A Cobb Superior Court grand jury has indicted an East Cobb woman who’s been charged with assaulting and strangling her mother to death with a robe belt.
An eight-count indictment was handed down Thursday against Gretchen Fortney, 52, who was arrested on Sept. 30 for murder and aggravated assault.
She was indicted on one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, three counts of family violence-related aggravated assault and another count of aggravated sexual battery.
An arrest warrant said that Martha Fortney, 78, was assaulted with “an unknown object or objects” by Gretchen Fortney on the morning of Sept. 30 at the residence they shared in the Loch Highland subdivision, resulting in multiple injuries to the older woman’s torso and head.
The warrant states that the victim “was observed with what appeared to be the belt from her robe tied or looped around her neck” and there was a “visable ligature mark which resulted in her death.”
The indictment states that Gretchen Fortney caused the death “by blunt force trauma and strangulation” first by striking her mother with a hard object, then by tying a cloth belt around her neck. The assault damaged Martha Fortney’s left eye, right elbow and ribs and sternum, according to the indictment.
Gretchen Fortney also is accused of penetrating her mother’s sex organ with an unknown object, prompting the count of aggravated sexual battery.
Martha Fortney, who was listed as the owner of the home on Loch Highland Pass, was involved in Bible studies at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and the Daughters of the American Revolution, according to an obituary.
Gretchen Fortney remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond.
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Traffic cases in Cobb State Court will be put on hold Wednesday and Thursday so court personnel can attend the funerals of two slain Cobb Sheriff’s deputies.
A message from Cobb government Monday said the traffic cases scheduled for those days will be rescheduled, and “notifications will be sent out to those affected.”
On Monday Cobb officials announced the funeral arrangements for deputies Jonathan Koleski and Marshall Ervin, who were shot and killed at a West Cobb home trying to serve a warrant to a man who had failed to appear on a theft by deception charge.
That man, Christopher Cook, 32, and the alleged shooter, Christopher Golden, 30, surrendered at the scene and are being held without bond.
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An East Cobb man was sentenced last week on child sexual exploitation charges after pleading guilty in Cobb Superior Court.
Steven D. Porter, 65, was given a 10-year sentence by Judge Gregory Poole and ordered to serve two years in prison, according to Cobb Superior Court records.
The Cobb District Attorney’s office said a jury trial call was scheduled for Porter’s case last Tuesday, Aug. 23, but he entered a guilty plea instead.
Porter was taken into custody in the courtroom and was held at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center before being transferred to the Georgia state prison system Thursday afternoon, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
Porter was charged in April 2021 after Cobb Police executed a search warrant at his home and found on a thumb drive more than 300 photos and videos of children performing sexually explicit acts, according to his arrest warrant.
According to the arrest warrant, police sought the search warrant after someone uploaded sexually abusive material involving children to an IP address connected to a residence on Snowchase Way, located off Freeman Road near Johnson Ferry Road, between Aug. 2, 2016 and April 1, 2021.
Porter was released in April 2021 after posting an $11,200 bond, according to court records.
He was indicted on 10 counts of child sexual exploitation in October. According to the indictments, the photos and videos found at his home depicted children between the ages of 6 and 12, some posing nude, engaging in acts of intercourse and sodomy with adult males.
In Porter’s sentencing, all 10 counts were merged together, according to court records. Terms of his probation include no contact with minors, except for supervised visits with his biological grandchildren in the presence of adult family members.
In December, Porter requested a bond modification to allow for visitation with his seven grandchildren, who range in age from 3 to 10, according to court records.
Poole allowed Porter to have in-person and virtual visitations that required his wife and the children’s parents to be present at all times. His wife also was required to record the virtual calls with his grandchildren, the court records show.
After his release, Porter also will not be allowed to possess or subscribe to sexually oriented material and he cannot utilize a 900 phone number or rent a post office box or drop box without approval of a probation officer.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the county and six Cobb police officers by a woman who claimed they violated her constitutional rights nearly five years ago.
The board voted 5-0 to pay Sharon DeArmond and her attorney a total of $250,000 stemming from a 2017 incident on Windy Hill Road.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleges that the officers—including Ofc. Collin Robles, Lt. Bruce Danz and Ofc. Kelvin Ramirez who were identified in the settlement agreement—unlawfully detained her.
Her suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, charged police with illegal search and seizure, false arrest and causing her emotional distress.
The suit claims that on the evening of Oct. 12, 2017, DeArmond, an Uber driver, dropped off a passenger at an extended stay hotel on Interstate North Parkway.
She then drove to a parking lot between the Pappasito’s and Pappadeaux restaurants on Windy Hill Road and waited for her next fare, according to the suit.
DeArmond she stopped to light a cigarette when officers approached her with their police lights on and aimed their guns at her.
Her lawsuit claims DeArmond’s phone was taken from her and police searched her car without explaining why. An officer ordered her to be handcuffed and she was told her previous rider was a prostitute.
DeArmond says in her suit she was placed in the back seat of one of the police cars and was taken to a parking lot of a nearby office park, which was poorly lit.
She said an officer searched through her purse and was eventually allowed to drive away, but “was in no condition to continue driving Uber for the night,” the lawsuit states.
According to the settlement agreement, DeArmond will receive $146,238 and her attorney, Lisa Lambert, will be paid $103,762.
The commissioners added the settlement agreement vote to their agenda and did not discuss the matter before the unanimous vote.
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A grand jury report clearing the Cobb County School District of any criminal wrongdoing relating to procurement practices wasn’t mentioned by the Cobb Board of Education this week.
