Larry Joel Epstein, charged in the March 6 shootings of two electrical contractors working at his East Cobb home, remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond after a probable cause hearing on Tuesday.
Epstein, 69, was arrested after a heavy police presence stemming from the shootings on Wellington Lane, off Johnson Ferry Road.
The other worker, Gordon Montcalm, 37, of Buchanan, Ga., was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital after being shot five times and is facing a long recovery, according to family members.
Epstein was charged with one count of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery. He has been held at the jail without bond since his arrest, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
Cobb Police have not indicated a motive for the shootings.
According to Cobb Magistrate Court records, Epstein’s court-appointed attorneys did not pursue a bond request.
Kim Isaza, public information officer for the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, said the next step is to present the case to a grand jury, ideally within a 90-day period.
The quiet neighborhood street in the Kensington subdivision was blocked off by police, including SWAT units and the Cobb Police mobile command unit, after a resident called 911 to report an active shooter.
Other neighbors were asked to stay inside after the shootings, which took place around 2:30 p.m., and as the contractors were wrapping up their work day at Epstein’s home. Police said Epstein was peacefully taken into custody shortly after 3 p.m.
East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.
On Monday, Bonnie Irlyn Epstein, Epstein’s wife since 1971, filed for divorce in Cobb Superior Court, saying the marriage “is irretrievably broken.”
Court documents indicate that Bonnie Epstein separated from her husband on March 7, the day after the shootings, and that her divorce complaint was to be served to him at the jail.
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A Cartersville man who was convicted of abducting a woman from her workplace on Roswell Road in Marietta last year was given a 20-year prison sentence by a Cobb judge on Thursday.
Antoine Latroy Williams, 40, must serve at least 18 years behind bars, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s office, with the remainder on probation.
The sentence was handed down by Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster after Williams was convicted of kidnapping, sexual battery, and three counts of simple battery on Wednesday.
According to prosecutors, Williams met the woman, who is in her early 20s, on Feb. 25, 2018 and offered her a job. The following day he went to her place of business on Roswell Road in the city of Marietta five times and waited for her in the parking lot.
She drove away and he followed her, and a short time later she pulled over to the side of the road, according to prosecutors, who said Williams then forced the woman into his car.
The DA’s office said Williams drove her around Cobb County in his car before traveling to Cartersville and threatened to hurt her if she tried to escape. He also put his hand on her thigh, grabbed her hair, and slapped her hand, prosecutors said.
They also said Willliams threatened to hurt her if she tried to escape, and he groped her on the thigh, pulled her hair and struck her hand.
After Williams stopped at a QuickTrip in Cartersville, prosecutors said the woman managed to escape.
At the trial, prosecutors alleged that Williams has a history of violence toward women. A woman testified that he sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles in 2011.
“Every shiny object you dangled in front of this girl: a Mercedes, cash, a phone and a job was just to lure her into your control. I don’t see these as tokens of your affection, you were grooming her, pure and simple,” Schuster said at the sentencing. “I see you as nothing more than a predator.”
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Reader Julia has these photos of Paper Mill Road being blocked off after 6 p.m. Tuesday due to brush fires near the Sibley Forest subdivision.
That’s located between Sope Creek Elementary School and the Cochran Shoals Unit of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area.
James Kapish, public information officer for Cobb Fire, said Engine 3 was dispatched to the scene at 6:18 p.m.
He said the fire was controlled quickly and there were no injuries or evacuations and that roads were reopened to traffic at 7:17 p.m.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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A Cobb Superior Court Judge sentenced a Lyft driver to 35 years in prison Tuesday for raping a female passenger near her apartment in Cobb County in late 2016.
The Cobb District Attorney’s office said Jerome Antonio Booze, 40, of Decatur, was convicted by a Cobb Superior Court jury on Monday. Kim Isaza, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said the sentence was handed down by Judge Ann Harris.
