who resigned from the commission last May, saying in his resignation letter to the governor that he believed the commission had surrendered some of its independence to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Evans, an attorney, joins the seven-member JQC as one of two “citizen” appointees named by the governor. The Commission also includes two judges selected by the state Supreme Court and three attorneys, each of whom must have at least 10 years of experience, and who are selected by the State Bar of Georgia. Read more »
Contributor: R. Robin McDonald
News
S.J. SUPERIOR COURT CANCELS 14 LAYOFF NOTICES
By Scott Smith
August 06, 2010
Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - The San Joaquin County Superior Court has rescinded 14 layoff notices sent out last month to support staffers, court administration and union sources said.
The bargaining unit for the employees negotiated with court administration to take off about two days each month in unpaid time between now and Oct. 31, San Joaquin County Superior Court Executive Officer Rosa Junqueiro said.
The furlough days will be rolling, so the court will keep its doors open five days a week, she said.
Layoff notices had gone out because the court needed to make up an expected $776,000 shortfall in the anticipated budget of $38.6 million for the fiscal year that began July 1. Because state legislators in Sacramento have not passed a budget, the court has to estimate its spending plan.
Those who had received pink slips were clerks who manage files for judges in court and clerks who process traffic tickets. One probate investigator also had received a layoff notice. They no longer expect their last day to be Aug. 13.
Tim Robinson, a court clerk and union negotiator, said the vote among his members agreeing to furlough days was close. In concessions, his members will keep their 3 percent cost of living increase but go on furlough 15.2 hours each month to save jobs, he said.
Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog.
Crime Report
Crime Prevention, Court Programs Get Annual Justice Awards
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:01 am
Crime prevention and court-treatment programs were featured this week as the winners of the annual National Criminal Justice Association outstanding criminal justice program awards. The honors were announced at the association’s annual forum, held this year in Ft. Myers, Fl. Honorees from the group’s four regions were the state of Maryland’s violence prevention initiative, the Michigan State Police Teaching Educating and Mentoring program (TEAM), West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle Treatment Courts, and the south Los Angeles-based African American Unity Center Youth Development Program.
Getting special recognition was the Northern Mariana Islands’ Family Court Client Services Program. Winning a career service award was James Kane, director of Delaware’s Criminal Justice Council from 1996 to 2009. The IJIS Institute gave the Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award to David Gavin, a longtime former official of the Texas Department of Public Safety and former chair of the FBI’s Advisory Policy Board Information Sharing Subcommittee. The institute gave an innovation award to the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning and URL Integration for an initiative to connect criminal justice information systems across the state.
Judge Orders L.A. Times Not To Publish Murder Defendant Photos
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:11 am
A judge issued an unusual order yesterday, telling a Los Angeles Times photographer not to publish pictures after granting him permission to take them. Legal experts told the Times that prohibiting publication of an image that a photographer had permission to take could violate the 1st Amendment. The case involved Alberd Tersargyan, 60, who was in court for a scheduled arraignment on multiple murder counts in connection with the slayings of four people — including three members of the same family — from 2008 to 2010.
Judge Hilleri Merritt approved a request by Times photographer Al Seib before the arraignment to take pictures of Tersargyan. During the hearing, prosecutor Eric Harmon reminded the judge about a prior order banning photography and video. Harmon said it was possible the pictures could affect potential eyewitness testimony but didn’t object to the photographs. Defense lawyer Patricia Mulligan objected to having her client photographed. Merritt chastised both sides for not raising the issue earlier but then told Seib to immediately stop taking pictures and ordered him not to publish the images he had already taken. Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said there was no legal reason why the judge should not have allowed the pictures to be published absent a demonstration of “direct, immediate, physical harm that is not speculative.”
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-little-armenia-murders-20100805,0,6265103.story
“Stand Your Ground” Law Complicates Florida Murder Cases
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:10 am
A gang of young Tallahassee street thugs drove into a rival gang’s turf, guns at the ready, looking for a fight. Thirty shots were fired that day in 2008, says Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm. A 15-year-old kid was killed. Two of the invading gang members faced homicide charges. The case fell apart this spring. The actions of two gun-wielding gangbangers, a judge ruled, were protected from prosecution by the 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law that expanded the definition of justifiable self-defense into something vague and plainly dangerous.
Someone claiming to feel “threatened” no longer has an obligation to retreat, call police or avoid the use of deadly force. “What this means, as illustrated by this case, is that two individuals, or even groups, can square off in the middle of a public street, exchange gunfire, and both be absolved from criminal liability if they were reasonably acting in self-defense,” wrote Circuit Judge Terry Lewis. ”It is very much like the Wild West,” said the judge. Willie Meggs, president of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association back in 2005, had warned that Stand Your Ground legislation would spawn unintended consequences. He called it the “shoot your Avon lady law.” The law has complicated once-routine homicide prosecutions. “We have been forced to spend significant time and resources litigating defense motions which, in essence, seek court-ordered immunity for defendants charged with violent crimes,” said Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.
Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/04/1761938/stand-your-ground-works-for-criminals.html
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Chief judge of Fulton State Court resigns
8:09 pm, August 5th, 2010
Fulton County State Court Chief Judge Albert L. Thompson resigned his judgeship Thursday, saying in a brief resignation letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue that after 30 years in service to the state, “it is time to move on.”
Thompson’s four-line letter said his resignation will be effective Sept. 6. “It has been a distinct pleasure and a priviledge [sic],” the judge concluded. “Thank you and all the citizens of Georgia.”
Perdue’s executive counsel, Nels Peterson, said that he was in a meeting when he received Thompson’s resignation letter by a member of the governor’s staff. Peterson said he did not know what prompted Thompson’s resignation.
Thompson’s chambers were closed when the Daily Report telephoned them around 5:15 p.m. Thursday.
Thompson, a Morehouse College graduate who earned his law degree from Boston Colletge in 1972, has been a Fulton County State Court judge since 1985. He became chief judge in 1998, a post he has held for the past 12 years.
Greg Land contributed to this report.
Contributor: R. Robin McDonald
GAVOICE
Teens arrested in anti-gay crime charged as adults
BY DYANA BAGBY
FRIDAY, 06 AUGUST 2010 00:00
The six male teens charged with felony armed robbery in the bias crime against a gay pastor and his friend will be charged as adults and face a bond hearing Aug. 19.
The teens, ages 13 through 19, have been indicted for felony armed robbery and were arraigned Aug. 2 in Fulton Superior Court when the bond hearing was set.
Those charged are Sam Johnson, 17; Benjamin Johnson, 16; and Daequan Lewis, 15, who are all listed as living at the same residence in Stone Mountain. Also charged is Jarvis Johnson, 19, of Parkway Drive in Atlanta. Sam Johnson was identified by APD as the gunman. Atlanta Police reports identified Jamal Bryant, 13, and Tyrone Smith, 16, as two other suspects who are also charged as adults.
Rev. Josh Noblitt of Saint Mark United Methodist Church, one of the victims of the armed robbery on July 2, attended the court hearing on Aug. 2 and said Senior Patrol Officer Patricia Powell, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison, was with him the entire time.
He said that before he and his friend, Trent Williams, were attacked last month while having an evening picnic in Piedmont Park, three of the suspects walked up to them and asked, “Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that.”
The three youths walked off and returned later with a stick and got into a fight with Noblitt and his partner. During the fight, Noblitt called police from his cell phone. At the same time one of the three youths called for reinforcements, according to Noblitt and APD reports.
Several more teens showed up on the scene and one pulled a gun on Noblitt, held it to his head, and demanded their money.
Despite the seriousness of the crime, Noblitt admits he is torn about some of the teens being charged as adults. Knowing one of the suspects is 13 is “heartbreaking,” he has said.
“I honestly don’t know how I feel about these young people being tried as adults, because I don’t know a lot about the differences between the adult system and the juvenile system, and whether in these type of circumstances either one of them offer any meaningful rehabilitation other than prison time or paying a fine,” Noblitt said after the Aug. 2 hearing.
“I still know nothing about these young people,” he added. “Why were they in the park to begin with that night causing trouble? Have they done this before? What is their home life like? Do they have any mental health problems that have been undiagnosed or untreated?
“Where did they get their anti-gay rhetoric from and what led them to believe that they were justified in committing acts of violence on someone because they were perceived to be gay?
Noblitt noted that he is “also interested in examining ways in which we can change the climate of our culture so that young people do not end up in these situations.”
“Better yet, I’m interested in changing the hearts and minds of young people so that they will embrace diversity and understand sexual orientation and gender identity to be just another part of who a person is the same way that things like being left handed, tall, curly haired or introverted are,” he said.
At a July 22 LGBT town hall forum with top brass of the APD including Chief George Turner and Powell, the LGBT liaison, Noblitt asked what the city was doing to try to curb juvenile crime in the city.
Mayor Kasim Reed, who was also at the forum, explained that his promise to open recreation centers throughout the city to offer young people a place to go and participate in activities such as basketball tournaments and other sporting events was one way his administration was working to address the issue.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Toe typer dismisses skeptics, makes media rounds
By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9:32 p.m. Thursday, August 5, 2010
Amy Windom's "MacGyver moment" has attracted a fair share of skeptics, many of whom can't understand how she managed to unlock her laptop after being tied up by an armed intruder early Tuesday morning in her Grant Park home.
"It's kind of a family joke," Windom told the AJC. "I have really long toes. My sister used to tease me about it all the time."
Windom, along with boyfriend John Hilton, made the rounds on the network morning shows Wednesday, repeating her fantastic story and, at one point, demonstrating her magic digits for a disbelieving talking head. But there's one question the cynics can't seem to answer: Why would she make it up?
"I guess some people think I'm doing it for attention, like I can predict the whims of the media," she said. "Don't worry, I won't be writing a book about it. But I'm grateful that I'm OK and can tell the story."
A quick recap: Windom was home early Tuesday when a thief broke into her home in the 700 block of Glenwood Avenue. He struck her on the head with his handgun, then tied Windom to the bed where she had been sleeping. She struggled in vain for more than five hours before "a light bulb went off."
"You'd be amazed at what you're capable of after being tied up half the night," the 39-year-old AT&T consultant said.
Windom had talked the intruder out of stealing her laptop, telling him it contained a tracking device. She was able to wriggle her toes to open up the computer, using one of her elongated digits to hit the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys. With another toe, she was able to grasp the laptop's power cord, which she used as a makeshift mouse to plunk "Delete."
Once online, she messaged her boyfriend, typing "HELP" and "CALL 911″ to Hilton, who summoned police to her rescue. For the record, Atlanta police spokesman Curtis Davenport said officers "have no reason to believe" Windom's complaint is illegitimate.
Investigators already have recovered her 2009 Acura TSX. They've also identified a potential suspect responsible for a similar incident in July just a couple of miles away from Windom's residence.
"It wasn't like this the last time my home got broken into," she said.
It was last New Year's Eve and Windom's mother was visiting. She was home alone while Windom and Hilton celebrated the onset of 2010.
"They didn't think anyone was home, and as soon as they saw her, they ran," Windom recalled. They took off in her car, which was recovered, stripped bare, three weeks later. The intruder was never caught.
Windom said she was disappointed with the police response; "They didn't even dust for prints," she said.
So when the media came calling after Tuesday's incident, Windom didn't hesitate. Her boyfriend wasn't so sure.
"I'm just doing what she wants," said the unassuming CNN web developer. "I was reluctant, but I'm more concerned with her being OK. I didn't want to be part of any circus."
Windom said she resents any implication that she's milking, or manufacturing, her ordeal.
"If people want to think it's fishy, that's fine," she said. "I understand, what with the balloon boy story and all that. But it's upsetting, as a victim of a crime, to have my motives questioned."
She hasn't returned home yet and isn't yet ready.
"I definitely want to get a new security system," Windom said.
Nearby residents told the AJC that the neighborhood has been plagued by more than a half-dozen break-ins in recent months.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/toe-typer-dismisses-skeptics-585113.html
Fox 5 Atlanta
Man Accused of Killing Roswell Woman Pleads Guilty
Published : Thursday, 05 Aug 2010, 12:36 PM EDT
By: Deidra Dukes
ATLANTA - Emotions ran high in a Fulton County Superior courtroom Thursday morning where a man went back and forth on his decision to plead guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend.
The victim's family watched it all unfold and finally heard Calvin Myers admit to the crime.
Myers was facing charges of felony murder, malice murder on top of an initial charge of aggravated assault in the killing of the mother of his children.
Roswell police say Meyers bashed 40-year-old Minka R. Grogan -- the father of two of Grogan's four children -- with a rock. He says Meyers also crashed his car into the front of her townhome.
An unnamed man who was upstairs showering came out when he heard the car crash. He told police he was there to mow her lawn.
Police say Meyers chased him with a butcher knife, but the man managed to escape.
Myers is expected to be formally sentenced next week.
Copyright AP Modified, Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Daily Report
Hall County Judge Fuller can hear case against county
10:23 am, August 5th, 2010 by Andy Peters
A Hall County Superior Court judge can hear a suit brought against Hall County, even though his salary—like those of his colleagues—is supplemented by county funds, a Gwinnett County judge ruled this week, the Gainesville Times reported.
Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Debra K. Turner ruled that Judge C. Andrew Fuller of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit does not have to recuse from a suit filed by the city of Clermont against Hall County. Clermont accuses the county of reneging on a promise to build a sales tax-funded library in the city. Read more »
Contributor: Andy Peters
Daily Report
Linda Evans named to JQC
8:51 am, August 5th, 2010 by R. Robin McDonald
Gov. Sonny Perdue has named Linda Evans – the wife of former Georgia Republican Party general counsel J. Randolph Evans — to the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Evans replaces Robert P. Herriott, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot who resigned from the commission last May, saying in his resignation letter to the governor that he believed the commission had surrendered some of its independence to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Evans, an attorney, joins the seven-member JQC as one of two “citizen” appointees named by the governor. The Commission also includes two judges selected by the state Supreme Court and three attorneys, each of whom must have at least 10 years of experience, and who are selected by the State Bar of Georgia. Read more »
Contributor: R. Robin McDonald
News
S.J. SUPERIOR COURT CANCELS 14 LAYOFF NOTICES
By Scott Smith
August 06, 2010
Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - The San Joaquin County Superior Court has rescinded 14 layoff notices sent out last month to support staffers, court administration and union sources said.
The bargaining unit for the employees negotiated with court administration to take off about two days each month in unpaid time between now and Oct. 31, San Joaquin County Superior Court Executive Officer Rosa Junqueiro said.
The furlough days will be rolling, so the court will keep its doors open five days a week, she said.
Layoff notices had gone out because the court needed to make up an expected $776,000 shortfall in the anticipated budget of $38.6 million for the fiscal year that began July 1. Because state legislators in Sacramento have not passed a budget, the court has to estimate its spending plan.
Those who had received pink slips were clerks who manage files for judges in court and clerks who process traffic tickets. One probate investigator also had received a layoff notice. They no longer expect their last day to be Aug. 13.
Tim Robinson, a court clerk and union negotiator, said the vote among his members agreeing to furlough days was close. In concessions, his members will keep their 3 percent cost of living increase but go on furlough 15.2 hours each month to save jobs, he said.
Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog.
Crime Report
Crime Prevention, Court Programs Get Annual Justice Awards
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:01 am
Crime prevention and court-treatment programs were featured this week as the winners of the annual National Criminal Justice Association outstanding criminal justice program awards. The honors were announced at the association’s annual forum, held this year in Ft. Myers, Fl. Honorees from the group’s four regions were the state of Maryland’s violence prevention initiative, the Michigan State Police Teaching Educating and Mentoring program (TEAM), West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle Treatment Courts, and the south Los Angeles-based African American Unity Center Youth Development Program.
Getting special recognition was the Northern Mariana Islands’ Family Court Client Services Program. Winning a career service award was James Kane, director of Delaware’s Criminal Justice Council from 1996 to 2009. The IJIS Institute gave the Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award to David Gavin, a longtime former official of the Texas Department of Public Safety and former chair of the FBI’s Advisory Policy Board Information Sharing Subcommittee. The institute gave an innovation award to the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning and URL Integration for an initiative to connect criminal justice information systems across the state.