Neither board members nor Superintendent Chris Ragsdale brought up the topic at their monthly work and voting sessions Thursday.
But some public commenters did, urging compliance with grand jury recommendations to increase school board oversight into how the district awards contracts for goods and services.
The grand jury met in late June to hear the results of an investigation by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office after questions were raised about Cobb school district purchases of COVID-related equipment.
The procurement documents presented to the grand jury were from 2015-2021 and for contracts awarded to companies owned by a late Cobb business owner, David Allen.
The grand jury, in its May/June report released earlier this week, said a review of procurement documents “show a clear pattern of rewarding some contracts outside of” district policy, but those were mostly with resellers and not sole source providers.
The report doesn’t specify which contracts fell into that category; the grand jury concluded that since the Cobb school district is exempt from state procurement law outside of construction contracts, “no criminal violations have been found.”
The panel recommended that the district conduct a peer review of contracts exceeding $20,000 and have the school board approve contracts higher than $50,000 before they are awarded.
The grand jury also suggested that the Georgia legislature consider “changing state procurement law to include county boards of education” and that a grand jury conduct an annual review of the Cobb school district, as grand juries do for other public agencies.
The grand jury also concluded that “there is substantial evidence that the Cobb County School Board has not been operating as a well-functioning school board” that has affected procurement policies and procedures and has resulted in “insufficient transparency among board members, employees, and the stakeholders within the district.”
Stacy Efrat, an East Cobb resident who’s a leader of a school financial watchdog group called Watching the Funds Cobb, read from the report during her public comment period.
“The board and district leadership are trying to fool the public,” Efrat said. “Don’t take my word for it. Read the report. This was not an exoneration. This was a call for change based on the limited jurisdiction that the grand jury has over school district policies.”
Catherine Pozniak, a Democrat who is running against Republican board chairman David Chastain in November for the Post 4 seat in Northeast Cobb, urged the board to make all contracts subject to board approval.
She said the report concluded that “no one’s locking the bank vault at night. [Cobb schools] response is ‘Well, no one’s stolen from us yet.’ ”
“This report is a canary in the coal mine, and this board would be absolutely irresponsible if it did not take immediate action.”
On Friday, East Cobb News contacted Chastain for comment, but he has not responded.
East Cobb News also contacted the district, which issued a statement about the grand jury report that was also provided to other media outlets:
“We appreciate the grand jury explicitly rejecting false allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the District and its staff. We also echo their recognition of the transparency with which the District’s procurement staff operates.”
The district further stated that “some of the grand jury’s misunderstandings appear to come from a retracted report from one of the District’s accreditors.”
Cognia’s initial findings included concerns about how purchasing and resource allocation policies were being followed in the district.
But in addressing the school board in March when he announced the reversal, Cognia CEO Mark Elgar said that “people may disagree” with how the money is spent “but that’s not evidence that the policies weren’t followed.”
In its statement this week, the district said that “it is unusual that the grand jury would directly quote and rely upon an accreditation report that has been publicly rescinded by the issuing organization, because the report was directly contradicted by evidence presented by the District.”
It also thanked the grand jury for noting the availability of procurement information available on the district’s website.
“The District takes seriously its obligation to be a good steward of public funds and is confident that all District purchases follow state and federal law, Board policies, as well as all applicable procurement processes, standards, and best practices,” the district statement said.
The statement further noted that the Cobb school district is one of four in the country to receive the Accreditation for Quality Public Procurement Departments, a distinction it has held since 2003.
The district also employs four of 896 individuals worldwide who are certified procurement specialists by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc.
Allen, who died last year, also was the owner of AlertPoint, which had been the Cobb school district’s emergency system vendor for the past five years. A former AlertPoint employee has been indicted for bid-rigging in his position as a procurement officer in a Florida school district.
Ragsdale announced last month that the Cobb school district is changing its crisis system vendor for the coming school year.
In February 2021 all high schools in Cobb were put on a brief Code Red lockdown. After initially saying it was due to a false alarm, the district said the incident was a deliberate cyber attack on the AlertPoint system and called in the Cobb Police Department to help investigate.
The Cobb school district’s statement did not make any mention of other grand jury recommendations relating to the school board.
Those include a review of the board’s Code of Ethics “to develop, implement, and monitor a plan of accountability that holds each board member individually and collectively responsible for improving public perception of board leadership, district leadership, and ensures adherence of all board members in effectively and efficiently executing their established roles and responsibilities.”
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Cobb commissioners on Tuesday accepted a settlement with Rite Aid for $3.5 million after nearly four years of opioid-related litigation.
By a 4-1 vote, commissioners approved the settlement with the pharmacy chain as part of a “bellwether” series of lawsuits that included local governments in Durham, N.C. and Montgomery County, Ohio.
The lawsuit alleges that “Rite Aid failed to effectively monitor and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids from its retail stores and failed to implement measures to prevent diversion of prescription opioids, which contributed to an increase in opioid addictions, overdoses, and deaths” in Cobb, Montgomery County and Durham.
The lawsuit also claimed that “Rite Aid failed to adequately train pharmacists at its retail stores on how to adequately handle prescriptions for opioids and failed to institute policies and procedures at its retail stores to avoid the diversion of opioids.”
A trial was to have begun next year; Rite Aid admitted to no wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which will cost it $10.5 million total to all three jurisdictions.
Cobb also has joined broader litigation against opioids manufacturers, who are being sued for damages stemming from the opioids epidemic.
Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris will be forming a committee to determine how the Rite Aid settlement money is to be spent. The most likely designation could be for recovery and treatment expenses.