Booze was charged in January 2917 after driving a female college student from a night of drinking at a bar in Atlanta to her Vinings apartment on Dec. 10, 2016. According to testimony at the trial, the woman’s friends called for a Lyft around 4 a.m. because she had become intoxicated and they didn’t want her driving home. They had been celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday.
According to prosecutors, the woman said she had flashbacks the next morning of having sex with someone, but said she had no memory of the Lyft ride or of getting home. She told her parents she had been raped and went to Grady Memorial Hospital for medical treatment before filing charges with Atlanta Police, who transferred the case to Cobb Police.
The attack occurred in the back seat of Booze’s car near her apartment building, according to prosecutors. Booze was indicted in February 2017.
Prosecutors said Booze initially told Cobb Police that he denied he had sex with the woman, then later said he did have sex with her but said she initiated it and that he didn’t know she was intoxicated.
During the trial, Booze testified that the woman held down his arm and climbed on him and reiterated that he didn’t know she was drunk.
That didn’t convince the jury, which convicted him on the sole charge of felony rape, Isaza said. Harris told Booze before sentencing that trial evidence showed the woman was incapable of giving consent.
“This predator exploited a position of trust and targeted a vulnerable, intoxicated female. This verdict demonstrates that those who prey on women who do not have the capacity to consent will be held accountable,” said Courtney Veal, Cobb assistant district attorney.
After his release from prison, Booze will serve the rest of his life on probation as a registered sex offender, Isaza said.
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The electrical contractor who survived a shooting allegedly committed by an East Cobb homeowner last week is beginning what appears to be a long recovery, according to information posted with a fundraising appeal for medical and other expenses.
In a GoFundMe page, friends and family of Gordon Montcalm (center, above) said he was shot five times: Once in the face, once in the chest, twice in the arm and once in the back.
Montcalm, 37, of Buchanan, Ga., was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital after he and his apprentice, Jake Horne, 21, of Kennesaw, were shot at the end of their working day at a home on Wellington Lane on Wednesday.
Horne, who was shot in the head, was taken off life support and died on Thursday, according to his family members.
The homeowner, Larry Epstein, 69, of 1963 Wellington Lane, was initially charged with two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault.
After Horne died, Epstein also was charged with one count of felony murder, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office. He remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond, and is scheduled to have a hearing March 26.
Police previously said Montcalm was in serious condition at Kennestone. The fundraising note said the man who’s known as “Donnie” will be out of work indefinitely, his wife is taking off work to care for him and the couple has a daughter in high school: “There is so much financial struggle going on right now. . . . and there are many expenses that go along with that they are not going to be able to afford.”
The fundraising goal is $4,000.
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A man who was working on an electrical project at an East Cobb home on Wednesday has died after a double shooting there, Cobb Police said Thursday afternoon.
Lisa Watkins Godsey and Jessica Godsey Smith, the aunt and cousin, respectively, of Jake Allen Horne, 21, of Kennesaw, left messages with East Cobb News earlier Thursday saying that he had died.
Police didn’t initially confirm that information. They said that Horne, who was shot in the head, and his boss, Gordon Montcalm, 37, of Buchanan, Ga., who was shot multiple times, were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital after the shootings Wednesday afternoon at a residence in East Cobb.
They were listed in serious condition, police previously said.
Larry Epstein, 68, the homeowner of a residence at 1963 Wellington Lane, is being held without bond in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery, police said.
In a statement issued around 3:30 p.m. Thursday Cobb Police said the department’s “Crimes Against Persons Unit will be working with the District Attorney’s Office to upgrade the offense appropriately.”
Horne and Montcalm were at Epstein’s home, located in the Kensington neighborhood off Johnson Ferry Road, and had completed work for the day, around 2:25 p.m., when there was an argument between them and the homeowner, according to police.
The argument escalated, and police said Horne and Montcalm were shot by the homeowner. Sgt. Wayne Delk of Cobb Police said they still don’t know what led to the dispute.