Judge Orders L.A. Times Not To Publish Murder Defendant Photos
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:11 am
A judge issued an unusual order yesterday, telling a Los Angeles Times photographer not to publish pictures after granting him permission to take them. Legal experts told the Times that prohibiting publication of an image that a photographer had permission to take could violate the 1st Amendment. The case involved Alberd Tersargyan, 60, who was in court for a scheduled arraignment on multiple murder counts in connection with the slayings of four people — including three members of the same family — from 2008 to 2010.
Judge Hilleri Merritt approved a request by Times photographer Al Seib before the arraignment to take pictures of Tersargyan. During the hearing, prosecutor Eric Harmon reminded the judge about a prior order banning photography and video. Harmon said it was possible the pictures could affect potential eyewitness testimony but didn’t object to the photographs. Defense lawyer Patricia Mulligan objected to having her client photographed. Merritt chastised both sides for not raising the issue earlier but then told Seib to immediately stop taking pictures and ordered him not to publish the images he had already taken. Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said there was no legal reason why the judge should not have allowed the pictures to be published absent a demonstration of “direct, immediate, physical harm that is not speculative.”
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-little-armenia-murders-20100805,0,6265103.story
“Stand Your Ground” Law Complicates Florida Murder Cases
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 4:10 am
A gang of young Tallahassee street thugs drove into a rival gang’s turf, guns at the ready, looking for a fight. Thirty shots were fired that day in 2008, says Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm. A 15-year-old kid was killed. Two of the invading gang members faced homicide charges. The case fell apart this spring. The actions of two gun-wielding gangbangers, a judge ruled, were protected from prosecution by the 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law that expanded the definition of justifiable self-defense into something vague and plainly dangerous.
Someone claiming to feel “threatened” no longer has an obligation to retreat, call police or avoid the use of deadly force. “What this means, as illustrated by this case, is that two individuals, or even groups, can square off in the middle of a public street, exchange gunfire, and both be absolved from criminal liability if they were reasonably acting in self-defense,” wrote Circuit Judge Terry Lewis. ”It is very much like the Wild West,” said the judge. Willie Meggs, president of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association back in 2005, had warned that Stand Your Ground legislation would spawn unintended consequences. He called it the “shoot your Avon lady law.” The law has complicated once-routine homicide prosecutions. “We have been forced to spend significant time and resources litigating defense motions which, in essence, seek court-ordered immunity for defendants charged with violent crimes,” said Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.
Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/04/1761938/stand-your-ground-works-for-criminals.html
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Aug. 4, 2010 News Clippings
Bernice King asks reconciliation for SCLC
Associated Press
Published: August 3, 2010
ATLANTA (AP) - After sitting silent for nearly 10 months amid bitter infighting in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Bernice King is calling for reconciliation among the group she was elected to lead.
At a news conference on Tuesday, King spoke about her desire to lead the SCLC and her hope that recent rifts could be healed so that the group could resume its mission of addressing social injustice.
King will lead a prayer vigil for the SCLC on Friday as the group prepares to host dueling conventions over the next week. She has not decided whether she will attend either event.
The SCLC is awaiting a decision from a Fulton County Superior Court judge as to which of two factions of its board of directors is in control of the organization.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bernice King to hold SCLC prayer vigil
By Raisa Habersham
6:46 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Bernice King addressed the controversy surrounding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Tuesday while reaching out to the factions involved in an effort to ease tension between the parties.
King, surrounded by her supporters, announced that she was holding a prayer vigil Friday at 6:30 p.m. in light of the turmoil fueled by a heated court battle over who is in charge of the SCLC. The vigil will be held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Horizon Sanctuary.
The power struggle began after questions were raised about $569,000 spent by then-chairman Raleigh Trammell and then-treasurer Spiver Gordon from SCLC accounts. The money issue is still being investigated, and the Trammel-Gordon group has sued to stay in control of the SCLC. The other group is being led by Sylvia Tucker, who had been second under Trammell.
King has chosen to remain relatively silent about the situation, stating that as a minster, she can only follow the word of God.
“I have called for the prayer because keeping together is important in a movement,” she said.
Whether or not the Trammell-Gordon group will attend the vigil is up in the air.
King said she has nothing to do with the lawsuit, adding that she isn’t sure about the facts surrounding the case.
“I wouldn’t say it’s disturbing. I would say what I hear indicated that work needed to be done,” King said of the situation.
Throughout the case proceedings, King has continued to meet with her transition team to discuss the current state of the SCLC.
“I am the first president that will have to come into this organization amidst confusion and rebuild it almost from ground zero,” King said.
King was elected president in October last year. She would be the first female president of the organization.
King said she wanted to know everything before she took over, adding that she was ready to take over in April.
She didn’t address if she considered Markel Hutchins the interim president of the organization. Hutchins was named president by the Trammell-Gordon group.
King also tiptoed around questions about if she was going to take over the SCLC by force or even when the situation is settled.
Charles Mathis, lawyer for the group opposing the Trammell-Gordon backers, told the AJC that he expects a decison on the court case later this month. He said final proceedings are due Aug. 16.
Despite the turmoil, King maintains that the SCLC remains relevant. King's father, Martin Luther King Jr., was co-founder of the organization.
“Regardless of people who think it’s a dead organization, what it stands for is not,” she said.
King supporters will hold their SCLC convention Aug. 8. King, who has been invited, said she doesn’t know whether or not she will attend. A vice president will be elected at the convention and will serve as acting president until King takes over.
King has not been invited to the convention hosted by the Trammel-Gordon group at a later date.
The challenge, King said, will be getting the organization back to its roots.
King said the situation isn’t about one person, but about the organization and what it represents.
“The most important thing if we are going to uphold the legacy of Dr. King is healing and reconciling,” she said.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/bernice-king-to-hold-584030.html
Daily Report
Ray won’t seek Court of Appeals post
12:59 pm, August 3rd, 2010 by Alyson Palmer
Gov. Sonny Perdue thinks highly enough of Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge William M. Ray II that he had Ray sit in on interviews when the governor was vetting candidates for an open state Supreme Court seat in 2005. And Ray made the Judicial Nominating Commission’s short list for a spot on the Supreme Court last year.
But Ray won’t fill one of two vacancies on the state Court of Appeals created by the retirement of Judge G. Alan Blackburn and the death of Judge Debra H. Bernes. Read more »
Contributor: Alyson Palmer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Increased security at Cobb courthouse construction site yields two arrests
By Janel Davis
6:11 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sheriff’s deputies arrested two construction employees working at Cobb County’s courthouse project on Monday when background checks revealed the men had outstanding arrest warrants.
The sheriff’s office began performing criminal background checks on workers at the project as the new courthouse construction was ready to connect to the existing judicial complex. Last month the county announced the increased security efforts were also to allay ongoing concerns that illegal immigrants were working on the construction site.
Monday’s arrests involved Derick Santran Riley, 26, of Atlanta, who had an outstanding Fulton County bench warrant for aggravated assault and driving without a license. Eddie Richard Bell, 24, of Stone Mountain had a probation violation warrant issued by DeKalb County.
The sheriff’s office plans to have criminal background checks completed on all workers by Aug. 20.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/increased-security-at-cobb-584327.html
Crime Report
Magazine Cites Three Flaws In Prison-Happy American Justice
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 7:35 am
In a package of stories, The Economist magazine concludes that justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. About 2.4 million Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If those on parole or probation are included, one adult in 31 is under “correctional” supervision. As a proportion of its total population, America incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. Overcrowding is the norm. Federal prisons house 60% more inmates than they were designed for. State lock-ups are only slightly less stuffed.
The system has three big flaws, say criminologists. First, it puts too many people away for too long. Second, it criminalises acts that need not be criminalised. Third, it is unpredictable. Many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have broken them. In 1970 the proportion of Americans behind bars was below one in 400, compared with today’s one in 100. Since then, the voters, alarmed at a surge in violent crime, have demanded fiercer sentences. Politicians have obliged. New laws have removed from judges much of their discretion to set a sentence that takes full account of the circumstances of the offence. Since no politician wants to be tarred as soft on crime, such laws, mandating minimum sentences, are seldom softened. On the contrary, they tend to get harder.
Link: http://www.economist.com/node/16636027
Right-Left Coalition Could Reduce U.S. Incarceration, Blumstein Says
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 7:33 am
A relatively low national crime rate combined with a government fiscal crisis could provide an opportunity for a left-right coalition to reduce incarceration in the United States, says criminologist Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University. Speaking to the annual forum of the National Criminal Justice Association, which is ending today in Fort Myers, Fla., Blumstein said the political right’s concern about the high costs of prisons and the left’s criticism of the nation’s “punitiveness” could produce some kind of agreement on more-rational sentencing policies.
Blumstein said that many “excessively long sentences” imposed in recent decades, especially in drug cases, have wasted tax money. He said incarcerating drug traffickers could be counterproductive if their replacements in the drug market proved to be even worse criminals. Noting that national crime rates now have dropped to the level of the 1960s, the start of the modern-day crime boom in the nation, Blumstein said it is not yet clear whether crime has bottomed out or can go much lower. He questioned whether the decreases for 2009 in crime reports compiled by the FBI are a “blip or a new turning point.” Also at yesterday’s conference, former Florida corrections chief James McDonough called for spending more money on inmate rehabilitation and less on prison building. He said stepping up substance abuse treatment for prisoners could have a “major impact on recidivism.”
Link: http://thecrimereport.org/
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Associated Press
Published: August 3, 2010
ATLANTA (AP) - After sitting silent for nearly 10 months amid bitter infighting in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Bernice King is calling for reconciliation among the group she was elected to lead.
At a news conference on Tuesday, King spoke about her desire to lead the SCLC and her hope that recent rifts could be healed so that the group could resume its mission of addressing social injustice.
King will lead a prayer vigil for the SCLC on Friday as the group prepares to host dueling conventions over the next week. She has not decided whether she will attend either event.
The SCLC is awaiting a decision from a Fulton County Superior Court judge as to which of two factions of its board of directors is in control of the organization.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bernice King to hold SCLC prayer vigil
By Raisa Habersham
6:46 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Bernice King addressed the controversy surrounding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Tuesday while reaching out to the factions involved in an effort to ease tension between the parties.
King, surrounded by her supporters, announced that she was holding a prayer vigil Friday at 6:30 p.m. in light of the turmoil fueled by a heated court battle over who is in charge of the SCLC. The vigil will be held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Horizon Sanctuary.
The power struggle began after questions were raised about $569,000 spent by then-chairman Raleigh Trammell and then-treasurer Spiver Gordon from SCLC accounts. The money issue is still being investigated, and the Trammel-Gordon group has sued to stay in control of the SCLC. The other group is being led by Sylvia Tucker, who had been second under Trammell.
King has chosen to remain relatively silent about the situation, stating that as a minster, she can only follow the word of God.
“I have called for the prayer because keeping together is important in a movement,” she said.
Whether or not the Trammell-Gordon group will attend the vigil is up in the air.
King said she has nothing to do with the lawsuit, adding that she isn’t sure about the facts surrounding the case.
“I wouldn’t say it’s disturbing. I would say what I hear indicated that work needed to be done,” King said of the situation.
Throughout the case proceedings, King has continued to meet with her transition team to discuss the current state of the SCLC.
“I am the first president that will have to come into this organization amidst confusion and rebuild it almost from ground zero,” King said.
King was elected president in October last year. She would be the first female president of the organization.
King said she wanted to know everything before she took over, adding that she was ready to take over in April.
She didn’t address if she considered Markel Hutchins the interim president of the organization. Hutchins was named president by the Trammell-Gordon group.
King also tiptoed around questions about if she was going to take over the SCLC by force or even when the situation is settled.
Charles Mathis, lawyer for the group opposing the Trammell-Gordon backers, told the AJC that he expects a decison on the court case later this month. He said final proceedings are due Aug. 16.
Despite the turmoil, King maintains that the SCLC remains relevant. King's father, Martin Luther King Jr., was co-founder of the organization.
“Regardless of people who think it’s a dead organization, what it stands for is not,” she said.
King supporters will hold their SCLC convention Aug. 8. King, who has been invited, said she doesn’t know whether or not she will attend. A vice president will be elected at the convention and will serve as acting president until King takes over.
King has not been invited to the convention hosted by the Trammel-Gordon group at a later date.
The challenge, King said, will be getting the organization back to its roots.
King said the situation isn’t about one person, but about the organization and what it represents.
“The most important thing if we are going to uphold the legacy of Dr. King is healing and reconciling,” she said.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/bernice-king-to-hold-584030.html
Daily Report
Ray won’t seek Court of Appeals post
12:59 pm, August 3rd, 2010 by Alyson Palmer
Gov. Sonny Perdue thinks highly enough of Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge William M. Ray II that he had Ray sit in on interviews when the governor was vetting candidates for an open state Supreme Court seat in 2005. And Ray made the Judicial Nominating Commission’s short list for a spot on the Supreme Court last year.
But Ray won’t fill one of two vacancies on the state Court of Appeals created by the retirement of Judge G. Alan Blackburn and the death of Judge Debra H. Bernes. Read more »
Contributor: Alyson Palmer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Increased security at Cobb courthouse construction site yields two arrests
By Janel Davis
6:11 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sheriff’s deputies arrested two construction employees working at Cobb County’s courthouse project on Monday when background checks revealed the men had outstanding arrest warrants.
The sheriff’s office began performing criminal background checks on workers at the project as the new courthouse construction was ready to connect to the existing judicial complex. Last month the county announced the increased security efforts were also to allay ongoing concerns that illegal immigrants were working on the construction site.
Monday’s arrests involved Derick Santran Riley, 26, of Atlanta, who had an outstanding Fulton County bench warrant for aggravated assault and driving without a license. Eddie Richard Bell, 24, of Stone Mountain had a probation violation warrant issued by DeKalb County.
The sheriff’s office plans to have criminal background checks completed on all workers by Aug. 20.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/increased-security-at-cobb-584327.html
Crime Report
Magazine Cites Three Flaws In Prison-Happy American Justice
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 7:35 am
In a package of stories, The Economist magazine concludes that justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. About 2.4 million Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If those on parole or probation are included, one adult in 31 is under “correctional” supervision. As a proportion of its total population, America incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. Overcrowding is the norm. Federal prisons house 60% more inmates than they were designed for. State lock-ups are only slightly less stuffed.
The system has three big flaws, say criminologists. First, it puts too many people away for too long. Second, it criminalises acts that need not be criminalised. Third, it is unpredictable. Many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have broken them. In 1970 the proportion of Americans behind bars was below one in 400, compared with today’s one in 100. Since then, the voters, alarmed at a surge in violent crime, have demanded fiercer sentences. Politicians have obliged. New laws have removed from judges much of their discretion to set a sentence that takes full account of the circumstances of the offence. Since no politician wants to be tarred as soft on crime, such laws, mandating minimum sentences, are seldom softened. On the contrary, they tend to get harder.
Link: http://www.economist.com/node/16636027
Right-Left Coalition Could Reduce U.S. Incarceration, Blumstein Says
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 7:33 am
A relatively low national crime rate combined with a government fiscal crisis could provide an opportunity for a left-right coalition to reduce incarceration in the United States, says criminologist Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University. Speaking to the annual forum of the National Criminal Justice Association, which is ending today in Fort Myers, Fla., Blumstein said the political right’s concern about the high costs of prisons and the left’s criticism of the nation’s “punitiveness” could produce some kind of agreement on more-rational sentencing policies.
Blumstein said that many “excessively long sentences” imposed in recent decades, especially in drug cases, have wasted tax money. He said incarcerating drug traffickers could be counterproductive if their replacements in the drug market proved to be even worse criminals. Noting that national crime rates now have dropped to the level of the 1960s, the start of the modern-day crime boom in the nation, Blumstein said it is not yet clear whether crime has bottomed out or can go much lower. He questioned whether the decreases for 2009 in crime reports compiled by the FBI are a “blip or a new turning point.” Also at yesterday’s conference, former Florida corrections chief James McDonough called for spending more money on inmate rehabilitation and less on prison building. He said stepping up substance abuse treatment for prisoners could have a “major impact on recidivism.”