Before the vote Tuesday, Missy Owen of the Davis Direction Foundation, an addiction recovery non-profit, urged commissioners to agree to the settlement so the community can “begin to focus on the real task at hand—saving lives.”
Her son Davis died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 20. Since then, she and her husband founded the foundation that bears Davis’ name, as well as The Zone, a space off Fairground Street in Marietta for those in long-term addiction recovery.
She also began a recovery roundtable with former Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds that continues.
Owen said there were 30 hospitalizations in last month alone in Cobb for fentanyl poisoning, and that “15 of those 30 thought they were taking something other than fentanyl.
“No amount of money will ever make this right,” Owen said, fighting back some emotion. “When you ask a mother to put a price on the life of a child, there will never be enough to cover the cost. However, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good that can be done with this settlement money right now.”
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell thanked her for her comments, saying “I know that it was difficult to speak up.”
Commissioner Keli Gambrill also noted Owens remarks but said that she wouldn’t vote to accept the settlement because “the lawsuit does not address the root cause” of substance abuse and addiction.
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Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Leonard has reimposed a mask mandate at the Cobb courthouse complex, due to the county being designated in the “high” category for COVID-19 transmission.
Cobb government made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that Leonard made the decision “reluctantly” and indicated “they will review trials and hearings moving forward.”
There was no indication in the message how long the mask mandate may be in place.
There was a link to CDC data tracking information by county and that shows that Cobb has a case rate of 233 per 100,000 people (100 cases per 100K is considered “high” community transmission).
The mandate applies to anyone entering Cobb courthouse buildings, including the Superior, State and Magistrate courts.
The Cobb message was posted on the county’s Facebook page and generated a barrage of negative comments, including claims that mask mandates don’t work.
Among those commenters is Salleigh Grubbs, head of the Cobb Republican Party, who wrote, “Ridiculous! Stop the madness!!”
Other commenters said cases are up because citizens aren’t wearing masks or taking the virus seriously.
“Y’all make it seem like you have to go in the courthouse. Fake outrage,” wrote another commenter.
Cobb County government lifted a mask mandate in March in other county indoor facilities.
In response to a question from East Cobb News about whether a county mandate may be reimposed, Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said “not right now.”
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Elected officials in Cobb County and Georgia reacted along predictable partisan lines Friday to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath
By a 6-3 vote, the Court reversed Roe v. Wade, which in 1973 gave women a constitutional right to privacy under the 14th Amendment.
Friday’s ruling (you can read it here) upheld a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The Supreme Court also struck down a 1992 ruling, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, that reaffirmed federal abortion rights.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” concluded the court majority, all appointed by Republican presidents.
The three dissenting votes were from justices appointed by Democratic presidents. The ruling had been anticipated after a draft majority ruling written by Justice Joseph Alito was leaked to the Politico publication in May.
In Georgia, abortions are illegal after 20 weeks from fertilization (or 22 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual cycle), with exceptions for a threat to the mother’s life or if a baby’s health is severely compromised.
In recent years, the GOP-dominated legislature has been trying to impose more severe restrictions.
Gov. Brian Kemp
In 2019, HB 481, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, or the so-called “heartbeat bill” was passed that made abortion illegal in Georgia once a doctor could detect cardiac activity in a fetus (typically around six weeks).
That bill, sponsored by State Rep. Ed Setzler, an Acworth Republican, and Ginny Erhart, a Republican from West Cobb, is considered one of the harshest in the nation.
It contains exceptions for rape and incest, if the life of the mother is endangered or if a doctor determines a fetus is not viable for medical reasons.
But women also must file a police report in the case of rape or incest.
The law was struck down by a federal judge in 2020 on constitutional grounds. The state appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said last year it could not issue a ruling until the Supreme Court decided the Mississippi case.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is up for re-election this year, hailed the Supreme Court ruling as “a historic victory for life.”
By mid Friday afternoon, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr had filed notice with the 11th Circuit in Atlanta to lift the stay on the law. Unlike some other states, there is not an automatic trigger provision for the Georgia law.
“There is, simply put, nothing left of the Plaintiff-Appellees’ argument that Georgia law imposes an unconstitutional burden on the practice of abortion,” said the notice.
State Rep. Sharon Cooper
Stacey Abrams, Kemp’s Democratic opponent in the November general election, said that “if you’re a woman in Georgia, you should be terrified right now.”
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who is up for re-election in November, said that “I’m outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision. As a pro-choice pastor, I’ll never back down from this fight. Women must be able to make their own health care decisions, not politicians.”
His Republican opponent, former UGA football star Herschel Walker, who supports a total ban on abortions, said the court ruling “sends the issue of abortion back to the states, where it belongs. I stand for life and Raphael Warnock stands for abortion . . . I won’t apologize erring on the side of life.”
Two pro-life Republican lawmakers from East Cobb opposed the heartbeat bill. State Rep. Sharon Cooper and Sen. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, retired medical professionals, said at the time that the bill would be ruled unconstitutional.
Kirkpatrick was out of town attending a funeral and was formally excused from voting when the bill came up for final Senate action. Cooper, the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, voted no on final passage.
East Cobb News left messages with Kirkpatrick and Cooper on Friday seeking comment.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Marietta Democrat who represents East Cobb in the 6th Congressional District, denounced the Supreme Court ruling.
“Today, every woman in America has been made less free,” she said in a statement issued by her Congressional office. “Today, extremists on the Supreme Court have stripped away a woman’s right to make choices about her own reproductive health care. Today, our nation’s highest court has rolled back the clock and stripped women of their liberty.
“Today, SCOTUS overturned a half century of precedent, and Dobbs will now join Plessy as one of the most regressive decisions in our nation’s history.”