Cobb Police sent a heavy presence into the community, located between Sewell Mill Road and Oak Lane, including a SWAT team, mobile command unit and helicopters, after someone called 911 about an active shooter there.
A Wellington Lane resident told East Cobb News the street was blocked off and she and other neighbors were ordered to stay inside for a time.
Epstein was taken into custody around 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and was booked overnight, according to Cobb Sheriff’s records.
Godsey said Horne was declared brain-dead Wednesday and life support was turned off Thursday morning.
Lisa Godsey, who lives in California and formerly resided in Cherokee County, told East Cobb News that her nephew was an apprentice electrician who was working for Montcalm. He had turned 21 only in January, she said.
“This is a boy that would give you the shirt off of his back. He had a heart of gold,” Godsey said about Horne in a message to East Cobb News. “He thought of everyone else before himself.”
Horne lived for a while in California, Godsey said, and “was best friends with my sons,” and later returned home to Georgia to be near his sister Sadie, who is a few years younger.
“My cousin was one of the victims,” Jessica Godsey Smith said. “Hope the man rots in jail for what he did to him.” She also left Horne a message on her Facebook page Thursday morning:
“We made plans for tomorrow night. My heart hurts so unbelievably much right now. You had such a great heart. You always had a smile on your face, to know you was to love you. And you were truly like a brother to me.”
Friends and family members said the Horne siblings lost their mother and father in recent years, and now Sadie Horne is planning her brother’s funeral.
Lisa Godsey said a Go Fund Me page has been set up for Horne’s funeral expenses.
“This is a very unfair thing,” Godsey said. “We demand Justice for Jake. Please show the world what has been taken. I pray that he is high in the heavens with his new wings.”
Cobb Police said their investigation into the shootings is continuing and that anyone with information should call 770-499-3945.
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The senior pastor at Eastside Baptist Church is upset over what he calls “very capricious leadership” by the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention after learning that the East Cobb congregation has been put on a list for possible “defellowshipping” for a 2017 sex abuse case.
Rev. John Hull, Eastside Baptist Church senior pastor
Rev. John Hull told East Cobb News Friday afternoon that he is tentatively scheduled to talk via telephone on Monday with J.D. Greear, the president of the SBC, who identified Eastside as among the churches being examined for how it handled allegations of sexual abuse by workers and volunteers.
Hull also said SBC officials will be visiting the church on Lower Roswell Road on Tuesday, not to investigate, he said, but to give Eastside leaders a chance to “express concerns” about being on the list.
In 2017, Alexander Edwards, a former youth ministry volunteer at Eastside, was convicted of two counts of sexual battery involving an 11-year-old boy and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Edwards’ arrest in 2016 came just after Hull was hired to lead the East Cobb church, which he said acted quickly and publicly to improve security, strengthen background checks and assure its members that it was protecting young people from sexual abuse.
“There are people who think this is outrageous that we’re on the list,” Hull said. “We’re not looking for a fight, but our East Cobb church has taken a body blow. We’re hurting because this came from within the family.”
That’s a reference to Greear, who earlier week this publicly identified 10 churches, including Eastside, for scrutiny following news reports in Texas that have rocked the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, which has more than 15 million members and more than 47,000 affiliated churches.
While he admires Greear for trying to address allegations of sexual abuse, Hull said he acted unilaterally to compose the list and did not notify him before the names of the churches were revealed by the news media. Hull said he learned about the list late Monday night, shortly after he had gone to bed, when he got a text message from the Eastside social media manager, who had seen news reports from Texas.
UPDATED: The day after we spoke to Rev. Hull, the Southern Baptist Convention issued a response regarding the 10 churches on the list, and its executive committee bylaws working group concluded that no further investigation at Eastside is warranted:
“Based on the information provided by the president, we have no evidence that the church, as a body, violated any of the four provisions. We also note that, based on media reports and conversations with church leaders, it appears that after the events in question the church strengthened its existing policies to prevent abuse and properly respond to charges of abuse. We believe no further inquiry is warranted based on that information.”
