A woman who pleaded guilty this week to killing her toddler son and leaving his body in the Chattahoochee River in 2021 has been sentenced to life in prison.
Breyanla Lachuan Cooper
The Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that Breyanla Lachuan Cooper, 29, of Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court to one count of malice murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of concealing the death of another.
They were conducting a training session on July 1, 2021, when they noticed the child, who was deceased, floating in the water.
The Cobb DA’s office said after the news was released to the public, Cooper called the Cobb Fire non-emergency line to see if she could identify the body.
Cobb detectives investigating the death said Cooper told them that a man took her son because she owed him money, and that she was afraid to report it, according to the DA’s office, but police later determined there was no kidnapping.
Police also talked to Cooper’s mother, who described for them the details of her daughter’s car that was identified via GPS data at having been at the river on June 26, 2021, in the early evening hours. prosecutors said.
“It was during this time that she killed her child, leaving him in the river,” the Cobb DA’s office said, but didn’t elaborate on how the child died.
Cooper was arrested on July 2 and further interviews by police included the woman’s older child, “who disclosed that Cooper told her that their time with Faheem was done,” the DA’s office said.
At sentencing, Hill said that “it is unspeakable that a mother would do this to her own flesh and blood. There’s just nothing the court can say or do to make this any better for anybody.”
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Linda Dunikoski, a senior assistant Cobb District Attorney who prosecuted three men in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial, has been named the Georgia prosecutor of the year by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady presented Dunikoski the award recently at the organization’s summer meeting for her work getting convictions for Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William R. Bryan.
Arbery was a black man jogging down a residential street in Brunswick when he was pursued by a vehicle with the McMichaels and Bryan, who are all white.
The Cobb DA’s office was assigned the case when the Glynn County district attorney declined to bring charges, citing Georgia’s citizen arrest law. She later was indicted for her handling of the case.
“I am so honored to be recognized by the District Attorneys’ Association of Georgia for my 21 years of service to the citizens of Georgia and for our team’s work on the Ahmaud Arbery case,” Dunikowski said in a statement issued by the Cobb DA’s office.
“Our trial team, including Paul Camarillo and Larissa Ollivierre, could not have achieved justice for the family of Ahmaud without the support of Cobb DA Flynn Broady.”
In the same statement, Broady said that “the eyes of the world were upon the team led by Linda. The trial team showed that we as prosecutors will fight for victims and their families, despite the hardships inherent in a prosecution of this magnitude. Not only did she deliver justice, she brought back the legitimacy of our system of justice to many. We are very proud of the work by these men and women in our office.”
Dunikoski currently is the managing attorney of the Appeals Division of the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.
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Justin Ross Harris is serving a 12-year-sentence for exchanging sexually explicit messages with minor girls.
Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady said Thursday his office will not retry a man sentenced to serve life in prison in the “hot car” death of his son in 2014 but whose conviction was overturned last year.
In a 6-3 vote last June, the Supreme Court of Georgia overturned the conviction against Justin Ross Harris, whose 22-month-old son Cooper died of hypothermia being left all day at his father’s workplace in Vinings in a vehicle that was nearly nearly 100 degrees inside.
The high court ruled 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 continues to serve a 12-year sentence in the Georgia prison system for criminal attempt to commit sexual exploitation of a minor and distributing harmful materials to minors.
But Broady said in a release Thursday that his office is closing the murder case on Harris after a nearly year-long review, concluding that “crucial motive evidence that was admitted at the first trial in 2016 is no longer available to the State due to the majority decision of the Supreme Court.”
Broady said he disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling, which was also based on now-retired Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark’s denial of objections by Harris’ attorneys to introduce that evidence, and that she didn’t give “limiting” instructions to the jury.
Staley Clark, who retired last May, right before the Supreme Court ruling, also denied a motion by Harris’ attorney last year for a new murder trial.
The Cobb DA’s office—then led by Vic Reynolds, now a Cobb Superior Court judge—prosecuted the case in Glynn County, on the Georgia coast, due to pretrial publicity, claiming that Harris’ motive was to kill his son to get out of his marriage.
Harris, who was 33 at the time of his son’s death, was a web developer working for Home Depot.
On the morning of June 18, 2014, he was to have dropped off his son at Home Depot’s day care center before going to his office. Father and son had eaten breakfast at Chick-fil-A, but Harris was late for work, and left the boy inside his Hyundai Tucson, prosecutors said at the trial.
According to trial evidence, while Cooper remained inside a hot vehicle, Harris was at work in his office, where he sent lewd messages to women.