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock
The latter is a reference to Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 Supreme Court “separate but equal” ruling that upheld segregation laws, saying they didn’t violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
That ruling lasted for several decades, longer than Roe v. Wade, which prompted widespread activism from Christian conservatives and evangelicals.
The Cobb Republican Party posted a message on its Facebook page with a group photo of the Supreme Court saying “Prayers answered!!!” On Twitter, the message was “Life Wins!”
In 2018 Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to speak to the national March for Life rally in in Washington. His three Supreme Court justice nominees made up half of the majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Bryant Wright, the retired pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in East Cobb, tweeted “PTL! 50 years, at last a long awaited answer to prayer that every life is created in the image of God.”
The Catholic Church of St. Ann posted on its Facebook page a response from Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer of Atlanta hailing the ruling, saying that “No matter how the court ruled today, we will never stop working to protect women and their babies. Whether or not abortion is legal, we want women to know that we are here to support you, to accompany you and to love you and your babies.”
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday he has filled two open seats on the Cobb Superior Court.
They are former Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Georgia Deputy Attorney General Julie Adams Jacobs.
Reynolds, whom Kemp appointed to head the GBI in 2019, will succeed Judge Tain Kell, who resigned in April to return to private law practice.
Jacobs, who has been in the Georgia Attorney General’s office since 2003, replaces Judge Mary Staley Clark, who retired effective May 1.
Reynolds and Jacobs will fill the remainder of the terms of Kell and Staley-Clark, through the end of 2024.
Reynolds was twice elected as Cobb District Attorney and also is a former Cobb Chief Magistrate judge, a lawyer in private practice and a former police officer.
Julie Adams Jacobs
He earned his law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law and received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia Southern University.
As deputy attorney general, Jacobs has been head of the commercial transactions and litigation division. She also has been a hearing officer in hospital acquisitions.
Jacobs is a graduate of Emory University Law School and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Georgia State University.
Cobb Superior Court has 11 judges who are elected on a non-partisan basis and eight appointed senior judges, who are retired but hear special and occasional cases.
The Court hears major felony and criminal cases and complex civil litigation, as well as divorces and land property disputes and conducts jury trials.
In a release, Kemp’s office said the governor will appoint a successor to Reynolds at the GBI at a later date.
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Justin Ross Harris, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2016 after his toddler son died in a hot SUV while he worked in a Cobb office, has had his conviction overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court.
In a ruling released Wednesday, the court decided in a 6-3 vote that evidence presented by prosecutors at Harris’ trial about his extramarital activities and sexually lewd activities and communications with girls and women was prejudicial and should have been separated from the murder indictment.
Harris was arrested in June 2014 after his 22-month-old son, Cooper Harris, died after being left alone in his father’s Hyundai Tucson in a parking lot at Home Depot headquarters in Vinings for several hours.
Harris, then 33, was a web developer at Home Depot. The boy was left in the vehicle with the windows rolled up, and as temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees inside.
Harris said he accidentally left the boy in the Tucson, but prosecutors alleged at the trial that his motive was to kill his son to get out of his marriage.
In a case that gained national attention, Harris was convicted of murder by a Glynn County jury—the trial was moved to the Georgia coast but prosecuted by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office—and sentenced to life without parole.
Harris also received a 12-year sentence for exchanging sexually explicit messages with minor girls.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court majority, led by Chief Justice David Nahmias, concluded that the sexual offenses should have been tried separately from the murder charge.
While referring to what it called Harris’ “repugnant character,” the court majority concluded in overturning the murder conviction that “because the properly admitted evidence that Appellant maliciously and intentionally left Cooper to die was far from overwhelming, we cannot say that it is highly probable that the erroneously admitted sexual evidence did not contribute to the jury’s guilty verdicts.”
You can read the full ruling by clicking here; there are many instances of sexually graphic behavior, language and online communications, so reader discretion is advised.
Harris could receive a new murder trial, but the Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday afternoon that it will file a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court ruling.
Harris has been incarcerated at the Macon State Prison, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
On the morning of June 18, 2014, he was to have dropped Cooper off at Home Depot’s day care center before going to his office. Father and son had eaten breakfast at Chick-fil-A, but the boy was left in the Tucson after his father was running late for work.
According to trial evidence, while his son remained inside a hot vehicle, at his office Harris continued to send lewd messages to women.
The evidence showed that Harris returned to his car after 4 p.m., and found Cooper in a car seat in the back of the SUV with the windows rolled up and unconscious.
According to trial records, Harris removed the boy from the SUV and placed him on the pavement, and, according to witnesses, yelled “What have I done?”
The Cobb Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that hypothermia was the cause of death.
The Supreme Court ruling noted that Harris’ attorneys objected during his trial to the admission of the sexually-related evidence, but the objections were overruled by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley.
She also did not give the jury “limiting” instructions related to that evidence before it began deliberations. Staley, who retired in May, denied a motion by Harris’ attorney for a new murder trial last year.
“Merely piling on more evidence to show the supposedly limitless extent of Appellant’s sexual ‘depravity’ did nothing to strengthen the link between his sexual obsession and the key question at trial—did this obsession motivate Appellant to kill Cooper?” the Supreme Court ruling concluded.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Charles Bethel wrote that he saw “no abuse of the court trial’s discretion” in deciding that severing the cases was unnecessary, and that introducing evidence about Harris’ sexual desires was not improper.
“Evidence that some of that conduct . . . was criminal fit neatly with the State’s overall theory of its case against Harris and was, in fact, part of the State’s narrative regarding Harris’s motive to murder his son,” Bethel wrote.