Hull conducted an interview with the Houston Chronicle, which along with San Antonio Express-News published a series earlier this month called “Abuse of Faith,” which estimated that more than 700 people had been victimized.
Hull said Eastside also has the support of the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Noonday Baptist Association, a consortium of more than 100 churches in Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Paulding and Polk counties.
The case of Edwards is among those contained in the newspapers’ database of more than 200 workers and volunteers at Southern Baptist churches who have been charged with sexual abuse or who have been convicted or pleaded guilty since 1998. He is a registered sex offender, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Alexander Edwards (Photo: Georgia Department of Corrections)
Eastside Baptist, which opened in 1961, has more than 5,000 members. In the 1980s it started a Christian school that currently enrolls more than 400 students K-8 and built an activities center that includes fitness facilities and offers classes to the wider community.
After Edwards’ conviction and sentencing, Hull said, Eastside took immediate action to rectify the lapses that led to the abuse. The Texas newspapers reported that Edwards had been allowed to volunteer at Eastside despite a 2013 arrest for using the Internet to find a child for sex.
Not long after Edwards’ arrest in 2016, a former part-time Eastside janitor was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery involving a girl. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail, most of that on probation.
Those security measures include stronger background checks of prospective employees and volunteers. In addition, all visitors to the church or school are are required to have their driver’s license scanned for a background check.
“You can’t get in without it,” said Hull, who added that the background scanning technology will become available soon for those using the Eastside activities center that’s open to the larger public.
That center, which also has employed a full-time security guard for the last two years, will soon be hiring another one. Hull said there are also are 50 security cameras on the sprawling Lower Roswell Road campus, which stretches to the boundary of Eastvalley Elementary School.
Hull said Eastside has spent more than $500,000 on security, technology, staff training and other measures to address sexual abuse concerns.
“We are prepared to be the model, we are prepared to be a resource [for any congregation in a similar position] and to add value around what we have learned.”
In his comments to the SBC executive committee this week, Greear said he’s not in favor of “disfellowshipping” any church at this point, but “these churches must be called upon to give assurance to the SBC that they have taken the necessary steps to correct their policies and procedures with regards to abuse and care for survivors.”
The Southern Baptist allegations come a few months after another round of revelations of priest abuse by several Roman Catholic archdioceses, including Atlanta.
Last November, Atlanta Archbishop Rev. Wilton Gregory released a list of priests, workers and volunteers accused or convicted of sex abuse going back to the creation of the archdiocese in the late 1950s.
Two of those individuals worked at the Catholic Church of St. Ann and Transfiguration Catholic Church in East Cobb, including the latter’s founding priest. Nearly 200 bishops and other church officials are in Rome this weekend at a special sex-abuse summit called by Pope Francis.
Hull said he’s still working through what his sermon message will be to his Eastside congregation Sunday morning, but he is certain that “we will defend the body of Christ on Lower Roswell Road.”
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An Atlanta child psychologist who worked out of an office in East Cobb has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to molestation and exploitation charges, including posting a photo online of a girl he victimized in Cobb County in 2017.
The Cobb District Attorney’s Office on Friday said that Jonathan Gersh, 38, pleaded guilty to six counts of child molestation and four counts of sexual exploitation of children.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster ordered Gersh to serve 20 years in prison and 20 more on probation, according to the Cobb DA’s office.
Prosecutors said the acts took place at the victim’s home at an unincorporated Marietta address. She was eight years old at the time.
Gersh was associated with Intown Psychological Associates, which had several offices in metro Atlanta, including one at 1744 Roswell Road in East Cobb.
A woman psychologist who had been dating Gersh told the court she had been “manipulated” into a relationship with him so he could have access to her daughter, and she called him a “selfish, perverted, manipulative sociopath,” according to the DA’s office.