The evidence showed that Harris returned to his car after 4 p.m., and found Cooper unconscious in a car seat in the back of the SUV with the windows rolled up.
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?”
Even though Harris said he simply forgot about his son in the vehicle, a jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life without parole.
A dissenting Supreme Court opinion argued last year that there was “no abuse of the court trial’s discretion” in deciding that severing the cases against Harris was unnecessary, and that introducing evidence about his sexual desires was not improper.
“Although we disagree with the outcome of the majority opinion and agree with the reasoning set forth by the dissenting justices, we are bound by the majority’s decision,” Broady said Thursday.
He thanked law enforcement and prosecutors “who worked tirelessly for years to obtain justice for Cooper. Cooper will always be remembered by this Office and those who fought for him.”
A former Cobb Police officer assigned to patrol duties in Precinct 4 in East Cobb was sentenced to six years in prison and 14 more years on probation Monday for a 2018 assault on a woman.
According to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, Robert New, now 51, pleaded guilty to that felony charge, as well as to another felony count of cruelty to children in the first degree.
A release issued by the DA’s office Tuesday said New was sentenced as a first offender in a non-negotiated hearing before Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford.
New was charged with aggravated assault in June 2018 stemming from an off-duty incident with a woman who accused him of choking and slapping him during a sexual encounter at his home off Hawkins Store Road.
The DA’s office said police were alerted to the incident by a “good Samaritan” who said the woman had cognitive disabilities.
Police conducted a forensic interview with the the woman, who was 44 years old at the time, and concluded that due to a traumatic brain injury that occurred during childhood, she had the mental capacity of a 10-14-year-old child.
An internal affairs investigation determined that New met the woman online, and while the encounter was consensual, police said “the actions that took place during the encounter brought us to take out warrants against Officer New.”
The DA’s office said Tuesday that during a sexual encounter in May 2018, “the victim stated that New became violent during sex and choked her to the point of her not being able to breathe.”
Prosecutors said that in an interview with the victim, she said New wanted her to bring her juvenile niece and involve her in sexual activity. Police conducted a forensic analysis of New’s phone and arrested him, the DA’s office said, and he resigned a few days later.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill accepted New’s guilty plea in April, according to the DA’s office.
New was hired by Cobb Police in February 2005 and was assigned to Precinct 4 in East Cobb. He later served on the department’s DUI Task Force before returning to Precinct 4.
He was a police officer for a total of 27 years before his arrest, the DA’s office said.
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An East Cobb man who engaged with a standoff with police and shot at officers and neighbors in a 2020 incident was given a 35-year sentence, the Cobb District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.
The DA’s office said Donald Terry Welborn, Jr., must serve the first 18 of those years in prison in a sentence handed down by Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris.
In a news release, the DA’s office said Welborn, now 60, pleaded guilty to nine counts of aggravated assault on police officers, three counts of aggravated assault on civilians and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Welborn was arrested by Cobb Police on Sept. 22, 2020, at a home on Kingsley Drive in the New Castle neighborhood off Post Oak Tritt Road after a standoff lasting several hours.
According to police, Welborn’s wife and daughter reported that Welborn began shooting inside the home around 5:30 a.m., saying he was intoxicated, and struck a ceiling fan and a ceiling.
Police arrived and closed off the neighborhood. They said said the women escaped the home unharmed, but Welborn remained inside, firing at two nearby homes.
When police reached the home, according to the DA’s office, officers tried to talk him into coming outside, but he initially refused, and began shooting at them “with multiple firearms over a short period of time.
“Officers had to duck behind vehicles as projectiles whizzed by their heads, striking treetops, the asphalt roadway, and houses,” the DA’s office release said.
The Cobb Police SWAT team took over the scene and Welborn surrendered peacefully after several hours.
The DA’s office said the investigation also determined that one of neighbors, a family with two parents and two children, “hid in a closet, terrified, for hours during the standoff.
“One bullet from a high-powered rifle struck their aquarium located in their living room, killing the fish and flooding the area. In total, detectives located 68 spent shell casings of various calibers, 32 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.”
Welborn was indicted in May 2021 by a Cobb grand jury after his attorney unsuccessfully tried to get him transferred to a mental health court.
Cobb court records indicate that one of the women, Susan Welborn, was Welborn’s wife, but they had been separated. She filed for divorce in Cobb Superior Court on the same day of the shootings.
Court records show that those proceedings are continuing.
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An Atlanta man was given a life sentence this week after a Cobb Superior Court jury found him guilty of raping a woman in her apartment in the East Cobb area.