Link: http://thecrimereport.org/
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Aug. 3, 2010 News Clippings
GA VOICE
Teens arrested in bias crime against gay pastor to be charged as adults
BY DYANA BAGBY
WEDNESDAY, 28 JULY 2010 16:34
The six male teens arrested in the beating and armed robbery of a gay pastor and his friend in Piedmont Park on July 2 remain in police custody and are slated to have a court hearing Aug. 2. They will all be charged as adults.
The suspects, all facing charges of felony armed robbery, range in ages from 13 through 19. Four of the suspects are juveniles and will be tried as adults, according to Senior Patrol Officer Patricia Powell, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison.
A date in Superior Court for the six suspects is set for Aug. 2, Powell said.
The six teens are charged with a “bias crime,” the same as a hate crime. While Georgia does not have a state hate crimes law, there is the recently passed federal hate crimes law — the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Act. Atlanta Police have asked the FBI to help in the investigation of the crime to determine if it falls under the federal hate crimes statute.
Rev. Josh Noblitt of Saint Mark United Methodist Church and his partner were attacked and robbed by gunpoint in Piedmont Park on July 2. Before they were attacked, the couple was asked by the alleged assailants if they were gay.
"They walked up directly to us and asked, ‘Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that,’” Noblitt told the Georgia Voice.
Noblitt, a social justice minister at his church who works with teens in the criminal justice system, has said he is torn about the age of the suspects.
The fact one of the suspects is only 13 is “heartbreaking,” Noblitt said.
“I’m more sad than angry,” he added. “There’s a story that leads up to a choice being made … and I wonder what the story is for all of them.”
Noblitt held a community picnic on July 18 at the same spot where he was robbed to bring “collective healing” and build new memories in the space.
________________________________________
Daily Report
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
State Supreme Court launches e-filing
By Jonathan Ringel, Managing Editor
The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday announced that it has begun accepting briefs and filings electronically.
"What we're talking about here is a revolutionary change that is a win-win situation for the Court and for the litigants," said Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein in a press release. "The parties will save time and money by no longer having to print, copy and deliver paper documents. No more fighting Atlanta traffic to get those documents into our Clerk's office by the 4:30 filing deadline."
Parties still may file paper briefs at the courthouse, according to information about e-filing on the court's website, http://www.gasupreme.us/. The site gives more details about how the process works.
The Court of Appeals launched an e-filing system earlier this year.
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
________________________________________
Monday, August 02, 2010
National Law Journal
NC courthouse has day care, Web for waiting jurors
By Associated Press writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — It's not quite like home, but Mecklenburg County court officers have made jury duty less of a chore for thousands called in from their daily routines.
The juror assembly room in the downtown Charlotte courthouse has free wireless Internet, a business center to catch up on work, a day care center and even a place where mothers can pump breast milk, The Charlotte Observer reported Monday.
There's a 90-minute lunch break and two movies are offered. The courthouse provides free popcorn.
Court officials recognize most people don't look forward to jury duty, so the amenities and services aim to make performing the public obligation more pleasant, outreach administrator Charles Keller said.
Of course, there's another incentive to performing your civic duty: Those who don't show up may have to explain their absence to a judge.
The efforts seem to make a difference.
The benchmark-setting National Center for State Courts says fewer than 5 percent of jurors should be no-shows. In Mecklenburg County, 4 percent of those called from motor vehicle and voter registration records never show up.
"We're doing a pretty good job of making sure people show up," Keller said.
Mecklenburg County calls as many as 8,000 people a month for jury duty. Only about 6,000 have actually sat on a jury this year. The rest either were not selected for a trial or were disqualified in court by defense attorneys or prosecutors.
The Charlotte-area courts also try to thank those who serve.
Last week, the county's judicial district held a juror appreciation week that offered discounts for jurors at restaurants near the courthouse, a jazz ensemble and a celebrity speaker.
The district has made the effort to thank jurors every year for the last decade "to applaud the jurors who support the justice system," a news release said.
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
________________________________________
National Law Journal
What price justice?
Stephen N. Zack
August 02, 2010
Recent news reports tell of a Wall Street recovery and anticipated hiring in the financial sector. Yet for many of us, these indicators of economic improvement have not been felt.
Instead, Americans are grappling with double-digit unemployment, foreclosures that continue to devastate communities and businesses large and small that are still struggling to stay afloat.
One place where business is booming is in our nation's courts. It is no secret that, in times of an economic downturn, court filings go up. The American Bar Association's Coalition for Justice recently released results of a new survey of state court trial judges that affirms that more and more of our friends and neighbors are using our court systems.
More than half the responding judges in the survey reported that their docket filings have increased, with the bulk of the filings coming from foreclosures, domestic relations, consumer issues such as debt and nonforeclosure housing disputes such as rental disputes, in that order.
The courts are being called into service at these high levels at precisely the time when our judiciary — as with other public services — is suffering from budgetary constraints that are being felt by states from coast to coast.
And while states are doing what they can to keep their wheels of justice from grinding to a halt, eight states have resorted to closing courts on certain days every month; 19 states have instituted furloughs. In Vermont, for example, judges and all staff are furloughed one day per month with no pay. In Georgia, the state constitution prohibits lawmakers from lowering the state's Supreme Court justices' pay, but all seven of the justices voluntarily participated in all-staff furloughs through this spring. California has a statewide court-closure program that shuts courtroom doors the third Wednesday of every month.
The National Center for State Courts reports that states have significantly cut judiciary budgets, forcing such cost-saving measures as hiring freezes in 26 states, salary freezes in 12 states, layoffs in 11 states, pay cuts in nine states, early retirement in six states and increased filing fees in six others.
The stress is hitting our federal courts as well. Wall Streets folks may be putting up "Help Wanted" signs, but the Judicial Conference of the United States can't get congressional buy-in for the 69 new federal judgeships it has requested to dispense justice in some districts where caseloads have doubled in the past decade.
Other evidence of the economy's effect on the courts comes from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which reports that bankruptcy filings are at their highest since 2006. For the 12-month period ending March 31, bankruptcy filings were up 27% compared to filings for that same period the previous year. The majority of the 1.5 million bankruptcy filings involved consumer debt. Filings for business debt totaled 61,148, up 25% from the previous year.
Caseloads are one part of the problem. Another is court procedure — rules that have been implemented to make sure that each party in litigation receives justice. This is a laudable goal; however, the procedures can be complex and challenging, especially for nonlawyers who have not had training in such areas. But the judges responding to the ABA survey report that more people are showing up to present their cases in court without counsel.
Not surprisingly, 62% of the judges said that parties who were not represented by counsel experienced a negative impact on their cases. And the lack of counsel also affected the courts themselves: An astounding 78% of judges said that individuals' lack of representation had a negative impact on the way courts operate. It slows down procedures while judges strive to be fair but still efficient in performing their public responsibilities.
The ripples of our underfunded judiciary extend beyond our courthouses. Our jails, our police departments, our court-related social services — such as domestic violence service centers — are all negatively affected. The results range from a reduction in public safety to prison overcrowding to families and children without support systems in times of crisis.
There is no question that legislators confront hard choices in times of recession, but it is time for our lawmakers to recognize the value of our judicial branch as more than a line item in a budget. A strong judicial branch is essential to maintaining responsible government and protecting citizens' rights.
It is time to ensure that, in a country founded on the rule of law and the principle of access to justice, our judicial branch does not wither under the burden of financial stress.
The financial crisis challenges us all, but it also presents an opportunity for states and courts to find new ways to reduce spending while maintaining an accessible forum for efficient and effective justice. It raises a special obligation for the American Bar Association to provide the strongest advocacy possible for the uncompromised vitality of our judiciary. We ask lawyers everywhere to join that campaign — not for the sake of the lawyers, not for the sake of the judges or the bailiffs or the court reporters. We ask it for the sake of the public, for the future of our democracy and for the rule of law.
Some have, in the past, asked "What price freedom?" Today, the ABA asks, "What price justice?" We must all join together to find the answer.
Stephen N. Zack is administrative partner in the Miami office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner and the incoming president of the American Bar Association.
Rethinking the Politics of Crime
By Greg Berman
Sunday, August 1st, 2010 9:58 pm
Less rhetoric and more attention to research can cool the overheated media climate on criminal justice, argues the Center on Court Innovation’s Greg Berman in a special essay for The Crime Report
Last week, UK Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt gave a wide-ranging speech about criminal justice. Toward the end of his remarks, he devoted a single paragraph to arts programming in prisons, saying, “Arts activities can play a valuable role in helping offenders to address issues such as communication problems and low self-esteem.”For the British tabloid press, Blunt’s endorsement of arts programs for inmates was a gift sent from the slow-summer-news-day gods.
The front page of the Daily Mail heaped scorn on the announcement, declaring: “Now You Pay for Prison Parties: Tory Minister Says Taxpayer Must Fund Balls and Comedy Workshops for Criminals.” The Daily Mirror, summed up the same sentiment in fewer words: “You Clown.”
Moving quickly to halt the damage, 10 Downing Street distanced itself from Blunt. A spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron effectively drew a line under the matter, declaring, “We just want to make it clear to the public there will be no such parties.”
In all fairness, Blunt could have easily avoided the whole incident with a quieter approach to change. But while the “prison parties” controversy is of minor consequence and will no doubt soon be forgotten by everyone (save perhaps Crispin Blunt), it does offer a telling example of how an overheated media and political culture complicates criminal justice policymaking.
Risk-Averse Policymakers
It’s as true in the United States as it is in England.
It is fair to say that many American criminal justice officials live in fear of finding themselves in a similar position to Crispin Blunt: out on an island, on the wrong side of the “tough on crime” debate. This understandable fear has broad consequences for the field of criminal justice. Among other things, it creates a risk-averse environment where both policymakers and practitioners are reluctant to challenge the status quo and test new ideas.
This is a problem that Aubrey Fox and I examine in our new book Trial and
Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from Failure (2010: Urban Institute Press). The central argument of the book is that criminal justice officials should adopt a lesson from the field of science, embracing the trial-and-error process and talking more honestly about how difficult it is to change the behavior of offenders and reduce chronic offending in crime-plagued urban neighborhoods.
In an effort to encourage greater reflection within the field of criminal justice, Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform tells the stories of several criminal justice programs that have experienced both success and failure, including drug courts, Operation Ceasefire and D.A.R.E. The trials and tribulations of these programs offer a host of important lessons, highlighting the challenges of inter-agency collaboration, the difficulties of managing leadership transitions and
the gap that often exists between criminal justice researchers and practitioners.
Of all the obstacles that bedevil criminal justice reformers, none is more complex than mastering the politics of crime, particularly when the media gets involved.
In the US, there are countless examples of cities and states passing “get tough” legislation quickly on the heels of horrific local tragedies that attracted frenzied media coverage.
Unintended Consequences
These laws, which include truth in sentencing, mandatory minimums and three-strikes-and-you’re-out legislation, often have unintended consequences. For example, California’s efforts to reform its parole system and reduce the unnecessary use of incarceration have been hindered by an array of laws and ballot initiatives that have limited the flexibility and discretion of criminal justice officials.
Thankfully, some places have managed to avoid the fate of California. As we detail in our book, one such example comes from Connecticut, where state legislator Mike Lawlor found himself in the media spotlight in the aftermath of a horrible triple murder committed by two parolees who had been released from prison by the local parole board.
Local papers and elected officials clamored for someone to blame and something to do. Into this vaccum rushed advocates for ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out” legislation.
Rather than fight this movement head on, Lawlor provided the media with another target: the failure of Connecticut’s criminal justice infrastructure to communicate all of the necessary information about the parolees to the local parole board. By focusing attention on this mistake, Lawlor was able to use the media coverage to help pass nuts-and-bolts technology improvements rather than sweeping sentencing changes.
Of course, understanding the impact of media and political outrage is one thing; actually doing something about it is quite another.
For example, one criminal justice official in the United Kingdom recently acknowledged that even well-thought-out policy is often altered ”at the slightest whiff of criticism from the popular press.” He went on to promise a change from an era of policymaking with “a chequebook in one hand and the Daily Mail in the other.”
The official? None other than Crispin Blunt.
Greg Berman is director of the Center for Court Innovation in New York City
________________________________________
August 2, 2010
New York Times
A Mailroom Mix-Up That Could Cost a Life
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON
Sullivan & Cromwell is a law firm with glittering offices in a dozen cities around the world, and some of its partners charge more than $1,000 an hour. The firm’s paying clients, at least, demand impeccable work.
Cory R. Maples, a death row inmate in Alabama, must have been grateful when lawyers from the firm agreed to represent him without charge. But the assistance he got may turn out to be lethal.
When an Alabama court sent two copies of a ruling in Mr. Maples’s case to the firm in New York, its mailroom sent them back unopened.
One envelope had “Return to Sender — Left Firm” written across the front along with a stamp that said “Return to Sender — Attempted Not Known.” The other was stamped with slightly different language: “Return to Sender — Attempted Unknown.”
Two associates handling Mr. Maples’s case had indeed left the firm, but it seems that no one bothered to tell the court or the mailroom that new lawyers there had stepped in. By the time Mr. Maples’s mother called, her son’s time to appeal had run out.
The firm’s name did not appear on the papers it had submitted in Alabama. The reason for that is not clear, but it may have been to avoid offending corporate clients. It certainly added to the confusion in the mailroom.
Sullivan & Cromwell has worked hard to undo the damage, but it has so far failed to persuade the courts to waive the deadline for filing an appeal. After losing in the federal appeals court in Atlanta, the firm persuaded a former United States solicitor general, Gregory G. Garre, to represent Mr. Maples in the Supreme Court.
Last month, Mr. Garre asked the justices to hear the case. The core of his argument — one that might convince a schoolchild if not a federal judge — is that Mr. Maples should not be blamed for a mistake he did not commit.
Variations on Mr. Garre’s argument arrive at the Supreme Court all the time. For the most part, they are rejected, on a theory that is as casually accepted in criminal justice as it is offensive to principles of moral philosophy.
Mr. Maples’s case “is a textbook illustration of why the doctrine of imputing responsibility to the client for a lawyer’s mistake is so out of touch with reality,” said Deborah L. Rhode, an authority on indigent defense and legal ethics at Stanford.
There is substantial evidence that Mr. Maples murdered two companions after a night of drinking. It is less clear that the crime warranted the death penalty, which is said to be reserved for the worst of the worst.
Mr. Maples’s court-appointed trial lawyers were novices at presenting evidence about the appropriate penalty, conceding to the jury that they “may appear to be stumbling around in the dark.” Even so, the jury vote in favor of recommending the death penalty was the bare minimum under Alabama law, 10 to 2.
Alabama is the only state that does not provide all poor death row inmates with lawyers to challenge their convictions and sentences. In an appeals court brief in 2006, the state explained that it relied on fancy firms like Sullivan & Cromwell to handle such cases.
“The overwhelming majority of Alabama death row inmates enjoy the assistance of qualified (and often über-qualified) counsel in collaterally attacking their convictions and sentences,” the state’s lawyers wrote, which is another way of saying that lawyers from prominent firms donate their services to fill the gap left by the state.
In the Maples case, Judge Glenn E. Thompson, of the Circuit Court in Morgan County, Alabama, was not willing to cut the pro bono lawyers before him any slack. He said deadlines were deadlines and ruled that a court clerk was not required to do anything to follow up when life-or-death rulings came back from Sullivan & Cromwell unopened.
“How can a circuit court clerk in Decatur, Ala., know what is going on in a law firm in New York, N.Y.?” Judge Thompson asked.
An Alabama lawyer, John G. Butler Jr., also represented Mr. Maples, and there is no dispute that he received a copy of the crucial ruling.
But Mr. Butler said in a sworn statement that he was Mr. Maples’s lawyer in name only, serving as local counsel because the New York lawyers were not licensed to practice in Alabama. He said he had not passed the ruling along to his co-counsel or to his client.