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Scott Halperin, a longtime Legal Aid attorney and public defender in metro Atlanta jurisdictions, has been named the new Circuit Defender for Cobb Superior Court.
Cobb government announced in a release Thursday that Halperin was chosen unanimously by Cobb Superior judges, in consultation with the chief judges in Cobb Magistrate, State, and Juvenile courts, to serve as the lead defender.
Halperin has been the Circuit Defender’s lead advocate in Cobb Juvenile Court since 2020 and will succeed Randall Harris, who is retiring after 15 years in the position.
The Circuit Defender contracts with private attorneys to represent qualifying defendants in the Cobb court system.
A Georgia State University law graduate, Halperin has served as a public defender for Roswell, Sandy Springs and Doraville. In private practice, he represented defendants in criminal and juvenile courts.
“I want to express sincerest gratitude to Randy Harris for his steadfast dedication this office and its mission,” Cobb Chief Judge Rob Leonard said in a statement. “I’m proud to say that Cobb offers the best indigent defense services in the state. That is due in large part to Randy’s leadership and can only improve with Scott Halperin at the helm.”
Of Halperin, Leonard said that “he has a heart for serving the indigent. He also has the respect of the bar and the bench, and he understands the importance of maintaining the independence of the office.”
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A consent decree between Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church and the denomination’s North Georgia Conference has been filed in Cobb Superior Court, and reveals more details beyond last week’s general announcement.
Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, Mt. Bethel UMC
We’re reading through the full 125-page settlement (you can read it here), but the main terms are what was divulged last week—Mt. Bethel gets to keep its property and most assets and has 120 days from Monday, when the agreement was signed, to pay $13.1 million to the North Georgia Conference.
Mt. Bethel also will return certain intellectual property, including items with UMC insignia, and will officially remain part of the denomination until its obligations under the settlement are met.
After that, Mt. Bethel’s use of its property on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road will come with some restrictions.
That includes not using any of the parcels comprising the main church buildings and the Mt. Bethel Christian Academy as a headquarters or office for any religious denomination for seven and a half years.
Mt. Bethel has been an organizing member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which recently launched the Global Methodist Church, an international consortium of conservative congregations.
But Mt. Bethel officials say that once the congregation has left the UMC, it will become an independent church.
Mt. Bethel also is prevented from selling the Lower Roswell Road properties for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.
Once Mt. Bethel completes the real estate closing, the organization will become Mt. Bethel Church Inc. with a trade name of Mt. Bethel.
The settlement stipulates that other properties near the main campus—three homes on Fairfield Drive, an older adult center, a day care center and the Mt. Bethel church cemetery on Johnson Ferry Road—can be sold at any time.
However, those facilities also may not be used to house a denominational office.
Mt. Bethel’s North campus on Post Oak Tritt Road is not included in the settlement because church leadership last year placed the facility under the ownership of Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.
The North Georgia Conference objected to that action, since there wasn’t a vote taken by the congregation, which was required by the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents.
The settlement terms also include a provision that information collected through discovery will not be shared or discussed by any of the parties.
A preamble to the settlement notes that “both sides plan to look forward and honor the mission and ministry of each other as Christians. Accordingly, the Parties shall encourage their members to focus on the mission of Jesus Christ and not the past actions and alleged transgressions of each another, as referenced in the civil action now being mutually resolved.”
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, North Georgia Conference UMC
In a letter to Mt. Bethel members on Monday, pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, explained the terms, and concluded by saying that “we reiterate our great hope in the future of Mt. Bethel’s mission and ministry to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we pray each and every one of you will be a part of.”
The Friends of Mt. Bethel, a group of church members opposed to the church’s actions against the North Georgia Conference, said that “while the settlement agreement may not be what we had hoped for, it does not change who we are. We are the beloved sons and daughters of the King. We will continue to pray for you as you prayerfully consider your steps forward. God has a place for all of us.”
They will be meeting next week with Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of the North Georgia Conference at another Methodist church in East Cobb.
It was her reassignment of Ray to a non-ministerial post at the North Georgia Conference in May 2021 that set off a heated dispute lasting more than a year.
Mt. Bethel was among the conservative UMC congregations anticipating that the denomination would allow gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages, which are currently forbidden.
After Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials, he delivered a sermon in which he said he would not “bow the knee, or kiss the ring, of progressive theology. . . . which is no theology.”
Mt. Bethel kept him as CEO and lay pastor, positions the North Georgia Conference said weren’t allowed under the Book of Discipline.
After Mt. Bethel refused to acknowledge his appointed successor, Rev. Dr. Stephen Usry, the Conference announced it would seize the church’s assets.
After mediation failed last summer, the Conference sued Mt. Bethel in September 2021, and Mt. Bethel filed a countersuit.
The United Methodist Church had scheduled a vote on protocols for separation in 2020, but its conferences have been delayed until 2024.
There won’t be a vote for Mt. Bethel to disaffiliate, as has happened with some churches in the North Georgia Conference recently.
Mt. Bethel’s attorneys said they wanted to have a vote of its membership, but the North Georgia Conference did not schedule one.
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Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church has finalized a legal settlement with the denomination’s North Georgia Conference that will allow the congregation to keep its property and assets at its two East Cobb campuses.
In return, Mt. Bethel will pay the Conference $13.1 million as it begins to leave the denomination following more than a year of highly charged rhetoric and legal action.
Robert Ingram, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, told East Cobb News on Thursday that the settlement has been agreed to by both parties, and awaits formal signatures.
He said once those signatures have been collected, he expects to file a motion in Cobb Superior Court early next week to finalize the agreement, and that it will take up to 120 days to become official.