The Cobb District Attorney’s office said that Cam Melikoglu, 34, must serve 25 years in prison and will be on probation for the rest of his life following the sentencing by Judge Julie Adams Jacobs.
According to the DA’s office, Melikoglu was at a home on Aug. 3, 2020, for drinks and dinner with friends that included two women who are sisters.
Prosecutors said that the victim became heavily intoxicated and her sister took her to her apartment off Wylie Road.
The victim’s sister and Melikoglu messaged each other on Instagram, with Melikoglu saying he wanted to check on them “due to some tension between others at the party,” the DA’s office said.
Melikoglu arrived at the victim’s apartment and her sister let him stay there overnight because it was late, the DA’s office said.
According to his arrest warrant, the attack took place around 3 a.m.
Prosecutors said sometime during the night Melikoglu went into the victim’s bedroom and raped her while she was passed out, and when she woke up he was still in her bed.
The DA’s office said her injuries were “consistent with sexual assault” and his DNA was present. After an investigation by the Marietta Police Department, Melikoglu was charged with rape and was indicted on that felony count.
At the trial, the victim, now 30, testified, according to the DA’s office, as did her sister and others at the party. The jury returned a guilty verdict earlier this week.
“This defendant is a predator. He saw an opportunity and he took it,” Cobb assistant District Attorney Lindsey McClure-So said in a statement. “He thought because the victim was unconscious when he raped her that she wouldn’t say anything. The victim should be commended for her bravery to come forward with what happened to her and to give testimony in front of her rapist.”
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A Dunwoody man has been given a 15-year sentence, with seven years to serve in prison, after pleading guilty this week to aggravated stalking and other charges stemming from an incident last May at a home in Indian Hills.
The Cobb District Attorney’s Office Friday said that Cobb Superior Court Judge Jason Marbut handed down the sentence to Anthony Merriwether, 66, after a negotiated plea on a number of felony counts.
Those included discharge of a gun near highway or street, reckless conduct, criminal damage to property in the first and second degrees, possession of cocaine, possession of firearm during commission of a felony, terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit theft by extortion, and possession of firearm by a convicted felon.
Merriwether was to have gone on trial this week, according to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s Office records.
Prosecutors said Merriwether was an ex-boyfriend of the victim’s deceased sister, and they had been in a dispute over the latter’s estate.
In a news release Friday, the DA’s office said that Cobb Police were called to the scene of a home on May 6, 2022, by a woman who reported an armed man in her front yard.
Prosecutors said that a window and interior walls of the home had been shattered by bullets, and that a man was shown on a Ring video camera driving to the home, stepping out of the car and making verbal threats for money.
According to an arrest warrant, the camera footage showed Merriwether pulling up in the driveway in a Porsche and he was in possession of two guns at the home on Indian Hills Parkway.
The victim was home at the time of the incident, the warrant said.
Merriwether had been given a portion of his former girlfriend’s estate, according to prosecutors, who said he believed he was entitled to the entire estate.
According to the release, Merriwether was arrested at a traffic stop on Johnson Ferry Road near Columns Drive shortly after the incident and was was found with two firearms and cocaine in his vehicle.
After his release, however, according to the DA’s office, Merriwether continued to contact the victim, despite a “no-contact” provision of his bond.
Another warrant taken out on Nov. 14 states that Merriwether used his deceased girlfriend’s e-mail address between Oct. 24 and Oct. 26 to send several messages “which contained threats of death, violence and intimidating statements” toward the same victim.
On Nov. 17, Merriwether was arrested on the aggravated stalking charge for violating bond conditions, and he has been detained ever since at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
He was denied bond in December after a probable cause hearing, according to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s office records.
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An East Cobb investment advisor whom federal authorities say defrauded clients out of more than $25 million has pleaded guilty.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, John Woods, 58, pleaded guilty to a single charge of wire fraud and he awaits sentencing.
Woods has been active high school sports and civic affairs in East Cobb.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a release that Woods solicited investors to invest in a fund called Horizon Private Equity, promising rates of return of six to seven percent.
He told investors their funds would be invested in government bonds, stocks and small real estate projects, according to the release, which said Woods assured investors would be safe because Horizon had a diverse portfolio.
But the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the investments were used to repay other investors, saying that Woods misled clients “by failing to disclose that the Horizon investments had not generated a positive percentage of return sufficient to cover the interest.”
More than $110 million was invested in the Horizon fund, from 400 investors in more than 20 states, federal prosecutors said.
“Losses are still being calculated, but investors have lost more than $25 million because of Woods’s scheme to defraud,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“Investors should respond with caution to financial offers that sound too good to be true and are cloaked in the promise of low risk and high rates of return,” Buchanan said in the release.