Gersh was arrested Feb. 14, 2018, after Cobb authorities were alerted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had gotten a tip from Australian law enforcement of an IP address which contained graphic images of child pornography, according to prosecutors.
The DA’s office said Cobb Police got a search warrant on Gersh’s mobile phone, and found more photos of what was termed “child erotica,” including images of children in bathing suits in public places.
“He is an opportunist. He is a child molester. And, he’s an exploiter of children in the worst way,” Cobb Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said.
“These pictures are not baseball cards to be traded. This is pure and simple sex trafficking,” Schuster said in court.
Gersh, who has been in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center since his arrest, will be given sex offender status following his release from prison, the Cobb DA’s office said.
“Aside from this conduct, he’s led an exemplary life,” Gersh’s attorney, Richard Grossman, told the court.
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Marietta Police are suspecting foul play and asking for the public’s help as they investigate the death of a woman whose body was found near Bells Ferry Road Tuesday.
Police said they were called to the area of Bells Ferry and Cobb Parkway North for another reason early Tuesday morning when they found a dead woman in the woods near the intersection.
She has been identified as Kelley Albertson, 57, of Marietta. Police said the preliminary report from the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office “ruled this a suspicious death.”
Police did not say how or when she died.
But they are asking anyone who recognizes Albertson or who may have information on her whereabouts during the last week to contact Marietta Detective Mark Erion at (770) 794-5363.
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An East Cobb man is being held without bond after being arrested for aggravated sodomy, assault and other charges on Sunday.
Kendal Chaves, 34, of Lerose Court, was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on felony charges of aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault and first-degree burglary and a misdemeanor charge of battery, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
He also is charged with driving under the influence of drugs, a misdemeanor.
WSB-TV, which first reported the incident, said the charges stem from the sexual assault of a woman at her home on Colony Drive Friday morning.
That’s in the Lake Colony neighborhood just east of Johnson Ferry Road, and below Little Willeo Road. Chaves’ listed address on Lerose Court is located off Woodlawn Drive, near Dickerson Middle School.
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A former Kell High School teacher who pleaded guilty last week to sexually assaulting a student on campus will serve five years in prison.
That’s the sentence that was handed down to Spencer Herron by Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy, who also gave the former video production instructor 15 years on probation.
Court records show that Herron, 49, who was arrested on June 1, 2018, pleaded guilty last Friday to five counts of sexual assault on a student on the Kell campus.
They involved multiple sexual encounters with a female student that started in 2016, and continued through the 2017-18 school year, according to his indictment in August.
According to his sentencing document, Herron was given sex offender status by Flournoy. As a first-time offender, Herron could have his criminal record cleared if he meets the terms of his probation.
After his release from prison, he is not allowed to have any contact with minors, take up a residence with minors or contact with the victim. He also must abide by other restrictions while on probation.
Herron was a teacher at Kell for 16 years and was the school’s teacher of the year in 2016. In what turned out to be his final year as a teacher, Herron was a member of the Cobb County School District’s Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council.
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An East Cobb man initially suspected of human trafficking in a 2016 search of a home on Little Willeo Road has been sentenced on multiple drug convictions, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
Solomon Santana Noellin, 42, was convicted on Thursday by a Cobb Superior Court jury of possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute, possession of methadone with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, as well as possession of cocaine and Alprazolam, according to DA spokeswoman Kim Isaza.
She said Noellin was given a 30-year sentence by Superior Court Judge Joyette Holmes, with eight years to serve and the rest on probation.
According to Cobb prosecutors, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a rented home on Little Willeo Road in East Cobb on Aug. 9, 2016, based on allegations that sex trafficking activities were taking place there.
When they entered the home, police found cocaine, methamphetamines and other controlled substances and executed a second search warrant, Isaza said.
She said that agents from the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Crime Unit confiscated 61 grams of a mixture containing methamphetamines; three grams of cocaine; 49 methadone pills; more than 350 grams of marijuana; and one bar of Alprazolam at the Little Willeo Road home.