Also next week, Ingram said, Mt. Bethel will be known only as Mt. Bethel Church, another significant step toward separating itself from the UMC, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
Ingram said Mt. Bethel will have up to 120 days to submit the payment to the North Georgia Conference, and will be conducting a fundraising drive.
“They’re going to be out of the UMC,” Ingram said of Mt. Bethel, which has been seeking in its lawsuit a vote to disaffiliate.
Mt. Bethel was sending out word to its members and the public Thursday about the agreement, which was forged after several weeks of discussions facilitated by Cobb Superior Court Senior Judge Mary Staley.
The settlement announcement comes as the North Georgia Conference is holding its annual meeting in Athens, with more than 70 congregations requesting disaffiliation.
Mt. Bethel is not among them, due to the litigation. A tentative agreement was announced in early May, but no terms were disclosed.
Last September, the Conference sued Mt. Bethel after several months of contentious actions and public statements over the denomination’s reassignment of Mt. Bethel senior pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray.
When Ray refused, Mt. Bethel announced its intention to disaffiliate from the UMC. Mt. Bethel and Ray claimed they weren’t properly consulted by the North Georgia Conference, which each spring makes clergy assignments based on the UMC’s “itinerant ministry” tradition.
Mt. Bethel’s conservative leadership also has been at odds with the UMC over theological disputes that include the ordination of gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages.
Currently, the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents forbid both, but the denomination is expected to change its policies.
Mt. Bethel has been a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist churches that have been planning to create a new denomination called the Global Methodist Church.
After mediation failed last summer, the North Georgia Conference filed suit in Cobb Superior Court attempting to seize Mt. Bethel assets and property valued at $35 million.
The denomination also claimed that Mt. Bethel was not a church in good standing, including its refusal to accept Rev. Dr. Steven Usry, the Conference’s appointed successor to Ray, and was not eligible for disaffiliation.
The national UMC has been preparing for a split with more conservative congregations for several years. But international conferences to consider its Protocol for Separation and Reconciliation have been postponed due to COVID-19 measures.
When a conference scheduled for September was pushed back to 2024, the Global Methodist Church announced it was accelerating its launch to May.
On Wednesday, Wesleyan Covenant Association leader Keith Boyette—also a member of Mt. Bethel’s legal team—became the GMC’s senior executive and administrative officer, overseeing the denomination’s transition over the next 12-18 months.
Ingram told East Cobb News that because of the settlement, there won’t be a disaffiliation vote. He said Mt. Bethel wanted that to happen, especially because it would have cost “millions and million of dollars less” than what’s been settled.
“We wanted the court to allow a vote just on disaffiliation,” he said, explaining that only the North Georgia Conference superintendent could call for a such a vote.
“Despite our pleas, they never did that,” Ingram said.
He said Mt. Bethel has not decided whether or not to pursue membership in the Global Methodist Conference.
Mt. Bethel, with nearly 10,000 members, is the largest congregation in the North Georgia Conference, which oversees nearly 900 churches.
Before the lawsuits, North Georgia Conference records indicated that Mt. Bethel was more than $2 million behind in making annual “apportionment” payments dating back a couple of decades.
A more recent update shows that Mt. Bethel paid only $24,037 of the $627,889 of assigned apportionments in 2021, the lowest dollar figure and percentage (3.8 percent) in records dating back to the early 1990s.
None of the churches seeking disaffiliation this week are in Cobb, and many are splitting over similar differences in theology as Mt. Bethel. Late Thursday, North Georgia Conference delegates voted to accept the disaffiliation requests, including Sardis UMC in Buckhead and Ebenezer UMC in Roswell.
A group of Mt. Bethel members opposed to the church’s handling of the controversy sent out a message Wednesday under the headline “What Now?” The group has been meeting with Usry, who gave the sermon at a special Easter service for them at Collins Memorial UMC in Atlanta.
“Many of us have big decisions to make, and those decisions should be made with a heart of discernment,” said the message of the Friends of Mt. Bethel group. “Under the direction of Pastor Steven we are working to help members of our faith family determine how to move forward, and to take care of each other during this time.”
As for Usry, the Friends of Mt. Bethel said that technically, he is assigned to Mt. Bethel through June 30, 2023. It’s not clear how the settlement will affect his status.
“He will be available to serve any church members, or former church members, during this transition,” the Friends of Mt. Bethel message stated. “He will be working with Friends of Mt. Bethel UMC members to try to discern how we can best support our community during this time.”
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Chief among them was for a seat on Cobb Superior Court. Chief Judge Robert Leonard had two challengers in attorneys Charles Ford and Matt McMaster. But Leonard eased to re-election by getting 67.8 percent of the vote.
You can check out more local results by clicking here; we’ve summarized the others below.
There will be a runoff on June 21 in another Superior Court race. Sonja Brown received 29 percent of the vote and James Luttrell got nearly 22 percent to forge another round of voting in a field of five candidates.
The winner will succeed retiring Judge Robert Flournoy. Judge Ann Harris won a third term after being unopposed.
Two other Superior Court vacancies have occurred in recent weeks due to retirements. Judge Tain Kell resigned to pursue private practice, and longtime judge Mary Staley also has stepped down.
Their terms end in 2024 and Gov. Brian Kemp will be making appointments to fill out those terms.
Four Cobb State Court judges were unopposed and have been re-elected: Eric Brewton, Jason Fincher, Bridgette Campbell Glover and Ashley Palmer.
Cobb Solicitor General Barry Morgan is not seeking re-election. Courtney Martin Brubaker won the Republican primary unopposed. On the Democratic side, Makia Metzger advanced to the general election with nearly 58 percent of the vote against Chris Lanning.
Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill, a first-term Republican from District 1 in North and West Cobb, was unopposed, and has no Democratic opposition in November.
The Cobb Board of Education will have at least two new members after November elections. In Post 6, Democrat Nichelle Davis won unopposed and has no Republican opposition in November. She will succeed first-term Democrat Charisse Davis (no relation), who did not seek re-election.
Post 6, which currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, was redrawn to exclude areas of East Cobb and will consist the Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings area.
In Post 2, also in the Smyrna area, Democrat Becky Sayler and Republican Stephen George advanced to the November general election. The winner will succeed first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, who failed to reach a runoff for state school superintendent.
In Post 4, which includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberrry clusters, two–term Republican incumbent and current board chairman David Chastain and Democrat Catherine Pozniak ran unopposed in the primaries. They will meet in November.
Three justices on the Georgia Supreme Court were re-elected: Carla McMillian and Shawn Ellen LaGrua, both of whom were unopposed, and Verda Colvin, who got 68.8 percent of the vote in a primary against Veronica Brinson.
Three judges on the Georgia Court of Appeals were re-elected without opposition: Anne Elizabeth Barnes, Chris McFadden and Trea Pipkin.
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Nearly a year after a contentious dispute began between Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, the two sides are close to reaching a legal settlement.
A tentative agreement has been reached following lawsuits filed in Cobb Superior Court last fall.
A joint statement issued late Thursday from the North Georgia Conference—which oversees nearly 800 churches, including Mt. Bethel—and the church reads as follows:
“The Trustees of the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church and Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church have jointly agreed to the general terms and framework of a full resolution of their pending dispute. All parties now look forward to the resolution of the civil litigation. We ask members of our faith communities for their prayers and patience during this time as we prepare formal documents to bring this dispute to a close.”
Tom Cauthorn, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, released an additional statement Friday:
“The parties are pleased to have reached a full settlement in principal that should allow them to return their focus to their true missions. It is also important to recognize the efforts of Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley for her willingness to spend several days meeting with the parties and attorneys in mediation, leading to this resolution.”
The details of the terms were not disclosed.
Jonathan Lawson, an associate pastor at Mt. Bethel, told East Cobb News that “beyond those two statements, we are unable to comment at this time, but will be happy to speak further with you at a future time as we progress.”
Mt. Bethel members were told Thursday night during an administrative council meeting about the proposed settlement.
The North Georgia Conference sued Mt. Bethel last September after months of conflict over reassigning its top clergy and a failed attempt at mediation. The regional denominational leadership has claimed it is the rightful owner of Mt. Bethel properties and assets it values at $35 million.
Mt. Bethel, the largest congregation in the North Georgia Conference with more than 10,000 members, is a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist churches that has been preparing for the creation of a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church.
Delegates to the United Methodist Church were to have voted on a set of protocols to allow more conservative congregations to leave in 2020, but its conference has been delayed several times due to COVID concerns and has been rescheduled for 2024.
The GMC moved up its activation date from September to May 1.
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A driver who slammed into another vehicle near Mountain View Elementary School more than two years ago, killing an elderly man, was sentenced to five years in prison this week.
John James Hamm, now 45, also will serve 10 years on probation when he is released, according to filings in Cobb Superior Court.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to one charge vehicular homicide, after three other similar charges were merged into one. The sentence was handed down by Judge Lark Ingram.
According to his indictment, Hamm was driving an Infiniti on Sandy Plains Road near Davis Road on Feb. 23, 2020, when it struck a Mazda truck driven by John Spadafora, 91.
Cobb Police said at the time that Spadafora died after being taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital.
The indictment stated that as Spadafora was heading south on Sandy Plains, attempting to make a left turn onto Davis Road, he was hit by Hamm’s vehicle, heading north, that was weaving and traveling 20 miles over the posted speed limit of 45 mph,
Hamm also did not apply the brakes before the crash, according to the indictment, also states that Hamm was well over the legal alcohol limit. He was taken to Kennestone but had no life-threatening injuries.
Cobb Sheriff’s Office records indicate that Hamm was taken into custody Monday at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
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A former bakery owner charged with plotting the murder of his former roommate and business partner in East Cobb more than eight years ago was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison.
Ross Byrne, 58, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court on April 8 to charges of violating the RICO Act, conspiracy to commit concealing a death, conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension of a suspect, and criminal solicitation to commit murder, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
The Cobb DA said in a release Tuesday that the sentence was handed down by Judge Mary Staley Clark.
Byrne was arrested in 2018 for his role in the death of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed to death 32 times in his home off Holly Springs Road in January 2014.
They were partners in The Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock and both lived together for a time at Moore’s East Cobb home.
Byrne was charged two weeks after Johnathan Wheeler, an employee at the bakery, was convicted of killing Moore and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.
According to Byrne’s indictment and testimony presented in court, Byrne—who had since moved elsewhere—helped clean blood from Wheeler’s clothes after the murder and kept items stolen from Moore’s home.
Prosecutors said after the murder, Byrne became the sole owner of the bakery, which opened on Highway 92 in Woodstock in 2008.
Byrne had denied knowing anything about the murder, but prosecutors claimed in court that after Wheeler’s trial, Byrne asked an inmate to kill Wheeler, fearful he would testify against him.
The DA’s office said that in entering his guilty plea, Byrne admitted his roles in both plotting Moore’s murder and in wanting Wheeler killed.
“Despite having introduced Jerry Moore to his killer, this defendant showed absolutely no remorse for Johnathan Wheeler’s vicious killing,” said Cobb Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green said in the statement, who prosecuted the Wheeler and Byrne cases.