Nor did the court clerk think to inform the man whose life was at stake. A federal appeals court last year said that was Mr. Maples’s fault. “Maples never requested the clerk to give him personal notice in addition to his counsel,” an unsigned opinion for a divided three-judge panel of the court said.
A spokesman for Sullivan & Cromwell declined to comment on the case, citing the pending Supreme Court petition.
That petition discussed a precedent that might seem instructive.
In 2006, in Jones v. Flowers, the Supreme Court considered what sort of notice must be given when the government wants to sell a home for unpaid taxes. If a letter is returned unopened, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority, officials must try harder to reach the owner.
“This is especially true,” he wrote, “when, as here, the subject matter of the letter concerns such an important and irreversible prospect as the loss of a house.”
Chicago’s New Face Of Heroin Addiction Is Young, Suburban
The Chicago Tribune visits a University of Illinois at Chicago drug clinic in a story that addresses the city’s dubious standing as having the nation’s most severe heroin problem. The clinic offers clean syringes, HIV tests and other services to those buying $10 baggies of dope on the drug-soaked streets nearby. Some of its patrons are old-timers, weary and bedraggled, their forearms misshapen with the knots and abscesses from years of shooting up. When you imagine an addict, they’re probably what comes to mind.
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Teens arrested in bias crime against gay pastor to be charged as adults
BY DYANA BAGBY
WEDNESDAY, 28 JULY 2010 16:34
The six male teens arrested in the beating and armed robbery of a gay pastor and his friend in Piedmont Park on July 2 remain in police custody and are slated to have a court hearing Aug. 2. They will all be charged as adults.
The suspects, all facing charges of felony armed robbery, range in ages from 13 through 19. Four of the suspects are juveniles and will be tried as adults, according to Senior Patrol Officer Patricia Powell, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison.
A date in Superior Court for the six suspects is set for Aug. 2, Powell said.
The six teens are charged with a “bias crime,” the same as a hate crime. While Georgia does not have a state hate crimes law, there is the recently passed federal hate crimes law — the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Act. Atlanta Police have asked the FBI to help in the investigation of the crime to determine if it falls under the federal hate crimes statute.
Rev. Josh Noblitt of Saint Mark United Methodist Church and his partner were attacked and robbed by gunpoint in Piedmont Park on July 2. Before they were attacked, the couple was asked by the alleged assailants if they were gay.
"They walked up directly to us and asked, ‘Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that,’” Noblitt told the Georgia Voice.
Noblitt, a social justice minister at his church who works with teens in the criminal justice system, has said he is torn about the age of the suspects.
The fact one of the suspects is only 13 is “heartbreaking,” Noblitt said.
“I’m more sad than angry,” he added. “There’s a story that leads up to a choice being made … and I wonder what the story is for all of them.”
Noblitt held a community picnic on July 18 at the same spot where he was robbed to bring “collective healing” and build new memories in the space.
________________________________________
Daily Report
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
State Supreme Court launches e-filing
By Jonathan Ringel, Managing Editor
The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday announced that it has begun accepting briefs and filings electronically.
"What we're talking about here is a revolutionary change that is a win-win situation for the Court and for the litigants," said Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein in a press release. "The parties will save time and money by no longer having to print, copy and deliver paper documents. No more fighting Atlanta traffic to get those documents into our Clerk's office by the 4:30 filing deadline."
Parties still may file paper briefs at the courthouse, according to information about e-filing on the court's website, http://www.gasupreme.us/. The site gives more details about how the process works.
The Court of Appeals launched an e-filing system earlier this year.
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
________________________________________
Monday, August 02, 2010
National Law Journal
NC courthouse has day care, Web for waiting jurors
By Associated Press writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — It's not quite like home, but Mecklenburg County court officers have made jury duty less of a chore for thousands called in from their daily routines.
The juror assembly room in the downtown Charlotte courthouse has free wireless Internet, a business center to catch up on work, a day care center and even a place where mothers can pump breast milk, The Charlotte Observer reported Monday.
There's a 90-minute lunch break and two movies are offered. The courthouse provides free popcorn.
Court officials recognize most people don't look forward to jury duty, so the amenities and services aim to make performing the public obligation more pleasant, outreach administrator Charles Keller said.
Of course, there's another incentive to performing your civic duty: Those who don't show up may have to explain their absence to a judge.
The efforts seem to make a difference.
The benchmark-setting National Center for State Courts says fewer than 5 percent of jurors should be no-shows. In Mecklenburg County, 4 percent of those called from motor vehicle and voter registration records never show up.
"We're doing a pretty good job of making sure people show up," Keller said.
Mecklenburg County calls as many as 8,000 people a month for jury duty. Only about 6,000 have actually sat on a jury this year. The rest either were not selected for a trial or were disqualified in court by defense attorneys or prosecutors.
The Charlotte-area courts also try to thank those who serve.
Last week, the county's judicial district held a juror appreciation week that offered discounts for jurors at restaurants near the courthouse, a jazz ensemble and a celebrity speaker.
The district has made the effort to thank jurors every year for the last decade "to applaud the jurors who support the justice system," a news release said.
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
________________________________________
National Law Journal
What price justice?
Stephen N. Zack
August 02, 2010
Recent news reports tell of a Wall Street recovery and anticipated hiring in the financial sector. Yet for many of us, these indicators of economic improvement have not been felt.
Instead, Americans are grappling with double-digit unemployment, foreclosures that continue to devastate communities and businesses large and small that are still struggling to stay afloat.
One place where business is booming is in our nation's courts. It is no secret that, in times of an economic downturn, court filings go up. The American Bar Association's Coalition for Justice recently released results of a new survey of state court trial judges that affirms that more and more of our friends and neighbors are using our court systems.
More than half the responding judges in the survey reported that their docket filings have increased, with the bulk of the filings coming from foreclosures, domestic relations, consumer issues such as debt and nonforeclosure housing disputes such as rental disputes, in that order.
The courts are being called into service at these high levels at precisely the time when our judiciary — as with other public services — is suffering from budgetary constraints that are being felt by states from coast to coast.
And while states are doing what they can to keep their wheels of justice from grinding to a halt, eight states have resorted to closing courts on certain days every month; 19 states have instituted furloughs. In Vermont, for example, judges and all staff are furloughed one day per month with no pay. In Georgia, the state constitution prohibits lawmakers from lowering the state's Supreme Court justices' pay, but all seven of the justices voluntarily participated in all-staff furloughs through this spring. California has a statewide court-closure program that shuts courtroom doors the third Wednesday of every month.
The National Center for State Courts reports that states have significantly cut judiciary budgets, forcing such cost-saving measures as hiring freezes in 26 states, salary freezes in 12 states, layoffs in 11 states, pay cuts in nine states, early retirement in six states and increased filing fees in six others.
The stress is hitting our federal courts as well. Wall Streets folks may be putting up "Help Wanted" signs, but the Judicial Conference of the United States can't get congressional buy-in for the 69 new federal judgeships it has requested to dispense justice in some districts where caseloads have doubled in the past decade.
Other evidence of the economy's effect on the courts comes from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which reports that bankruptcy filings are at their highest since 2006. For the 12-month period ending March 31, bankruptcy filings were up 27% compared to filings for that same period the previous year. The majority of the 1.5 million bankruptcy filings involved consumer debt. Filings for business debt totaled 61,148, up 25% from the previous year.
Caseloads are one part of the problem. Another is court procedure — rules that have been implemented to make sure that each party in litigation receives justice. This is a laudable goal; however, the procedures can be complex and challenging, especially for nonlawyers who have not had training in such areas. But the judges responding to the ABA survey report that more people are showing up to present their cases in court without counsel.
Not surprisingly, 62% of the judges said that parties who were not represented by counsel experienced a negative impact on their cases. And the lack of counsel also affected the courts themselves: An astounding 78% of judges said that individuals' lack of representation had a negative impact on the way courts operate. It slows down procedures while judges strive to be fair but still efficient in performing their public responsibilities.
The ripples of our underfunded judiciary extend beyond our courthouses. Our jails, our police departments, our court-related social services — such as domestic violence service centers — are all negatively affected. The results range from a reduction in public safety to prison overcrowding to families and children without support systems in times of crisis.
There is no question that legislators confront hard choices in times of recession, but it is time for our lawmakers to recognize the value of our judicial branch as more than a line item in a budget. A strong judicial branch is essential to maintaining responsible government and protecting citizens' rights.
It is time to ensure that, in a country founded on the rule of law and the principle of access to justice, our judicial branch does not wither under the burden of financial stress.
The financial crisis challenges us all, but it also presents an opportunity for states and courts to find new ways to reduce spending while maintaining an accessible forum for efficient and effective justice. It raises a special obligation for the American Bar Association to provide the strongest advocacy possible for the uncompromised vitality of our judiciary. We ask lawyers everywhere to join that campaign — not for the sake of the lawyers, not for the sake of the judges or the bailiffs or the court reporters. We ask it for the sake of the public, for the future of our democracy and for the rule of law.
Some have, in the past, asked "What price freedom?" Today, the ABA asks, "What price justice?" We must all join together to find the answer.
Stephen N. Zack is administrative partner in the Miami office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner and the incoming president of the American Bar Association.
Rethinking the Politics of Crime
By Greg Berman
Sunday, August 1st, 2010 9:58 pm
Less rhetoric and more attention to research can cool the overheated media climate on criminal justice, argues the Center on Court Innovation’s Greg Berman in a special essay for The Crime Report
Last week, UK Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt gave a wide-ranging speech about criminal justice. Toward the end of his remarks, he devoted a single paragraph to arts programming in prisons, saying, “Arts activities can play a valuable role in helping offenders to address issues such as communication problems and low self-esteem.”For the British tabloid press, Blunt’s endorsement of arts programs for inmates was a gift sent from the slow-summer-news-day gods.
The front page of the Daily Mail heaped scorn on the announcement, declaring: “Now You Pay for Prison Parties: Tory Minister Says Taxpayer Must Fund Balls and Comedy Workshops for Criminals.” The Daily Mirror, summed up the same sentiment in fewer words: “You Clown.”
Moving quickly to halt the damage, 10 Downing Street distanced itself from Blunt. A spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron effectively drew a line under the matter, declaring, “We just want to make it clear to the public there will be no such parties.”
In all fairness, Blunt could have easily avoided the whole incident with a quieter approach to change. But while the “prison parties” controversy is of minor consequence and will no doubt soon be forgotten by everyone (save perhaps Crispin Blunt), it does offer a telling example of how an overheated media and political culture complicates criminal justice policymaking.
Risk-Averse Policymakers
It’s as true in the United States as it is in England.
It is fair to say that many American criminal justice officials live in fear of finding themselves in a similar position to Crispin Blunt: out on an island, on the wrong side of the “tough on crime” debate. This understandable fear has broad consequences for the field of criminal justice. Among other things, it creates a risk-averse environment where both policymakers and practitioners are reluctant to challenge the status quo and test new ideas.
This is a problem that Aubrey Fox and I examine in our new book Trial and
Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from Failure (2010: Urban Institute Press). The central argument of the book is that criminal justice officials should adopt a lesson from the field of science, embracing the trial-and-error process and talking more honestly about how difficult it is to change the behavior of offenders and reduce chronic offending in crime-plagued urban neighborhoods.
In an effort to encourage greater reflection within the field of criminal justice, Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform tells the stories of several criminal justice programs that have experienced both success and failure, including drug courts, Operation Ceasefire and D.A.R.E. The trials and tribulations of these programs offer a host of important lessons, highlighting the challenges of inter-agency collaboration, the difficulties of managing leadership transitions and
the gap that often exists between criminal justice researchers and practitioners.
Of all the obstacles that bedevil criminal justice reformers, none is more complex than mastering the politics of crime, particularly when the media gets involved.
In the US, there are countless examples of cities and states passing “get tough” legislation quickly on the heels of horrific local tragedies that attracted frenzied media coverage.
Unintended Consequences
These laws, which include truth in sentencing, mandatory minimums and three-strikes-and-you’re-out legislation, often have unintended consequences. For example, California’s efforts to reform its parole system and reduce the unnecessary use of incarceration have been hindered by an array of laws and ballot initiatives that have limited the flexibility and discretion of criminal justice officials.
Thankfully, some places have managed to avoid the fate of California. As we detail in our book, one such example comes from Connecticut, where state legislator Mike Lawlor found himself in the media spotlight in the aftermath of a horrible triple murder committed by two parolees who had been released from prison by the local parole board.
Local papers and elected officials clamored for someone to blame and something to do. Into this vaccum rushed advocates for ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out” legislation.
Rather than fight this movement head on, Lawlor provided the media with another target: the failure of Connecticut’s criminal justice infrastructure to communicate all of the necessary information about the parolees to the local parole board. By focusing attention on this mistake, Lawlor was able to use the media coverage to help pass nuts-and-bolts technology improvements rather than sweeping sentencing changes.
Of course, understanding the impact of media and political outrage is one thing; actually doing something about it is quite another.
For example, one criminal justice official in the United Kingdom recently acknowledged that even well-thought-out policy is often altered ”at the slightest whiff of criticism from the popular press.” He went on to promise a change from an era of policymaking with “a chequebook in one hand and the Daily Mail in the other.”
The official? None other than Crispin Blunt.
Greg Berman is director of the Center for Court Innovation in New York City
________________________________________
August 2, 2010
New York Times
A Mailroom Mix-Up That Could Cost a Life
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON
Sullivan & Cromwell is a law firm with glittering offices in a dozen cities around the world, and some of its partners charge more than $1,000 an hour. The firm’s paying clients, at least, demand impeccable work.
Cory R. Maples, a death row inmate in Alabama, must have been grateful when lawyers from the firm agreed to represent him without charge. But the assistance he got may turn out to be lethal.
When an Alabama court sent two copies of a ruling in Mr. Maples’s case to the firm in New York, its mailroom sent them back unopened.
One envelope had “Return to Sender — Left Firm” written across the front along with a stamp that said “Return to Sender — Attempted Not Known.” The other was stamped with slightly different language: “Return to Sender — Attempted Unknown.”
Two associates handling Mr. Maples’s case had indeed left the firm, but it seems that no one bothered to tell the court or the mailroom that new lawyers there had stepped in. By the time Mr. Maples’s mother called, her son’s time to appeal had run out.
The firm’s name did not appear on the papers it had submitted in Alabama. The reason for that is not clear, but it may have been to avoid offending corporate clients. It certainly added to the confusion in the mailroom.
Sullivan & Cromwell has worked hard to undo the damage, but it has so far failed to persuade the courts to waive the deadline for filing an appeal. After losing in the federal appeals court in Atlanta, the firm persuaded a former United States solicitor general, Gregory G. Garre, to represent Mr. Maples in the Supreme Court.
Last month, Mr. Garre asked the justices to hear the case. The core of his argument — one that might convince a schoolchild if not a federal judge — is that Mr. Maples should not be blamed for a mistake he did not commit.
Variations on Mr. Garre’s argument arrive at the Supreme Court all the time. For the most part, they are rejected, on a theory that is as casually accepted in criminal justice as it is offensive to principles of moral philosophy.
Mr. Maples’s case “is a textbook illustration of why the doctrine of imputing responsibility to the client for a lawyer’s mistake is so out of touch with reality,” said Deborah L. Rhode, an authority on indigent defense and legal ethics at Stanford.
There is substantial evidence that Mr. Maples murdered two companions after a night of drinking. It is less clear that the crime warranted the death penalty, which is said to be reserved for the worst of the worst.
Mr. Maples’s court-appointed trial lawyers were novices at presenting evidence about the appropriate penalty, conceding to the jury that they “may appear to be stumbling around in the dark.” Even so, the jury vote in favor of recommending the death penalty was the bare minimum under Alabama law, 10 to 2.
Alabama is the only state that does not provide all poor death row inmates with lawyers to challenge their convictions and sentences. In an appeals court brief in 2006, the state explained that it relied on fancy firms like Sullivan & Cromwell to handle such cases.