Isaza said two women who were at the scene during the first search warrant denied they were there for trafficking purposes.
According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, Noellin’s home address is listed as being on Canton Road.
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Last week we mentioned a human trafficking discussion at Mt. Bethel UMC that featured Mary Frances Bowley, who leads a local organization fighting childhood sexual abuse and exploitation.
She’s going to be back in the community again next Thursday at a forum on the topic at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.
It’s called “Get the F.A.C.T.S.,” and the acronym stands for Fighting to Abolish Child Trafficking for Sex. The forum is from 6:30-8 in Nolan Hall at the church (4905 Roswell Road).
Bowley started Wellspring Living, which was started in Atlanta in 2011. She is a member of the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, and will be joined at the St. Ann forum by representatives from the Cobb District Attorney’s Office and the Cobb County Police Department.
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Two women were arrested on Tuesday night on drug-related charges near Keheley Elementary School in Northeast Cobb.
According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, Brenda Craver, 63, and Latricia Patton, 40, were taken into custody at 4263 Keheley Road, located around the corner from the school on Keheley Drive.
Craver, of an Acworth address, is facing three felonies, including possession of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 yards of an elementary school. Her bond is $27,720, according to jail records.
Patton, of a Keheley Road address, is charged with possession of methamphetamine and several misdemeanor drug counts, and her bond is $6,820.
Both women are charged with a misdemeanor count of prowling, according to jail records, which indicate they are still in custody.
WSB-TV, which first reported the arrests, said neighbors notified the police after noticing an unfamiliar and suspicious truck at a nearby building.
East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.
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Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church will feature a guest speaker this weekend on the subject of human trafficking.
Mary Frances Bowley is the president and founder of Wellspring Living, which fights childhood sexual abuse and exploitation. The event, “You Can Help: Combat Human Trafficking,” takes place Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m. at the church (4385 Lower Roswell Road).
Last week we noted efforts by the Cobb District Attorney’s office to get a Windy Hill Road motel to address concerns about sex trafficking, with the threat of forfeiting its property.
Bowley is a member of the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, and other related organizations will be onhand at the Mt. Bethel event with information on how the public can help.
Also next Tuesday, Jan. 15, the East Cobb Middle School PTSA is holding a forum on similar topics for middle school and high school students and their parents.
“Hidden Dangers” will explore trafficking issues, social media, “sexting” and pornography. Guest speakers include Susan Norris of Rescuing Hope and Jeff Shaw of Out of Darkness.
The title comes from a U.S. Department of Justice statistic that for 76 percent of predators, their most common first encounter is online.
Last month a Canadian man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a Cobb girl he contacted online, and whom he arranged to meet in person. He was arrested at the Atlanta airport.
The event takes place from 6:30-8 p.m. at East Cobb Middle School (825 Terrell Mill Road), and there are separate events for students and parents. Click here to register.
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Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds said Friday his office has filed a lawsuit to force a Windy Hill Road motel to address sex trafficking and drug activity on its premises or be subject to forfeiting its property.
A release by the DA’s office said the “public nuisance” measure was being applied to The Masters Inn, 2682 Windy Hill Road, located near the Windy Hill Hospital, the junction of Interstate 75 and SunTrust Park.
UPDATED, Wed., Jan. 9, 11:55 a.m.: The AJC is reporting the motel has closed temporarily for renovations, and that the owner has reached an agreement with the DA’s office to address the crime issues.
ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:
Authorities say the motel has been a haven for drug and sex trafficking and was the scene of a deadly shooting in 2015. In late 2017 Cobb Police arrested a man there on felony drug charges and discovered he had been holding a female against her well and using her for sex trafficking, according to the release.
The DA’s office said it was approached earlier last year by a lawyers’ group, Civil Lawyers Against World Sex Slavery, and along with Cobb Police compiled data on hotels in the county with high levels of arrests, especially for drugs, prostitution and trafficking.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Cobb Superior Court, The Masters Inn was known to police as “notorious hotbed of criminal activity that has been the subject of countless investigations.”