Wheeler is serving his sentences at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
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Mary Staley Clark, who has served as a judge in Cobb County for 40 years, announced Friday that she is retiring on May 1.
In a release issued by Cobb government, Staley Clark said she is stepping down for family reasons, including getting married this spring.
Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a successor to fill out the rest of her term, which ends in 2024.
Staley Clark is the third Cobb Superior Court judge to announce retirement this year.
Judge Tain Kell also is stepping down at the end of April to return to private law practice, and Kemp has not announced a successor.
Judge Robert Flournoy is not seeking re-election this year.
Staley Clark has been a Cobb Superior Court judge since 1992 and served as Chief Judge from 2005 to 2007. She also was a judge in Cobb Magistrate Court and Cobb State Court.
Staley Clark helped create the Cobb Mental Health Court and currently presides over the Cobb Drug Treatment Court.
She also is presiding over the current legal dispute between Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
“It will take time to adjust to not being on the bench every day. Of course, I’ll continue to help as a senior judge, but I am looking forward to getting married this spring and being able to spend more time with my parents and family,” Staley Clark said in the Cobb government release.
Staley Clark earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of West Georgia and a law degree from the University of Georgia.
Before her time as a judge, she was an assistant district attorney in Cobb County. In her statement, she thanked former Cobb District Attorney Tom Charron for hiring the first female prosecutors in the county.
She was recognized by the Cobb County YWCA as its 1994 Woman of Achievement and was the 2014 recipient of the Cobb Schools Foundation Leaders & Legends Award. Staley Clark was awarded the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Woman Award in 2015.
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An East Cobb man arrested nearly four years ago on charges that he sexually abused his stepdaughter has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
Marcelino Rebollar, 49, was sentenced on Tuesday by Cobb Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s office said that a Cobb jury last week found Rebollar guilty of two counts of aggravated child molestation and two counts of child molestation.
Rebollar, whose home address is on Freydale Road, was arrested on April 1, 2018, after being accused by his stepdaughter that he molested her from the ages of 10 to 13.
The Cobb DA’s office said the girl confided in her cousin and church pastor, leading to an investigation by police and forensic interviews at the Safepath Children’s Advocacy Center.
During the trial, the DA’s office said, evidence was presented from the victim and expert witnesses, and Rebollar was convicted on all counts.
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An overflow crowd in Cobb Superior Court prompted the hearing to be livestreamed.
The nearly year-long feud between Mt. Bethel Church of East Cobb and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church may be settled soon.
At a hearing in Cobb Superior Court Tuesday, attorneys for both sides said they were dropping motions and delaying depositions as they try to resolve deep divisions over governance of the Conference’s largest congregation and how to determine ownership of Mt. Bethel’s properties and assets.
The attorneys also asked Judge Mary Staley Clark to mediate upcoming meetings as settlement talks begin.
The North Georgia Conference sued Mt. Bethel last September after months of conflict over reassigning its top clergy and a failed attempt at mediation. The regional denominational leadership has claimed it is the rightful owner of Mt. Bethel properties and assets it values at $35 million.
Mt. Bethel countersued, saying the Conference was engaging in a “fraudulent conspiracy” and demanded an accelerated vote to disaffiliate from the UMC.
But in a packed courtroom on Tuesday morning, the charged rhetoric that has been exchanged between the two sides for several months was replaced by conciliatory language and a desire to iron out their differences.
Robert Ingram, chief attorney for Mt. Bethel, told Clark that the ideal way to reach an agreement is “with your persuasion rather than your orders.”
After reading through a proposed joint consent order, Clark said she would do that, and asked to meet with attorneys and parties for both sides separately.
(You can read the documents filed with the court on Tuesday here and here. You can also read all the court filings by clicking here and entering case number 21106801.)
The motions that were dropped include requests by North Georgia Conference Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, Superintendent Jessica Terrell and its board of trustees not to be joined together as defendants as well as Mt. Bethel’s motion for a default judgment.
Those parties will have 30 days to respond to Mt. Bethel’s countersuit, and discovery can continue through Oct. 15.
The order also states that no vote to close Mt. Bethel—which the Conference had threatened to do—will take place at its annual meeting this summer.
The Conference includes nearly 800 churches. Mt. Bethel has nearly 10,000 members on its two campuses on Lower Roswell Road and Post Oak Tritt Road.
During discovery, Mt. Bethel attorneys had subpoenaed at least one church member and requested documents from the Conference to its officials and other Mt. Bethel members as well as former Senior Pastor Randy Mickler.
It’s been 11 months since Haupert-Johnson tipped off the controversy by reassigning Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, Mt. Bethel’s senior pastor, to a non-ministerial position at the Conference office in Atlanta.
He and Mt. Bethel objected, saying they weren’t properly consulted. Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials and was hired by the church as a CEO and lead pastor, actions the Conference said were not allowed in its Book of Discipline governing documents.
Doctrinal disputes within the UMC have been building for several years, notably over gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages, both of which are prohibited by the Book of Discipline.
But Mt. Bethel and other conservative Methodist churches have been anticipating that would change.
The UMC was to have voted on a protocol allowing them to leave the denomination in 2020, but COVID-19 concerns have prompted delays.
Mt. Bethel is a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist churches that has been preparing for the creation of a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church.
When the UMC announced last month it was delaying its general conference again, to 2024, due to COVID-related travel issues, the GMC said it would move up its official activation date from September to May 1.
Among the leaders of the GMC is Keith Boyette, the WCA founder and a member of Mt. Bethel’s legal team.
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