“The overwhelming majority of Alabama death row inmates enjoy the assistance of qualified (and often über-qualified) counsel in collaterally attacking their convictions and sentences,” the state’s lawyers wrote, which is another way of saying that lawyers from prominent firms donate their services to fill the gap left by the state.
In the Maples case, Judge Glenn E. Thompson, of the Circuit Court in Morgan County, Alabama, was not willing to cut the pro bono lawyers before him any slack. He said deadlines were deadlines and ruled that a court clerk was not required to do anything to follow up when life-or-death rulings came back from Sullivan & Cromwell unopened.
“How can a circuit court clerk in Decatur, Ala., know what is going on in a law firm in New York, N.Y.?” Judge Thompson asked.
An Alabama lawyer, John G. Butler Jr., also represented Mr. Maples, and there is no dispute that he received a copy of the crucial ruling.
But Mr. Butler said in a sworn statement that he was Mr. Maples’s lawyer in name only, serving as local counsel because the New York lawyers were not licensed to practice in Alabama. He said he had not passed the ruling along to his co-counsel or to his client.
Nor did the court clerk think to inform the man whose life was at stake. A federal appeals court last year said that was Mr. Maples’s fault. “Maples never requested the clerk to give him personal notice in addition to his counsel,” an unsigned opinion for a divided three-judge panel of the court said.
A spokesman for Sullivan & Cromwell declined to comment on the case, citing the pending Supreme Court petition.
That petition discussed a precedent that might seem instructive.
In 2006, in Jones v. Flowers, the Supreme Court considered what sort of notice must be given when the government wants to sell a home for unpaid taxes. If a letter is returned unopened, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority, officials must try harder to reach the owner.
“This is especially true,” he wrote, “when, as here, the subject matter of the letter concerns such an important and irreversible prospect as the loss of a house.”
Chicago’s New Face Of Heroin Addiction Is Young, Suburban
The Chicago Tribune visits a University of Illinois at Chicago drug clinic in a story that addresses the city’s dubious standing as having the nation’s most severe heroin problem. The clinic offers clean syringes, HIV tests and other services to those buying $10 baggies of dope on the drug-soaked streets nearby. Some of its patrons are old-timers, weary and bedraggled, their forearms misshapen with the knots and abscesses from years of shooting up. When you imagine an addict, they’re probably what comes to mind.
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
EPIC Celebrates Local Public Interest Attorneys
01/26/10
Three Atlanta attorneys whose careers exemplify a commitment to public service will be honored by the Emory Public Interest Committee (EPIC) at its 14th annual Inspiration Awards Ceremony and Reception at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, in Emory Law’s Tull Auditorium.
Terry Walsh 70L, retired partner at Alston & Bird; The Hon. Doris L. Downs, chief judge of the Fulton County Superior Court; and Rita A. Sheffey, partner at Hunton & Williams, are this year’s honorees.
Walsh, a 1970 graduate of Emory Law, is receiving the Lifetime Commitment to Public Service Award. He spent nearly 40 years practicing in Alston & Bird’s litigation and trial practice groups and was the firm’s first community liaison partner. He has served as president of the Atlanta Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia’s Young Lawyers Division and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. A member of the State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors, Walsh chaired its Committee on Children and the Courts. He also served on the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Civil Justice.
Walsh has led numerous community service programs in Atlanta. He is co-founder and chair of the Truancy Intervention Project, director of the Family Connection Partnership and Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and was founding director of the Georgia Justice Project. He also is a founding advisory board member of EPIC and facilitated the inception of the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network. Additionally, Walsh has received many awards for his pro bono work, including the 2008 Fulton County Daily Report Pro Bono Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1995 Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change Community Service Award and several public service awards from the Atlanta Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia and the American Bar Association.
Judge Downs is receiving the Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award. Appointed as judge of the Fulton County Superior Court by Gov. Zell Miller in 1996, Downs presides over civil, domestic and felony criminal cases and trials. She was elected chief judge in 2004.
Downs oversees the Fulton County Drug Court Program, which provides drug-addicted criminal defendants with a highly structured treatment program. Under her leadership, the program has doubled in capacity, serving nearly 400 clients. She also launched the county’s Mental Health Court, which helps to stabilize, treat and find safe placement for mentally ill defendants in the criminal justice system. Downs is a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia and serves on the executive committee of the Council of Superior Court Judges. Prior to her role on the bench, Downs served as an assistant district attorney in Fulton County for 14 years.
Sheffey is receiving the Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need Award. A partner in Hunton & Williams’ litigation and intellectual property practice, Sheffey directs the firm’s Southside Legal Center. She is an active member of the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Civil Justice and is a past president of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation Inc. Sheffey also has been involved in numerous roles for the Atlanta Bar Association including serving on its executive committee and board of directors and chairing the Celebrating Service and Pro Bono committees. She currently serves as the organization’s secretary.
Sheffey is president and chair of Atlanta Victim Assistance Inc. and on the board of trustees of Boys Speak Out Inc. She received the Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award by the Atlanta Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia’s H. Sol Clark Pro Bono Award.
EPIC, a student-run organization promoting public interest law at Emory, supports students pursuing public interest legal jobs and acknowledges the professional responsibility of lawyers and law students to make legal services more accessible.
The annual Inspiration Awards is EPIC’s primary fundraiser. In 2009, EPIC raised more than $110,000, providing 25 summer grants for students volunteering in public sector jobs. Grant recipients worked at a variety of local and national and international organizations, including the Georgia Innocence Project in Atlanta, the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project in New York and the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C.
Donations to EPIC are accepted at various levels with a minimum $35 donation to attend the Inspiration Awards. For more information about contributing to EPIC or attending this year’s event, contact Sue McAvoy at 404.727.5503 or smcavoy(at)law.emory.edu.
Court upholds life sentence in Buckhead slaying
Associated Press
9:56 a.m. Monday, January 25, 2010
Georgia's highest court has upheld a murder conviction and life prison sentence for a man accused of killing another man he says made unwanted homosexual advances.
In an opinion published Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld Joseph Hall Jr.' sentence for the 2002 slaying of David Cook.
Hall was an 18-year-old college student when prosecutors say he and his co-defendant, Edward McCloud, took a bus from Montgomery, Ala. to Atlanta.
Prosecutors say they met Cook, a travel agent, in an area frequented by Atlanta's gay community and he offered to take them to his Buckhead condo to "party" and have sex.
At trial, Hall said he was high on cocaine when he stabbed Cook more than 20 times while in a trance triggered by childhood memories of seeing his father stab his mother to death.
$200,000 Awarded to Atlanta Pedestrian
A man struck by a MARTA bus as he crossed Commerce Street near the Decatur MARTA station was awarded $200,000 by a Fulton County jury.
The man was crossing between the DeKalb County Courthouse parking deck and the Manuel Maloof Administration Building on the morning of July 23, 2007, when a Mart bus left the MARTA station turnaround on Swanton Way and turned into Commerce, striking the man.
The complaint stated that the pedestrian was knocked down, lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital. He suffered a very minor head injury, as well as some soft-tissue injuries to his head and back. Medical expenses added to $13,000 and he suffered about $10,000 in lost wages.
After a two-and-a-half-day trial before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry M. Newkirk, the jury took about three hours to award $200,000 to the plaintiff.
Current Events
Bad Ol' Boys Club Desserts & Discussion Event
January 28th, 2010
A Future. Not A Past. is excited to annnounce our first literary event to raise awareness about the prostitution of children. Barbara Rose, a mystery novelist, has written a book, The Bad Ol' Boys Club, in which the plot revolves around this issue. If you have a book club, or know of any groups that would like to help us distribute this FREE book, please email info@AFutureNotaPast.org for more information and details. In order to receive these books, we ask that you submit email address for all those who receive the book so that we can send out more info closer the the date. This will be coupled with a "Dessert and Discussion" event to be held 7pm on January 28, 2010 at the Fulton County Juvenile Court.
website: http://sgadvocacy.org/lobby/SGLobbyDay
Location:
395 Pryor Street SW, Rooms 1132/33, Atlanta, GA 30312
Mandatory DNA Testing For Felonies Pushed in Georgia
By Susanna Capelouto
Mon., January 25, 2010 1:12pm (EST)
Atlanta — A group of parents whose daughters were killed in violent crimes is pushing for mandatory DNA sampling for those arrested on felony charges in Georgia. They say it would solve murders and keep people save.
21 states already have laws requiring DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony. Joan Berry is with the Surviving Parents Coalition. Her Daughter Johnia was killed while a student at the University of Tennessee.
3 years ago Berry pushed the law in that state.
"The Johnia Berry Act was passed in Tennessee and that same year an arrest was made due to a DNA match, so Jonia's murderer was finally found," she says.
In Georgia, the law would have the same name in Georgia. It is sponsored by State Representative Rob Teihet, a democrat who is also running for Attonrey General. Teilhet says he has bi partisan support.
Teilhet says he knows that the state budget is lean and the GBI already has trouble keeping up with current DNA tests.
"There is a backlog now," he says. " One of the things we as a state have to do is simply decide that, consistent with our values, this is a priority."
Teilhet is also a candidate for Attoney General. At a news conference he presented Data showing that almost 130 crimes could have been prevented in 3 states if DNA had been collected.
Teilhet says he will introduce the legislation later this week and he says he's aware that privacy advocates may take issue with mandatory testing. He says law enforcement likes it as an additional crime fighting tool
Home / News / Local News / San Diego County
REGION: San Diego Superior Court adds Wi-Fi for jurors
By SARAH GORDON - sgordon@nctimes.com
Posted: January 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Jurors waiting to be called into a courtroom can now surf the Internet on laptops or other wireless devices, after all four San Diego Superior Court jury lounges activated Wi-Fi this week, a court spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The wireless Internet service can be accessed for free by any juror serving in Vista, San Diego, Chula Vista or El Cajon, Superior Court spokeswoman Karen Dalton said. It will be available in the jury lounge, and people will need a valid juror badge and a court-provided password to access it, Dalton said.
Jurors for years have been requesting wireless Internet access, and the court recently identified a funding source, Dalton said. A one-time hardware and software cost of about $95,000 to establish the service was funded with a state grant, she said.
The court will pay about $1,600 a month to maintain the service, she said.
Posted in Sdcounty on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:50 pm
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Read Our News Releases
Follow the Court on Twitter
Become a fan of the Court's Facebook Page
01/26/10
Three Atlanta attorneys whose careers exemplify a commitment to public service will be honored by the Emory Public Interest Committee (EPIC) at its 14th annual Inspiration Awards Ceremony and Reception at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, in Emory Law’s Tull Auditorium.
Terry Walsh 70L, retired partner at Alston & Bird; The Hon. Doris L. Downs, chief judge of the Fulton County Superior Court; and Rita A. Sheffey, partner at Hunton & Williams, are this year’s honorees.
Walsh, a 1970 graduate of Emory Law, is receiving the Lifetime Commitment to Public Service Award. He spent nearly 40 years practicing in Alston & Bird’s litigation and trial practice groups and was the firm’s first community liaison partner. He has served as president of the Atlanta Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia’s Young Lawyers Division and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. A member of the State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors, Walsh chaired its Committee on Children and the Courts. He also served on the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Civil Justice.
Walsh has led numerous community service programs in Atlanta. He is co-founder and chair of the Truancy Intervention Project, director of the Family Connection Partnership and Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and was founding director of the Georgia Justice Project. He also is a founding advisory board member of EPIC and facilitated the inception of the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network. Additionally, Walsh has received many awards for his pro bono work, including the 2008 Fulton County Daily Report Pro Bono Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1995 Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change Community Service Award and several public service awards from the Atlanta Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia and the American Bar Association.
Judge Downs is receiving the Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award. Appointed as judge of the Fulton County Superior Court by Gov. Zell Miller in 1996, Downs presides over civil, domestic and felony criminal cases and trials. She was elected chief judge in 2004.
Downs oversees the Fulton County Drug Court Program, which provides drug-addicted criminal defendants with a highly structured treatment program. Under her leadership, the program has doubled in capacity, serving nearly 400 clients. She also launched the county’s Mental Health Court, which helps to stabilize, treat and find safe placement for mentally ill defendants in the criminal justice system. Downs is a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia and serves on the executive committee of the Council of Superior Court Judges. Prior to her role on the bench, Downs served as an assistant district attorney in Fulton County for 14 years.
Sheffey is receiving the Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need Award. A partner in Hunton & Williams’ litigation and intellectual property practice, Sheffey directs the firm’s Southside Legal Center. She is an active member of the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Civil Justice and is a past president of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation Inc. Sheffey also has been involved in numerous roles for the Atlanta Bar Association including serving on its executive committee and board of directors and chairing the Celebrating Service and Pro Bono committees. She currently serves as the organization’s secretary.
Sheffey is president and chair of Atlanta Victim Assistance Inc. and on the board of trustees of Boys Speak Out Inc. She received the Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award by the Atlanta Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia’s H. Sol Clark Pro Bono Award.
EPIC, a student-run organization promoting public interest law at Emory, supports students pursuing public interest legal jobs and acknowledges the professional responsibility of lawyers and law students to make legal services more accessible.
The annual Inspiration Awards is EPIC’s primary fundraiser. In 2009, EPIC raised more than $110,000, providing 25 summer grants for students volunteering in public sector jobs. Grant recipients worked at a variety of local and national and international organizations, including the Georgia Innocence Project in Atlanta, the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project in New York and the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C.
Donations to EPIC are accepted at various levels with a minimum $35 donation to attend the Inspiration Awards. For more information about contributing to EPIC or attending this year’s event, contact Sue McAvoy at 404.727.5503 or smcavoy(at)law.emory.edu.
Court upholds life sentence in Buckhead slaying
Associated Press
9:56 a.m. Monday, January 25, 2010
Georgia's highest court has upheld a murder conviction and life prison sentence for a man accused of killing another man he says made unwanted homosexual advances.
In an opinion published Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld Joseph Hall Jr.' sentence for the 2002 slaying of David Cook.
Hall was an 18-year-old college student when prosecutors say he and his co-defendant, Edward McCloud, took a bus from Montgomery, Ala. to Atlanta.
Prosecutors say they met Cook, a travel agent, in an area frequented by Atlanta's gay community and he offered to take them to his Buckhead condo to "party" and have sex.
At trial, Hall said he was high on cocaine when he stabbed Cook more than 20 times while in a trance triggered by childhood memories of seeing his father stab his mother to death.
$200,000 Awarded to Atlanta Pedestrian
A man struck by a MARTA bus as he crossed Commerce Street near the Decatur MARTA station was awarded $200,000 by a Fulton County jury.
The man was crossing between the DeKalb County Courthouse parking deck and the Manuel Maloof Administration Building on the morning of July 23, 2007, when a Mart bus left the MARTA station turnaround on Swanton Way and turned into Commerce, striking the man.
The complaint stated that the pedestrian was knocked down, lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital. He suffered a very minor head injury, as well as some soft-tissue injuries to his head and back. Medical expenses added to $13,000 and he suffered about $10,000 in lost wages.
After a two-and-a-half-day trial before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry M. Newkirk, the jury took about three hours to award $200,000 to the plaintiff.
Current Events
Bad Ol' Boys Club Desserts & Discussion Event
January 28th, 2010
A Future. Not A Past. is excited to annnounce our first literary event to raise awareness about the prostitution of children. Barbara Rose, a mystery novelist, has written a book, The Bad Ol' Boys Club, in which the plot revolves around this issue. If you have a book club, or know of any groups that would like to help us distribute this FREE book, please email info@AFutureNotaPast.org for more information and details. In order to receive these books, we ask that you submit email address for all those who receive the book so that we can send out more info closer the the date. This will be coupled with a "Dessert and Discussion" event to be held 7pm on January 28, 2010 at the Fulton County Juvenile Court.
website: http://sgadvocacy.org/lobby/SGLobbyDay
Location:
395 Pryor Street SW, Rooms 1132/33, Atlanta, GA 30312
Mandatory DNA Testing For Felonies Pushed in Georgia
By Susanna Capelouto
Mon., January 25, 2010 1:12pm (EST)
Atlanta — A group of parents whose daughters were killed in violent crimes is pushing for mandatory DNA sampling for those arrested on felony charges in Georgia. They say it would solve murders and keep people save.