The release said The Masters Inn ownership must take the following steps:
contact and cooperate with police about suspected criminal activity;
require valid photo identification of all guests;
maintain complete guest rosters and a list of those previously arrested there;
require staff training to recognize and prevent human trafficking;
hire a licensed and armed security guard;
install outdoor lighting, video surveillance and fencing;
ban loitering.
According to the release, the first of several compliance hearings will be held before Cobb Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs on March 14.
The DA’s office said the suit is believed to be one of the first in Georgia aimed at curbing sex trafficking activity.
The announcement of the lawsuit comes at the end of a week of public events in the state about sex trafficking. Georgia is regarded as one of the busiest states in the nation for sex trafficking, and January is National Sex Trafficking Awareness Month.
Among those taking part were Attorney General Chris Carr and Governor-elect Brian Kemp. The faith-based group Street Grace also has been leading the charge.
The upcoming session of the Georgia General Assembly is expected to include sex trafficking legislation, and efforts are underway to crack down on sex trafficking ahead of the Super Bowl, which takes place in Atlanta in early February.
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An 18-year-old motorcyclist died in March after crashing into a landscaping truck on Johnson Ferry Road. (ECN file).
Two 18-year-olds from East Cobb were tragically killed in Johnson Ferry Road accidents in 2018.
Alexander Seidnitzer, who worked at Zeal Kitchen & Bar and was planning to attend culinary school, was heading southbound on Johnson Ferry near Bishop Lake Road on the morning of March 26 when he slammed into a landscaping truck that was pulling out of a subdivision.
After being rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, Seidnitzer was pronounced dead. No charges were filed in the accident.
On the July 4 weekend, a recent graduate of Pope High School was traveling in a vehicle further up on Johnson Ferry when she rolled down a window and began yelling and screaming before falling out and hitting the road.
Alyssa Prindle, who was planning to attend Georgia Southern University, never left intensive care at Kennestone and died of her injuries on July 25.
The driver of the SUV, 17-year-old Abigail Cook, also of East Cobb, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, DUI and other charges. In November, she was indicted by a Cobb grand jury.
Other major public safety stories for 2018 in East Cobb include the August conviction of a man for the murder of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed to death in his home off Holly Springs Road in January 2014.
Johnathan Allen Wheeler worked at a Woodstock bakery that Moore financed and that was run by Ross Byrne, who was Moore’s roommate. Byrne was charged with homicide two weeks after Wheeler was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Former Pope volunteer wrestling coach Ron Gorman received long sentences for sexually abusing young athletes, both in East Cobb and in Pennsylvania, where he coached previously.
A former Kell High School teacher of the year is facing charges of sexually assaulting a student from 2016 and 2018.
Robert New, a former officer at Cobb Police Precinct 4 in East Cobb, was arrested for aggravated assault of a woman, solicitation of a minor girl, possession of computer pornography and other charges. He resigned shortly after that in June.
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A fire broke out Tuesday at the construction site at Walton High School, where a new gymnasium and fine arts building are being built.
James Kapish, public information officer for the Cobb Fire Department, said the call came in around 4:48 p.m., stating that there was a fire on the roof of the construction area, and that no students nor staff were on scene at the time.
Cobb Fire arrived around 5:55 p.m., according to Kapish, who added that there were no injuries. He said fire crews had the remaining workers safely evacuate.
The superintendent of the construction project said that a section of insulation caught fire, Kapish said, but the reason hasn’t been determined.
Firefighters kept the blaze from spreading and it was contained at 5:22 p.m., he said.
Kapish said the fire was confined to the construction area, and that classes at Walton will operate as normal on Wednesday.
The $31.7 million construction project is taking place on the site of the former Walton classroom building. The new gym and fine arts/theater building, which totals around 151,000 square feet, is scheduled to open for the 2019-20 school year in August.