Woods was formerly on the executive board of the Walton Touchdown Club and was a member of the original East Cobb Cityhood committee in 2019.
He was a minority owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball team, in his Tennessee hometown, and also has been the head of the Friends of Chastain Park Foundation in Atlanta.
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Christopher Patrick Golden accepted a plea deal Thursday in Cobb Superior Court and was sentenced to two life terms plus 55 years, without the possibility of parole, by Judge Julie A. Jacobs.
According to Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady, that’s the maximum sentence possible in Georgia short of the death penalty.
His office declared it would be seeking the death penalty against Golden, whom Cobb Police said shot deputies Marshall Ervin and John Koleski with a rifle on Sept. 8.
The deputies were serving a warrant to Christopher Cook, a resident at a home in West Cobb, in the Cheatham Hill area, when gunfire broke out. Ervin, 38, and Koleski, 42, were pronounced dead on the scene.
After a standoff, Golden and Cook were arrested.
Golden was charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Cook was charged with eight counts of theft by deception and theft by receiving stolen property.
Golden was to have had an arraignment hearing on Thursday. But at a press conference after the plea deal, Broady said Golden’s attorneys approached his office about considering life without parole in lieu of seeking capital punishment.
As part of his plea, Golden waived all post-conviction relief, including parole, clemency, or pardon, according to the Cobb DA’s office.
Broady said his office met with the families of Ervin and Koleski and that after lengthy discussions, “we made the mutual decision” to agree to the plea deal.
Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady
“Although nothing will ever replace the lives of Marshall and John, this plea today will allow their families to put the case behind them and focus on healing,” he said.
When asked about the reason Golden’s attorneys sought the plea deal, Broady deferred to his deputy chief assistant DA, Jason Sabila, who was assigned to prosecute the case.
Sabila said that based on a second interview with Cobb detectives, Golden “was very cognizant that this was a death penalty case. He referenced it repeatedly . . .
“We certainly don’t know for sure, but my assumption is that he knew where this was headed . . . and what this community was going to do.”
Broady declined to speculate on the motive for the shootings, since Cook still faces charges. Golden said nothing during the plea proceedings in court Thursday.
Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens read a prepared statement at the press conference.
“Today a man was brought to justice for the terror that he brought to our community,” Owens said. “He robbed two women of their loving husbands, and denied two beautiful daughters of having their father play catch, play softball after school.
“That evildoer has stood before God today and acknowledged what he did. Our hearts are still hurting, But tonight we will sleep a little softer knowing this case is behind us.”
Of the slain deputies, the first in Cobb to die in the line of duty in nearly 30 years, Owens said “their memories will be a blessing to us all. We will continue to honor them each and every day when we put on this uniform and serve the people of Cobb County.”
Deputies Jonathan Koleski, left, and Marshall Erwin Jr. were veterans of the Cobb Sheriff’s Office
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On Tuesday, Barry Morgan was honored by the Cobb Board of Commissioners for his many years of service as the Cobb Solicitor General.
On Wednesday, he was one of five people appointed to fill judicial vacancies in Cobb Magistrate Court.
Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy said the positions are part-time and they were filled after an open application and interview process.
Magistrate Court is open 24/7/365 handling a variety of civil and criminal caseloads, including cases involving self-represented litigants, and is the court of first hearings for most criminal cases.
Morgan is retiring as Cobb Solicitor General, an office he has held since 1999. In that role, he has been the county’s chief prosecutor for a variety of misdemeanor, traffic and ordinance cases.
He will begin his new post in January, as will Magistrate Judge-designate Che A. Karega II, a Marietta attorney in private practice.
Jana J. Edmonson-Cooper has been chosen to succeed Sonia Brown, who was recently elected Cobb Superior Court judge.
Two other magistrate judges-designate will be sworn in next week. They are Lauren Boone, an in-house corporate counsel for a major insurance firm and a former prosecutor in Fulton County, and Ronna Woodruff, a bankruptcy and family law attorney in Marietta.
“We’re excited to add Lauren, Ronna, Che, and Barry to the People’s Court family. Collectively, they bring over 80 years of diverse legal experience to the bench,” Murphy said in a statement issued by Cobb government.
“Working in shifts around the clock for a fraction of the hourly rate they can earn in private practice, our part-time judges are the backbone of the Court, providing true community service.”
In Tuesday’s elections, Marietta attorney Makia Metzger was elected to succeed Morgan as Solicitor General. Her term will start in January.
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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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