21 states already have laws requiring DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony. Joan Berry is with the Surviving Parents Coalition. Her Daughter Johnia was killed while a student at the University of Tennessee.
3 years ago Berry pushed the law in that state.
"The Johnia Berry Act was passed in Tennessee and that same year an arrest was made due to a DNA match, so Jonia's murderer was finally found," she says.
In Georgia, the law would have the same name in Georgia. It is sponsored by State Representative Rob Teihet, a democrat who is also running for Attonrey General. Teilhet says he has bi partisan support.
Teilhet says he knows that the state budget is lean and the GBI already has trouble keeping up with current DNA tests.
"There is a backlog now," he says. " One of the things we as a state have to do is simply decide that, consistent with our values, this is a priority."
Teilhet is also a candidate for Attoney General. At a news conference he presented Data showing that almost 130 crimes could have been prevented in 3 states if DNA had been collected.
Teilhet says he will introduce the legislation later this week and he says he's aware that privacy advocates may take issue with mandatory testing. He says law enforcement likes it as an additional crime fighting tool
Home / News / Local News / San Diego County
REGION: San Diego Superior Court adds Wi-Fi for jurors
By SARAH GORDON - sgordon@nctimes.com
Posted: January 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Jurors waiting to be called into a courtroom can now surf the Internet on laptops or other wireless devices, after all four San Diego Superior Court jury lounges activated Wi-Fi this week, a court spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The wireless Internet service can be accessed for free by any juror serving in Vista, San Diego, Chula Vista or El Cajon, Superior Court spokeswoman Karen Dalton said. It will be available in the jury lounge, and people will need a valid juror badge and a court-provided password to access it, Dalton said.
Jurors for years have been requesting wireless Internet access, and the court recently identified a funding source, Dalton said. A one-time hardware and software cost of about $95,000 to establish the service was funded with a state grant, she said.
The court will pay about $1,600 a month to maintain the service, she said.
Posted in Sdcounty on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:50 pm
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov.
Read Our News Releases
Follow the Court on Twitter
Become a fan of the Court's Facebook Page
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
_______________________________________
The Daily Report
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
In The Trenches: Sutherland stalwart joins Duane Morris
By Meredith Hobbs, Staff Reporter
Litigator William D. Barwick joined Duane Morris as a partner last week, after 23 years at Sutherland.
Barwick, a former president of the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association, said Duane Morris offered him the opportunity to build up its products liability and toxic tort practice locally.
“That was the lure,” said Barwick, who is 60. “They've got more of an institutionalized practice in those areas and some really remarkable lawyers. … I have enough years left that I thought I could enjoy the practice, contribute to this firm and really have some fun.”
Duane Morris, based in Philadelphia, opened its Atlanta office 10 years ago. “For a firm that continues to try to grow in this market, bringing in someone like Bill is a huge add for us,” said L. Norwood “Woody” Jameson, Duane Morris's local managing partner. “He's got everything you would want in an Atlanta lawyer—the bar work and he's a great trial lawyer, member of the legal community and the community at large.”
Jameson said Barwick is the first toxic tort and products liability lawyer to join Duane Morris' Atlanta office. “The practice is one of the firm's strengths nationwide, so he provides a launching point for that here,” he said.
Mark D. Wasserman, Sutherland's managing partner, said Barwick would be missed. “Bill is a wonderful person, an excellent lawyer and a great contributor to the bar, and we wish him the very best personally and professionally.”
Barwick has tried 40 cases in state and federal courts as first chair or sole counsel. He handles fiduciary litigation, insurance coverage and appellate matters in addition to toxic tort and products cases. He started his career at Smith, Cohen, Ringel, Kohler & Martin (which in 1984 became Smith, Gambrell & Russell), then worked at a small insurance defense firm and briefly ran a solo practice before joining Sutherland.
Barwick said he got involved in bar activities early in his career, as a way to meet other lawyers when he was working at a small firm. “It was a way to learn about the lawyers I was practicing with, to meet people to send cases to and refer me business and to meet the people who were going to become judges. That was the initial goal. I was not planning on running for a lot of offices,” he said.
“I realized that you can know the same five lawyers in your office, which kind of limits your world—or you can get involved in bar activities and get to know the legal community in general,” Barwick said.
During his tenure as State Bar president from 2003 to 2004, Barwick led the push for a specialized business court at Fulton County Superior Court.
Barwick said he brings clients but declined to name them, adding that he still is working on a handful of cases as co-counsel with Sutherland lawyers. “I left a lot of close friends at Sutherland,” he said.
Clients at Sutherland included SunTrust Bank and Security Life Insurance Co., according to published reports.
______________________
….
You may read the rest of this In the Trenches column at http://www.dailyreportonline.com/ (subscription required).
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
John Marshall Law School
On November 19, 2009, 48 John Marshall Law School graduates who passed the July 2009 Georgia bar exam were sworn in to the Georgia Supreme Court by Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein and to the Fulton County Superior Court by Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland. Congratulations to the Class of 2009!
The Champion
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2010 • PAGE 3A
Perdue appoints former DeKalb solicitor general to judgeship
Gov. Sonny Perdue recently announced three judicial appointments, including the appointment of former DeKalb County Solicitor General Shawn LaGrua, who was appointed to the Superior Court for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. Stephen Kelley was appointed to the Superior Court for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and W. Kendall Wynne Jr. was appointed to the Superior Court for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit. The judgeships were created by the General Assembly.
LaGrua has served as the inspector general for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office since January 2007. She served as the DeKalb solicitor general July 2004 - January 2007. LaGrua also has extensive experience as an assistant district attorney in DeKalb and Fulton counties. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia and Georgia State University School of Law.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Westmoreland Moves to Business Court
Jan. 26, 2010
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland has moved from the Fulton Justice Tower to the historic Lewis Slaton Fulton County Courthouse.
Westmoreland, a Superior Court Judge in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit since 1988, said he moved to Courtroom 9G in the 136 Pryor St. Courthouse for two reasons.
He recently became the only elected Superior Court Judge serving in the Fulton Business Court and now exclusively hears civil cases. Judge Westmoreland’s new chambers (Room C927) put him on the same floor with Business Court Senior Judges Alice Bonner and Elizabeth Long and Business Court manager Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez.
The move also makes room in the Fulton Justice Tower for newly appointed Superior Court Judge Shawn LaGrua. When LaGrua is sworn in as the circuit's 20th judge she may hear a mixed docket of criminal and civil cases. Criminal cases are restricted to the Tower which has secure holding cells and elevators used to transfer prisoners to and from the Fulton County Jail.
"With only civil cases I don't need holding cells and it helps to be close to the other business court operations," Judge Westmoreland said.
Judge Westmoreland's chambers telephone is 404-612-2570.
The Daily Report
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
In The Trenches: Sutherland stalwart joins Duane Morris
By Meredith Hobbs, Staff Reporter
Litigator William D. Barwick joined Duane Morris as a partner last week, after 23 years at Sutherland.
Barwick, a former president of the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association, said Duane Morris offered him the opportunity to build up its products liability and toxic tort practice locally.
“That was the lure,” said Barwick, who is 60. “They've got more of an institutionalized practice in those areas and some really remarkable lawyers. … I have enough years left that I thought I could enjoy the practice, contribute to this firm and really have some fun.”
Duane Morris, based in Philadelphia, opened its Atlanta office 10 years ago. “For a firm that continues to try to grow in this market, bringing in someone like Bill is a huge add for us,” said L. Norwood “Woody” Jameson, Duane Morris's local managing partner. “He's got everything you would want in an Atlanta lawyer—the bar work and he's a great trial lawyer, member of the legal community and the community at large.”
Jameson said Barwick is the first toxic tort and products liability lawyer to join Duane Morris' Atlanta office. “The practice is one of the firm's strengths nationwide, so he provides a launching point for that here,” he said.
Mark D. Wasserman, Sutherland's managing partner, said Barwick would be missed. “Bill is a wonderful person, an excellent lawyer and a great contributor to the bar, and we wish him the very best personally and professionally.”
Barwick has tried 40 cases in state and federal courts as first chair or sole counsel. He handles fiduciary litigation, insurance coverage and appellate matters in addition to toxic tort and products cases. He started his career at Smith, Cohen, Ringel, Kohler & Martin (which in 1984 became Smith, Gambrell & Russell), then worked at a small insurance defense firm and briefly ran a solo practice before joining Sutherland.
Barwick said he got involved in bar activities early in his career, as a way to meet other lawyers when he was working at a small firm. “It was a way to learn about the lawyers I was practicing with, to meet people to send cases to and refer me business and to meet the people who were going to become judges. That was the initial goal. I was not planning on running for a lot of offices,” he said.
“I realized that you can know the same five lawyers in your office, which kind of limits your world—or you can get involved in bar activities and get to know the legal community in general,” Barwick said.
During his tenure as State Bar president from 2003 to 2004, Barwick led the push for a specialized business court at Fulton County Superior Court.
Barwick said he brings clients but declined to name them, adding that he still is working on a handful of cases as co-counsel with Sutherland lawyers. “I left a lot of close friends at Sutherland,” he said.
Clients at Sutherland included SunTrust Bank and Security Life Insurance Co., according to published reports.
______________________
….
You may read the rest of this In the Trenches column at http://www.dailyreportonline.com/ (subscription required).
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
John Marshall Law School
On November 19, 2009, 48 John Marshall Law School graduates who passed the July 2009 Georgia bar exam were sworn in to the Georgia Supreme Court by Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein and to the Fulton County Superior Court by Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland. Congratulations to the Class of 2009!
The Champion
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2010 • PAGE 3A
Perdue appoints former DeKalb solicitor general to judgeship
Gov. Sonny Perdue recently announced three judicial appointments, including the appointment of former DeKalb County Solicitor General Shawn LaGrua, who was appointed to the Superior Court for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. Stephen Kelley was appointed to the Superior Court for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and W. Kendall Wynne Jr. was appointed to the Superior Court for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit. The judgeships were created by the General Assembly.
LaGrua has served as the inspector general for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office since January 2007. She served as the DeKalb solicitor general July 2004 - January 2007. LaGrua also has extensive experience as an assistant district attorney in DeKalb and Fulton counties. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia and Georgia State University School of Law.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Westmoreland Moves to Business Court
Jan. 26, 2010
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland has moved from the Fulton Justice Tower to the historic Lewis Slaton Fulton County Courthouse.
Westmoreland, a Superior Court Judge in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit since 1988, said he moved to Courtroom 9G in the 136 Pryor St. Courthouse for two reasons.
He recently became the only elected Superior Court Judge serving in the Fulton Business Court and now exclusively hears civil cases. Judge Westmoreland’s new chambers (Room C927) put him on the same floor with Business Court Senior Judges Alice Bonner and Elizabeth Long and Business Court manager Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez.
The move also makes room in the Fulton Justice Tower for newly appointed Superior Court Judge Shawn LaGrua. When LaGrua is sworn in as the circuit's 20th judge she may hear a mixed docket of criminal and civil cases. Criminal cases are restricted to the Tower which has secure holding cells and elevators used to transfer prisoners to and from the Fulton County Jail.
"With only civil cases I don't need holding cells and it helps to be close to the other business court operations," Judge Westmoreland said.
Judge Westmoreland's chambers telephone is 404-612-2570.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Commission increases budget but disses justice system
By Steve Visser
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8:36 p.m. Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Adopting a $588.7 million budget on Wednesday, Fulton County commissioners increased spending for favored programs and ignored warnings that court- system cuts would mean costly jail overcrowding.
By the end of the give and take, the Fulton County Superior Court decided it could live with most of the reductions.
Commissioner Nancy Boxill was vocal in her opposition to restoring funding for the district attorney, solicitor, Fulton County state and superior court administrations and superior court clerk to 2009 levels while mental-health, recreation and literacy programs were cut.
"I cannot say what is most important to government is criminal justice," she said.,
The commission recommended a budget of $573 million, a drop from $602 million spent by the county in 2009, and then restored more than $15 million in proposed cuts. .
The money returned to the budget was broken down in this manner: $8 million to avoid a 4-percent cut in staff salaries, $900,000 for absentee-ballot system upgrades, $3.4 million for Grady Memorial Hospital, $400,000 for senior home repair, $750,000 in human service grants and $750,000 in other grants.
Commissioner Robb Pitts argued the commission should restore $4.2 million in court-system cuts after judges and administrators warned their ability to process cases expediently would be compromised. Chief superior court judge Dee Downs said jail backlog would increase substantially, undoing county progress made in reducing its criminal-case backlog by 44 percent in recent years.
County commissioners increased spending for a few justice programs. They added $426,000 to the county public defenders' $11 million budget and restored $150,000 to the county drug court. The drug court oversees defendants with long criminal histories through a treatment program rather than jail.
The commission also approved $800,000 for pre-trial supervision services in state and superior courts. The services monitor people awaiting trial who otherwise might be in jail at a cost of $72 a day The commission made the money contingent on the two courts working out ways to consolidate their pre-trial programs.
Superior court administrator Judy Cramer and Downs were in agreement that the commissioners had restored the vital parts of the system, according to court spokesman Don Plummer."We believe we are going to be able to do what we need to do now," Plummer said.
However, superior court clerk Tina Robinson warned that $952,000 cut from her budget meant layoffs for employees who helped expedite hearings at the county jail, which would lead to jail overcrowding, and those who currently record real-estate deeds and transactions, which could hamper upgrades to the county tax digest.
Robinson said she couldn't move personnel from other departments to pick up the slack. Some areas were untouchable. The 19 judges have at least two clerks each to keep up with caseloads. Robinson acknowledged the team system was unusual but defended it as helpful in handling the workload of the state's busiest courthouse.
Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/commission-increases-budget-but-279415.html
Daily Report
________________________________________
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Lawmakers stand firm on cuts to budget
Superior Court judges group gets no sympathy from joint committee on request for $2.2M to fund senior judges
By Andy Peters, Staff Reporter
If a half-hour hearing at the State Capitol late Tuesday is any indication, it won't be easy for the judicial branch to get lawmakers to restore funding for senior judges in Superior Courts.
The Superior Court judges have asked the state Legislature for about $2.2 million in the next fiscal year to fund senior judges, semi-retired members of the judiciary who can hear cases when there is a backlog or a recusal that leaves cases without a judge.
But Hall County Superior Court Judge Kathlene F. Gosselin, representing the council, found little sympathy for her cause at Tuesday's meeting of the joint House-Senate budget committee.
“We've got agencies coming in here and handing us budgets saying, 'Here is where we cut jobs, here is where we cut spending,'” said Sen. John J. Wiles, R-Marietta. “We've got rangers in state parks getting shot and not having a radio to call for help [because of budget cuts]. But the courts are coming in here asking for money.”
The plight of senior judges is one of many issues facing the judiciary as it plans its budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.
But before it can plan for 2011, the courts are trying to deal with at least $1 million in debt that was carried from the 2009 fiscal year into the current one.
The courts and prosecutors, in their budget proposals, have asked the Legislature for money to cover that debt. Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein said in October she believed it's unconstitutional for the court to carry debt from one fiscal year to the next, but the court was forced into the situation by Gov. Sonny Perdue's budget cuts.
Lawmakers this week are hearing budget presentations from numerous state agencies and components of the judicial branch as they deal with the state's 13 consecutive months of declining tax revenues. Virtually all state agencies have slashed spending through job cuts, employee furloughs and other measures.
Perdue on Tuesday warned lawmakers during a hearing at the Capitol that the state is facing an even worse budget gap after he leaves office at the end of this year, according to The Associated Press. Perdue projected a $2.6 billion shortfall for the fiscal year that will begin July 2011, largely because federal stimulus dollars will dry up. Also, the state is expecting increased demand for services, like Medicaid.