Cobb schools said preliminary information indicates that the damage from the fire is not significant.
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A Canadian man who had flown to Atlanta to have sex with a Cobb teenage girl last year has been sentenced by a federal judge.
Yves Joseph Legault, 54, from Toronto, will serve 16 years in prison for a variety of sexual exploitation charges that include his attempt to meet a 13-year-old Cobb County girl last year. He also will be on supervised release for life and will be deported to Canada upon his release from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta.
Legault pleaded guilty in September to several charges, including coercing and enticing the production of child sexual exploitation images over the Internet. Federal prosecutors said he preyed on victims in Georgia and Mississippi at the same time.
He was arrested last August at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after getting off a plane for what federal prosecutors was a trip to have sex with the Marietta girl, whom he met via Omegle, an anonymous online text and video chat tool.
During Legault’s trial, prosecutors said Legault and the girl moved their chats to Google Hangouts, where he asked her to perform sex acts for him on a live video stream. Later, he arranged to travel to Georgia to meet her for in-person sex acts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the girl’s mother alerted the FBI after her daughter received a package from Canada, and after intercepting messages between Legault and the girl.
While Legault was facing charges in Georgia, prosecutors also said he had engaged in similar behavior with an eight-year-old girl in Pascagoula, Miss. He was charged there with one count of coercing and enticing the production of child pornography, and also pleaded guilty to that charge in federal court in Atlanta.
“Predators like Legault are always lurking on line, and a threat to our children. Hopefully his sentencing will serve as a warning to all parents to monitor what their children are doing on the internet and on their cell phones,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said both the Georgia and Mississippi cases are part of the U.S. Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.
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A man whom prosecutors alleged ignored his infant daughter’s serious medical emergency at their Delk Road-area apartment last year was found guilty of second-degree murder on Tuesday.
The Cobb District Attorney’s office said Sidrick Raymone Melancon Sr., 32, was convicted by a Cobb Superior Court jury of all the charges against him, including murder in the second degree, cruelty to children in the second degree, and two counts of influencing a witness.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21, and could get up to 50 years in prison.
He was charged after dropping off his daughter to an urgent care location on Aug. 5, 2017 after she was unresponsive and purplish, then leaving the scene with another person to run errands and go to a liquor store, according to prosecutors.
They said at the trial that Melancon delivered the girl’s body “like a sack of potatoes” and that doctors found Laura Higgenbotham, who was 10 months old, suffering from massive bleeding on her brain. She also had bleeding in the eye, some neck trauma and leg fractures, according to testimony presented at the trial.
The child was rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, then airlifted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta before doctors declared her brain dead and removed her from life support, according to prosecutors.
The girl’s mother, Sadai Higgenbotham, 27, texted Melancon the morning of Aug. 5 from her Collingwood Drive apartment that she was unable to wake the child, the Cobb DA’s office said. Sadai Higgenbotham is awaiting trial and also is facing murder and other charges in connection with her daughter’s death.
Melancon was arrested on Aug. 8 and has remained in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond since then.
Also living at the apartment was Melancon’s long-time girlfriend and three children he fathered with her. The woman had threatened to call the Department of Family and Children’s Services for what prosecutors said was Sadai Higgenbotham’s treatment of her daughter.
At his trial, Melancon testified he did not know Laura Higgenbotham was his child at the time of her death. Prosecutors said that investigators reviewed text messages between Melancon and Sadai Higgenbotham and his girlfriend, and alleged that he had asked both of them to lie to police.
According to one of the messages presented at the trial, Melancon said: “I didn’t do anything to that baby, but I didn’t do anything for that baby. So . . . that’s on me.”
Said Cobb assistant district attorney Drew Healy, who tried the case: “This man saw, heard, and was told about everything happening to this defenseless child. Despite all of these warnings, the defendant ignored them, and shut down the opportunities for this child’s life to be saved.”
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