Later in the day, Gosselin told the joint budget committee that the Superior Courts have made deep spending cuts in response to the state's hard economic times. But she also said that, by providing $2,184,937 to restore funding for senior judges, the Legislature would make more efficient use of limited state funds.
“I realize times are tight,” she said, but eliminating funding for senior judges “has been a drastic problem for all of us.”
“We always have problems with recusal cases, contested elections, medical emergencies and always unpredictable events that cause us to be without a judge,” she said. “When that happens, we need to be able to keep up and senior judges help with that.”
Unlike agencies attached to the executive branch, the judicial branch submits its proposed budget directly to the Legislature, without first going through the governor's office.
The state eliminated most funding for senior judges in 2008 in order to meet a budget shortfall. A few circuits, including Fulton County, have maintained limited use of senior judges during that time, primarily through their county funding, Gosselin said.
The elimination of funding for senior judges has led to a backlog of cases. In July the Administrative Office of the Courts said the statewide backlog stood at 1.2 million open cases. As of press time, the AOC did not have updated figures on the status of the statewide backlog of open cases, according to AOC spokeswoman Billie Bolton.
The loss of senior-judge funding has been equivalent to losing the workload of 16 statewide, full-time Superior Court judges, according to the State Bar of Georgia. At the same time, Superior Courts' caseloads have increased, rising 20 percent over the past five years with a corresponding 8 percent increase in the number of Superior Court judges, according to the State Bar.
During questioning Tuesday, Wiles asked Gosselin if there is an official in the judicial branch who can direct a Superior Court judge to fill in for another judge who is conflicted out of a case, has a medical emergency or otherwise cannot serve on a specific case or handle an existing calendar.
Gosselin responded that there is no such official.
Wiles suggested that, instead of restoring funding for senior judges, it would be more fiscally sound to have a central office direct current Superior Court judges to fill in anywhere in the state if another judge cannot handle a case. Such a system would replace the old system of using senior judges in those instances, he said.
But Gosselin said that each Superior Court judge has his or her own calendars to manage and for that reason it would not be possible to have an incumbent Superior Court judge fill in for another judge who can't handle a case.
That doesn't meant Superior Court judges aren't wiling to pitch in with help when the need arises, Gosselin said. Superior Court judges have readily volunteered to fill in when another judge has faced a medical emergency. Last year, when Judges T. David Motes and Joseph H. Booth of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit had medical emergencies arise simultaneously, their calendars were covered by a combination of senior judges, as some circuits still have county funds for senior judges, and other Superior Court judges who volunteered their time, she said.
Also, a majority of Superior Court judges volunteered to take furlough days last year, even though they're not legally required to do so, she said. In the recently completed fiscal year, 145 superior court judges, or about 72 percent of the 202 total Superior Court judges statewide, participated in voluntary furlough days, Gosselin said. Non-judicial staff members of the Superior Courts were mandated to participate in the furloughs, she said.
On the issue of the debt that was carried over from fiscal year 2009 to the current fiscal year, the courts have asked for money to cover that gap. Chief Justice Hunstein said in October that the arrearage was produced when Gov. Perdue in June instructed all parts of the state government to withhold 25 percent of their budgets because of a $274 million revenue shortfall.
In its budget proposal under review by legislators, the Superior Courts asked the Legislature to provide $827,338 to cover the debt that emerged after Perdue's instructions for a 25 percent cut. The Supreme Court asked the Legislature for $38,785 to cover its debt. The Prosecuting Attorneys' Council asked for $613,910 for the same reason.
Those amounts differ from what the state Department of Audits and Accounts said in a December report were the amounts of debt they had carried over. The audits department said the Superior Courts had $373,915 in debt, the Supreme Court's debt was $182,675 and the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council's debt was $681,448.
John Thornton, director the department's state government division, said he did not know a reason for the discrepancy in the amounts asked for by the courts and prosecutors' council and the amount the Department of Audits reported as their debt levels.
The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council carried over $385,921 in debt from the previous fiscal year, according to audit department. The council did not ask the Legislature for funding to cover the debt. The PD council submits its budget proposal to Perdue, who then sends his version to the Legislature.
State Auditor Russell Hinton last year asked Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker what to do about the courts and legal offices carrying the debt because it violates the state constitution. In addition to those parts of the judicial branch, the state departments of Revenue and Veterans Service also carried over debt from the previous fiscal year.
Baker's spokesman, Russ Willard, did not return a call or respond to an e-mail asking what Baker's response was. Thornton declined to comment on the nature of talks between his department and the AG's office.
The audits department continues to examine the courts' carry-over debt and expects to issue a report on the matter sometime in the next two weeks, Thornton said. The debt appeared to be caused by the courts and departments “overspending their 2009 appropriations allotments,” he said.
Thornton declined to say how the matter may be resolved.
“Our job is really to audit and report,” Thornton said. “Beyond that, it's really not the State Auditor's office's role to make a decision on how to fix the problem.”
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
WXIA TV 11 Alive
Fulton County Tempers Court Budget Cuts
Updated 1/21/2010 2:47:02 AM
By Gary Franklin
ATLANTA (AP) -- The state's biggest court system will soon grapple with budget cuts that could top $2 million.
But Fulton County judicial leaders said Wednesday they are grateful that the county commission didn't cut the system deeper. They worried cuts that could have exceeded $4 million would have forced major reductions in pretrial programs that focused on defendants with problems with drugs and mental health.
The county's judicial leaders have launched an unusually aggressive effort to sway lawmakers, including posting fliers around the courthouse with signs announcing the courts are closed below a caption that reads "Think It Can't Happen Here?".
Associated Press
Note: the order by Judge Glanville dismissing the case in the following article is posted on our website at Grady Hemodialysis Case.
Grady dialysis patients emotionally exhausted
By Craig Schneider and Shelia M. Poole spoole@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
7:49 a.m. Thursday, January 21, 2010
Adejumoke Olaleye-Abner remembers receiving her visa and heading to America. It was only for a vacation, but the Nigerian woman was filled with hopes of seeing friends and the sights in metro Atlanta.
The joy of that 2001 trip collapsed when Olaleye-Abner passed out at a friend’s house in Gwinnett County. She was diagnosed with kidney failure. After that, the outpatient dialysis clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital became her medical safety net. She can’t afford to pay for her own care and does not qualify for government assistance.
In October of last year, her safety net gave way. The financially strapped hospital, struggling to cut costs, closed the outpatient dialysis clinic.
Grady’s decision to close the clinic has sent about 50 of its patients into a medical care limbo. Most were illegal immigrants with little money and no government aid. Olaleye-Abner actually has a green card and is married to an American, but not long enough to qualify for citizenship or Medicaid.
Emotionally exhausted
The patients of Grady’s outpatient dialysis clinic have been through emotional extreme after emotional extreme. After the October closing of the clinic, Grady offered to pay for three months of dialysis treatments at a private clinic called Fresenius. That reprieve was to expire Jan. 3. Grady extended the deadline to Feb. 3. That’s less than two weeks away.
Again and again, the patients have had the end of their treatment in sight, and each time that deadline has been extended. Their drama has played out in newspapers and news shows. The New York Times has cast them in the center of the nation’s debate on the role that safety net hospitals should play in the care of illegal immigrants.
But the patients are just a group of frightened people. They know their lives could change drastically soon, but they don’t know when. Many say they are emotionally exhausted. They don’t know what to do, they have nowhere to go, and they don’t want to die.
“It’s so much emotion, it’s so much stress,” said Olaleye-Abner, sitting in her College Park apartment with her husband, Duncan Abner. “Every day I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Grady officials say they are doing all they can to help the patients. The hospital has offered to relocate patients to their home country, or to another state where they have a better chance of government aid.
Olaleye-Abner, 43, said she can’t go back to Nigeria because medical care there is decades behind the United States.
“People there with this problem die within a short time,” she said.
Moving to another state, she said, is too difficult. She is sick, often weak. She can hardly make a fist. Her husband, a diabetic who also receives dialysis, had most of his right leg amputated about a year ago.
Olaleye-Abner works part time as a home health care nurse. She pays taxes, said her husband, defending his wife’s right to care.
The couple met at the Grady dialysis clinic. He receives Medicaid.
“She’s such a giving person. So respectful and so honest,” Duncan Abner said.
Making choices
The dialysis patients see their options running out. They have appealed to Grady to reopen its dialysis clinic, to no avail. They sued the hospital in Fulton County Superior Court, asserting patient abandonment. That case was thrown out, but they are appealing. They recently reached out to an international human rights group to take their side.
Mostly they are hoping that the Feb. 3 deadline does not hold, that Grady extends it again. They know that Grady has contracted with Fresenius to provide for patients as long as September. But the patients signed their own contracts with Grady that said the hospital would stop paying the bill on Jan. 3.
After Feb. 3, the hospital will consider the continuation of treatments for patients on a case-by-case basis, Grady spokesman Matt Gove said. He said the hospital may take into consideration whether a patient is trying to find their own long-term care elsewhere, and whether they live in Fulton or DeKalb counties, which provide financial assistance to the hospital.
The patients are very aware that since most are illegal immigrants, they don’t generate a lot of public sympathy.
Bineet Kaur, a 26-year-old patient who lives in Alpharetta, said she never wanted to burden anyone. When she was first diagnosed with kidney failure in 2003, about three years after coming to this country on a visa, she did not seek dialysis. She said she had no insurance and no means to pay for treatment, and she did not want to burden her relatives.
As her kidneys became weaker and less efficient, pain tightened its grip on her body. She started to walk with a limp. Her skin turned a pale yellow. Eventually, even lying in a bed hurt.
Grady, she said, helped restore her life. She was able to go there three times a week. But being an illegal immigrant from India, she could not qualify for government assistance in Georgia.
She received the notice of the October closing while she was on dialysis.
“I started to cry,” she said. “I was seeing my life change.”
If Grady stops paying for care, Kaur believes she would be left to seek care through an emergency room. But those treatments would not be three times a week, as she would have to be near crisis to receive a treatment.
A few of the patients have accepted Grady’s offer of relocating back to their home country, but some have run into troubles.
Monica Chavarria returned to Mexico to live with her mother. She took her 8-year-old son. Her husband remained in Atlanta with their 14-year-old son.
For many of her treatments, Chavarria had to travel two hours to get to a clinic. Recently she was able to receive the treatments at a place about 40 minutes away. She has run out of the three months of treatments funded by Grady, but she has not been able to receive government health care coverage, said her husband Roberto Barajas.
Chavarria, 35, is exploring the possibility of receiving a kidney transplant from a sibling. The family had held fund-raisers for that here in Atlanta, but now she is spending the money for treatments that cost $120 apiece.
The separation has been hard on the family, Barajas said. The couple has been married for 15 years, and hadn’t been apart in years.
Dependence mourned
Three patients have died since the clinic closed in October. Grady spokesman Gove said none died due to a lack of access to care.
Without her dialysis treatments, Anabel Quintanilla said she could die within two weeks. She was diagnosed with a severe form of lupus, an autoimmune disease that attacked her kidneys, nine years after she arrived in this country from her home in Hidalgo, Mexico.
Back there, she was a woman proud of her independence. She was raising a young son.
“With this illness I depend on people like my family to help me with my son, morally and economically,” she said. “I get very sad to see what I am now as opposed to what I was in my country.”
Being an illegal immigrant with little money, she also has depended on Grady. She doesn’t appreciate the way the hospital handled the closing. She believes Grady feels it can push the patients around because most are in this country illegally.
“I believe that even dogs and pets have better privileges in this country than we [illegal immigrants] do,” she said.
Grady officials say they have been considerate in handling the closure, helping people to relocate and extending the deadlines on care again and again.
Quintanilla is uncertain where her future will lead her.
Wherever it is, she said she will strive to remain strong, a fighter.
“I never cry,” she said.
Staff writer Rachel Tobin Ramos contributed to this article.
Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/grady-dialysis-patients-emotionally-279664.html
WCTV TV
Updated: 1:07 AM Jan 21, 2010
Mental Health Summit Focuses On Solutions
At a time when governments are trying to save money... mental health professionals say more money should be spent on mental illness treatment, and in the long run, governments will save more.
You may not notice how mental illness affects your community... but it is a daily concern for many public services... and comes with a hefty price tag.
"If we can help someone who is mentally ill and is having a crisis before they commit a crime, it's far less expensive. You don't have police involved, you don't have the jail involved, you don't have the court system involved," says Greg Frost of the Tallahassee Police Department.
Public service professionals supported that notion at Wednesday's Mental Health Summit in Tallahassee. They also say mental illness often goes hand in hand with substance abuse and homelessness.
"In order to kind of address homelessness in general, what we need to address is the underlying causes - the mental health, the substance abuse, the employment issues," explains Susan Pourciau, the director of the Big Bend Homeless Coalition.
Mental health stakeholders say those underlying causes can be remedied with sufficient funding for treatment and prevention.
"We found that one of the largest untapped voting blocks in this country are the folks with mental health issues and their families," says Clint Rayner with the Florida Department of Children and Families.
"What we're hoping to do in Leon County is create a system where individuals can get the appropriate care in the community to begin with so that they don't end up in the jails or they don't end up in a state facility," says Kendra Brown, the court coordinator for the Leon County Mental Health Court and facilitator of the summit.
Mental health professionals say if mental illness is treated on the front end... it could add up safety and savings in the long run.
A townhall meeting to address mental illness and its effects on the community is scheduled for February 3rd at 6 in the evening in the Leon County Commission chambers.
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov
By Steve Visser
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8:36 p.m. Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Adopting a $588.7 million budget on Wednesday, Fulton County commissioners increased spending for favored programs and ignored warnings that court- system cuts would mean costly jail overcrowding.
By the end of the give and take, the Fulton County Superior Court decided it could live with most of the reductions.
Commissioner Nancy Boxill was vocal in her opposition to restoring funding for the district attorney, solicitor, Fulton County state and superior court administrations and superior court clerk to 2009 levels while mental-health, recreation and literacy programs were cut.
"I cannot say what is most important to government is criminal justice," she said.,
The commission recommended a budget of $573 million, a drop from $602 million spent by the county in 2009, and then restored more than $15 million in proposed cuts. .
The money returned to the budget was broken down in this manner: $8 million to avoid a 4-percent cut in staff salaries, $900,000 for absentee-ballot system upgrades, $3.4 million for Grady Memorial Hospital, $400,000 for senior home repair, $750,000 in human service grants and $750,000 in other grants.
Commissioner Robb Pitts argued the commission should restore $4.2 million in court-system cuts after judges and administrators warned their ability to process cases expediently would be compromised. Chief superior court judge Dee Downs said jail backlog would increase substantially, undoing county progress made in reducing its criminal-case backlog by 44 percent in recent years.
County commissioners increased spending for a few justice programs. They added $426,000 to the county public defenders' $11 million budget and restored $150,000 to the county drug court. The drug court oversees defendants with long criminal histories through a treatment program rather than jail.
The commission also approved $800,000 for pre-trial supervision services in state and superior courts. The services monitor people awaiting trial who otherwise might be in jail at a cost of $72 a day The commission made the money contingent on the two courts working out ways to consolidate their pre-trial programs.
Superior court administrator Judy Cramer and Downs were in agreement that the commissioners had restored the vital parts of the system, according to court spokesman Don Plummer."We believe we are going to be able to do what we need to do now," Plummer said.
However, superior court clerk Tina Robinson warned that $952,000 cut from her budget meant layoffs for employees who helped expedite hearings at the county jail, which would lead to jail overcrowding, and those who currently record real-estate deeds and transactions, which could hamper upgrades to the county tax digest.
Robinson said she couldn't move personnel from other departments to pick up the slack. Some areas were untouchable. The 19 judges have at least two clerks each to keep up with caseloads. Robinson acknowledged the team system was unusual but defended it as helpful in handling the workload of the state's busiest courthouse.
Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/commission-increases-budget-but-279415.html
Daily Report
________________________________________
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Lawmakers stand firm on cuts to budget
Superior Court judges group gets no sympathy from joint committee on request for $2.2M to fund senior judges
By Andy Peters, Staff Reporter
If a half-hour hearing at the State Capitol late Tuesday is any indication, it won't be easy for the judicial branch to get lawmakers to restore funding for senior judges in Superior Courts.
The Superior Court judges have asked the state Legislature for about $2.2 million in the next fiscal year to fund senior judges, semi-retired members of the judiciary who can hear cases when there is a backlog or a recusal that leaves cases without a judge.
But Hall County Superior Court Judge Kathlene F. Gosselin, representing the council, found little sympathy for her cause at Tuesday's meeting of the joint House-Senate budget committee.
“We've got agencies coming in here and handing us budgets saying, 'Here is where we cut jobs, here is where we cut spending,'” said Sen. John J. Wiles, R-Marietta. “We've got rangers in state parks getting shot and not having a radio to call for help [because of budget cuts]. But the courts are coming in here asking for money.”
The plight of senior judges is one of many issues facing the judiciary as it plans its budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.
But before it can plan for 2011, the courts are trying to deal with at least $1 million in debt that was carried from the 2009 fiscal year into the current one.
The courts and prosecutors, in their budget proposals, have asked the Legislature for money to cover that debt. Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein said in October she believed it's unconstitutional for the court to carry debt from one fiscal year to the next, but the court was forced into the situation by Gov. Sonny Perdue's budget cuts.
Lawmakers this week are hearing budget presentations from numerous state agencies and components of the judicial branch as they deal with the state's 13 consecutive months of declining tax revenues. Virtually all state agencies have slashed spending through job cuts, employee furloughs and other measures.
Perdue on Tuesday warned lawmakers during a hearing at the Capitol that the state is facing an even worse budget gap after he leaves office at the end of this year, according to The Associated Press. Perdue projected a $2.6 billion shortfall for the fiscal year that will begin July 2011, largely because federal stimulus dollars will dry up. Also, the state is expecting increased demand for services, like Medicaid.
Later in the day, Gosselin told the joint budget committee that the Superior Courts have made deep spending cuts in response to the state's hard economic times. But she also said that, by providing $2,184,937 to restore funding for senior judges, the Legislature would make more efficient use of limited state funds.
“I realize times are tight,” she said, but eliminating funding for senior judges “has been a drastic problem for all of us.”
“We always have problems with recusal cases, contested elections, medical emergencies and always unpredictable events that cause us to be without a judge,” she said. “When that happens, we need to be able to keep up and senior judges help with that.”
Unlike agencies attached to the executive branch, the judicial branch submits its proposed budget directly to the Legislature, without first going through the governor's office.
The state eliminated most funding for senior judges in 2008 in order to meet a budget shortfall. A few circuits, including Fulton County, have maintained limited use of senior judges during that time, primarily through their county funding, Gosselin said.
The elimination of funding for senior judges has led to a backlog of cases. In July the Administrative Office of the Courts said the statewide backlog stood at 1.2 million open cases. As of press time, the AOC did not have updated figures on the status of the statewide backlog of open cases, according to AOC spokeswoman Billie Bolton.
The loss of senior-judge funding has been equivalent to losing the workload of 16 statewide, full-time Superior Court judges, according to the State Bar of Georgia. At the same time, Superior Courts' caseloads have increased, rising 20 percent over the past five years with a corresponding 8 percent increase in the number of Superior Court judges, according to the State Bar.
During questioning Tuesday, Wiles asked Gosselin if there is an official in the judicial branch who can direct a Superior Court judge to fill in for another judge who is conflicted out of a case, has a medical emergency or otherwise cannot serve on a specific case or handle an existing calendar.
Gosselin responded that there is no such official.
Wiles suggested that, instead of restoring funding for senior judges, it would be more fiscally sound to have a central office direct current Superior Court judges to fill in anywhere in the state if another judge cannot handle a case. Such a system would replace the old system of using senior judges in those instances, he said.
But Gosselin said that each Superior Court judge has his or her own calendars to manage and for that reason it would not be possible to have an incumbent Superior Court judge fill in for another judge who can't handle a case.
That doesn't meant Superior Court judges aren't wiling to pitch in with help when the need arises, Gosselin said. Superior Court judges have readily volunteered to fill in when another judge has faced a medical emergency. Last year, when Judges T. David Motes and Joseph H. Booth of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit had medical emergencies arise simultaneously, their calendars were covered by a combination of senior judges, as some circuits still have county funds for senior judges, and other Superior Court judges who volunteered their time, she said.
Also, a majority of Superior Court judges volunteered to take furlough days last year, even though they're not legally required to do so, she said. In the recently completed fiscal year, 145 superior court judges, or about 72 percent of the 202 total Superior Court judges statewide, participated in voluntary furlough days, Gosselin said. Non-judicial staff members of the Superior Courts were mandated to participate in the furloughs, she said.
On the issue of the debt that was carried over from fiscal year 2009 to the current fiscal year, the courts have asked for money to cover that gap. Chief Justice Hunstein said in October that the arrearage was produced when Gov. Perdue in June instructed all parts of the state government to withhold 25 percent of their budgets because of a $274 million revenue shortfall.
In its budget proposal under review by legislators, the Superior Courts asked the Legislature to provide $827,338 to cover the debt that emerged after Perdue's instructions for a 25 percent cut. The Supreme Court asked the Legislature for $38,785 to cover its debt. The Prosecuting Attorneys' Council asked for $613,910 for the same reason.
Those amounts differ from what the state Department of Audits and Accounts said in a December report were the amounts of debt they had carried over. The audits department said the Superior Courts had $373,915 in debt, the Supreme Court's debt was $182,675 and the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council's debt was $681,448.
John Thornton, director the department's state government division, said he did not know a reason for the discrepancy in the amounts asked for by the courts and prosecutors' council and the amount the Department of Audits reported as their debt levels.
The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council carried over $385,921 in debt from the previous fiscal year, according to audit department. The council did not ask the Legislature for funding to cover the debt. The PD council submits its budget proposal to Perdue, who then sends his version to the Legislature.
State Auditor Russell Hinton last year asked Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker what to do about the courts and legal offices carrying the debt because it violates the state constitution. In addition to those parts of the judicial branch, the state departments of Revenue and Veterans Service also carried over debt from the previous fiscal year.
Baker's spokesman, Russ Willard, did not return a call or respond to an e-mail asking what Baker's response was. Thornton declined to comment on the nature of talks between his department and the AG's office.
The audits department continues to examine the courts' carry-over debt and expects to issue a report on the matter sometime in the next two weeks, Thornton said. The debt appeared to be caused by the courts and departments “overspending their 2009 appropriations allotments,” he said.
Thornton declined to say how the matter may be resolved.
“Our job is really to audit and report,” Thornton said. “Beyond that, it's really not the State Auditor's office's role to make a decision on how to fix the problem.”
Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
WXIA TV 11 Alive
Fulton County Tempers Court Budget Cuts
Updated 1/21/2010 2:47:02 AM
By Gary Franklin
ATLANTA (AP) -- The state's biggest court system will soon grapple with budget cuts that could top $2 million.
But Fulton County judicial leaders said Wednesday they are grateful that the county commission didn't cut the system deeper. They worried cuts that could have exceeded $4 million would have forced major reductions in pretrial programs that focused on defendants with problems with drugs and mental health.
The county's judicial leaders have launched an unusually aggressive effort to sway lawmakers, including posting fliers around the courthouse with signs announcing the courts are closed below a caption that reads "Think It Can't Happen Here?".
Associated Press
Note: the order by Judge Glanville dismissing the case in the following article is posted on our website at Grady Hemodialysis Case.
Grady dialysis patients emotionally exhausted
By Craig Schneider and Shelia M. Poole spoole@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
7:49 a.m. Thursday, January 21, 2010
Adejumoke Olaleye-Abner remembers receiving her visa and heading to America. It was only for a vacation, but the Nigerian woman was filled with hopes of seeing friends and the sights in metro Atlanta.
The joy of that 2001 trip collapsed when Olaleye-Abner passed out at a friend’s house in Gwinnett County. She was diagnosed with kidney failure. After that, the outpatient dialysis clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital became her medical safety net. She can’t afford to pay for her own care and does not qualify for government assistance.
In October of last year, her safety net gave way. The financially strapped hospital, struggling to cut costs, closed the outpatient dialysis clinic.
Grady’s decision to close the clinic has sent about 50 of its patients into a medical care limbo. Most were illegal immigrants with little money and no government aid. Olaleye-Abner actually has a green card and is married to an American, but not long enough to qualify for citizenship or Medicaid.
Emotionally exhausted
The patients of Grady’s outpatient dialysis clinic have been through emotional extreme after emotional extreme. After the October closing of the clinic, Grady offered to pay for three months of dialysis treatments at a private clinic called Fresenius. That reprieve was to expire Jan. 3. Grady extended the deadline to Feb. 3. That’s less than two weeks away.
Again and again, the patients have had the end of their treatment in sight, and each time that deadline has been extended. Their drama has played out in newspapers and news shows. The New York Times has cast them in the center of the nation’s debate on the role that safety net hospitals should play in the care of illegal immigrants.
But the patients are just a group of frightened people. They know their lives could change drastically soon, but they don’t know when. Many say they are emotionally exhausted. They don’t know what to do, they have nowhere to go, and they don’t want to die.
“It’s so much emotion, it’s so much stress,” said Olaleye-Abner, sitting in her College Park apartment with her husband, Duncan Abner. “Every day I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Grady officials say they are doing all they can to help the patients. The hospital has offered to relocate patients to their home country, or to another state where they have a better chance of government aid.
Olaleye-Abner, 43, said she can’t go back to Nigeria because medical care there is decades behind the United States.
“People there with this problem die within a short time,” she said.
Moving to another state, she said, is too difficult. She is sick, often weak. She can hardly make a fist. Her husband, a diabetic who also receives dialysis, had most of his right leg amputated about a year ago.
Olaleye-Abner works part time as a home health care nurse. She pays taxes, said her husband, defending his wife’s right to care.
The couple met at the Grady dialysis clinic. He receives Medicaid.
“She’s such a giving person. So respectful and so honest,” Duncan Abner said.
Making choices
The dialysis patients see their options running out. They have appealed to Grady to reopen its dialysis clinic, to no avail. They sued the hospital in Fulton County Superior Court, asserting patient abandonment. That case was thrown out, but they are appealing. They recently reached out to an international human rights group to take their side.
Mostly they are hoping that the Feb. 3 deadline does not hold, that Grady extends it again. They know that Grady has contracted with Fresenius to provide for patients as long as September. But the patients signed their own contracts with Grady that said the hospital would stop paying the bill on Jan. 3.
After Feb. 3, the hospital will consider the continuation of treatments for patients on a case-by-case basis, Grady spokesman Matt Gove said. He said the hospital may take into consideration whether a patient is trying to find their own long-term care elsewhere, and whether they live in Fulton or DeKalb counties, which provide financial assistance to the hospital.
The patients are very aware that since most are illegal immigrants, they don’t generate a lot of public sympathy.
Bineet Kaur, a 26-year-old patient who lives in Alpharetta, said she never wanted to burden anyone. When she was first diagnosed with kidney failure in 2003, about three years after coming to this country on a visa, she did not seek dialysis. She said she had no insurance and no means to pay for treatment, and she did not want to burden her relatives.
As her kidneys became weaker and less efficient, pain tightened its grip on her body. She started to walk with a limp. Her skin turned a pale yellow. Eventually, even lying in a bed hurt.
Grady, she said, helped restore her life. She was able to go there three times a week. But being an illegal immigrant from India, she could not qualify for government assistance in Georgia.
She received the notice of the October closing while she was on dialysis.
“I started to cry,” she said. “I was seeing my life change.”
If Grady stops paying for care, Kaur believes she would be left to seek care through an emergency room. But those treatments would not be three times a week, as she would have to be near crisis to receive a treatment.
A few of the patients have accepted Grady’s offer of relocating back to their home country, but some have run into troubles.
Monica Chavarria returned to Mexico to live with her mother. She took her 8-year-old son. Her husband remained in Atlanta with their 14-year-old son.
For many of her treatments, Chavarria had to travel two hours to get to a clinic. Recently she was able to receive the treatments at a place about 40 minutes away. She has run out of the three months of treatments funded by Grady, but she has not been able to receive government health care coverage, said her husband Roberto Barajas.
Chavarria, 35, is exploring the possibility of receiving a kidney transplant from a sibling. The family had held fund-raisers for that here in Atlanta, but now she is spending the money for treatments that cost $120 apiece.
The separation has been hard on the family, Barajas said. The couple has been married for 15 years, and hadn’t been apart in years.
Dependence mourned
Three patients have died since the clinic closed in October. Grady spokesman Gove said none died due to a lack of access to care.
Without her dialysis treatments, Anabel Quintanilla said she could die within two weeks. She was diagnosed with a severe form of lupus, an autoimmune disease that attacked her kidneys, nine years after she arrived in this country from her home in Hidalgo, Mexico.
Back there, she was a woman proud of her independence. She was raising a young son.
“With this illness I depend on people like my family to help me with my son, morally and economically,” she said. “I get very sad to see what I am now as opposed to what I was in my country.”
Being an illegal immigrant with little money, she also has depended on Grady. She doesn’t appreciate the way the hospital handled the closing. She believes Grady feels it can push the patients around because most are in this country illegally.
“I believe that even dogs and pets have better privileges in this country than we [illegal immigrants] do,” she said.
Grady officials say they have been considerate in handling the closure, helping people to relocate and extending the deadlines on care again and again.
Quintanilla is uncertain where her future will lead her.
Wherever it is, she said she will strive to remain strong, a fighter.
“I never cry,” she said.
Staff writer Rachel Tobin Ramos contributed to this article.
Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/grady-dialysis-patients-emotionally-279664.html
WCTV TV
Updated: 1:07 AM Jan 21, 2010
Mental Health Summit Focuses On Solutions
At a time when governments are trying to save money... mental health professionals say more money should be spent on mental illness treatment, and in the long run, governments will save more.
You may not notice how mental illness affects your community... but it is a daily concern for many public services... and comes with a hefty price tag.
"If we can help someone who is mentally ill and is having a crisis before they commit a crime, it's far less expensive. You don't have police involved, you don't have the jail involved, you don't have the court system involved," says Greg Frost of the Tallahassee Police Department.
Public service professionals supported that notion at Wednesday's Mental Health Summit in Tallahassee. They also say mental illness often goes hand in hand with substance abuse and homelessness.
"In order to kind of address homelessness in general, what we need to address is the underlying causes - the mental health, the substance abuse, the employment issues," explains Susan Pourciau, the director of the Big Bend Homeless Coalition.
Mental health stakeholders say those underlying causes can be remedied with sufficient funding for treatment and prevention.
"We found that one of the largest untapped voting blocks in this country are the folks with mental health issues and their families," says Clint Rayner with the Florida Department of Children and Families.
"What we're hoping to do in Leon County is create a system where individuals can get the appropriate care in the community to begin with so that they don't end up in the jails or they don't end up in a state facility," says Kendra Brown, the court coordinator for the Leon County Mental Health Court and facilitator of the summit.
Mental health professionals say if mental illness is treated on the front end... it could add up safety and savings in the long run.
A townhall meeting to address mental illness and its effects on the community is scheduled for February 3rd at 6 in the evening in the Leon County Commission chambers.
These news articles were compiled by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Office of Public Information as a service to the Fulton Judicial System. The purpose of this service is to keep judges, court staff and other interested parties informed of the latest developments affecting the practice of law, the administration of justice and public perceptions of the judiciary. News stories are selected after the consideration of certain criteria, including if the article contains news about the Superior Court of Fulton County or the judicial system. News stories will not be included if they contain profanity or vulgarity or come from a publication that defines its circulation and audience in terms of a special interest. Exclusively political stories will not be included, except for stories about the announcement of a candidacy for judicial office, major editorial endorsements of candidates for judicial office, or the outcome of judicial elections.
For further information about this news service, contact: Don Plummer, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of Fulton County. Don.plummer@fultoncountyga.gov
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