Ron Gorman

Top East Cobb stories for 2018: Johnson Ferry Road accidents claim two teenagers; 2014 murder conviction

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Johnson Ferry Road accidents
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.

Friends, family and work colleagues held a celebration of life event in his memory at Zeal.

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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Former East Cobb wrestling coach pleads guilty to child molestation

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Ron Gorman, who served as a volunteer coach with the Pope wrestling teams, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court on Tuesday to two counts of child molestation.Ron Gorman, former East Cobb wrestling coach

Gorman, 53, was given a 25-year sentence by Judge Gregory Poole, with 20 to serve without parole, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

Gorman was to have gone on trial after being charged with abusing a 14-year-old boy in Cobb County in 2010, according to prosecutors, who said the victim disclosed the abuse last year to authorities in Monroe County, Pa.

That’s where Gorman had been sentenced to 20-40 years in February for sexually assaulting boys there, including the boy prosecutors said was also victimized in Cobb.

According to the Cobb DA’s office, Gorman was extradited to Cobb to face the charges here and will be returned to Pennsylvania, where he will serve his sentences concurrently.

“This is a prime example of how child predators can work their way into positions of trust and authority, and then turn that trust into a weapon against children,” said Chuck Boring, Cobb deputy chief assistant district attorney and head of the Cobb DA’s special victims unit.

Gorman moved to Cobb in 2009 and was a volunteer with Pope Junior Wrestling, which feeds into the highly successful Pope High School program, where he also was a parent volunteer. He also was a coach at Life College in Marietta.

Gorman was arrested at his East Cobb home in March 2017 and eventually was charged by Pennsylvania authorities with a total of 513 counts, including child rape and statutory sexual assault.

His accusers in Pennsylvania claimed Gorman subjected them to frequent and continuous assaults, sometimes on a weekly basis, for several years, including in Georgia.

News reports last March and earlier this year quoted a Cobb woman who became concerned about Gorman in 2011. That’s when she saw a crude, sexually themed Facebook message sent by him to her son, then 12, and a member of the Pope junior wrestling program.

She said she was told by then-Pope principal Rick Beaulieu not to go to law enforcement. Gorman was suspended from any involvement with Pope wrestling for a year, but it was six years later that he was charged.

Boring said in court Tuesday that there are no other charges that Gorman is facing in Cobb. In Pennsylvania, prosecutors heard allegations that Gorman abused minors dating back to the 1980s, but the statue of limitations had run out.

“Hopefully this conclusion gives his victims some sort of closure and justice, whether they have reported his abuse or not,” Boring said.

 

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Former East Cobb wrestling coach sentenced in Pa. for sexual abuse

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A former East Cobb wrestling coach who volunteered with the Pope youth program has been sentenced to a long prison term in Pennsylvania for sexually assaulting young boys he once coached, according to news reports there.

Ron Gorman, 52, will serve 20-40 years, according to WNEP-TV. He pleaded guilty in November in Monroe County, Pa., to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child.

According to Monroe County prosecutors, Gorman also was required to enter a guilty plea in Georgia as part of his plea deal in Pennsylvania.

Ron Gorman, former Pope wrestling coach
Ron Gorman after he was taken into custody in Monroe County, Pa., in March 2017.

The district attorney’s office said the crimes in Pennsylvania began in 2006 in the East Stroudsburg area, where Gorman lived and coached.

He moved to the Marietta area in 2009, and was a volunteer coach with Pope Junior Wrestling, which feeds into the Pope High School program, one of the best in Georgia and a winner of several state championships. Gorman later was a coach at Life University before he was charged in Pennsylvania.

According to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, Gorman’s victims, now 20, accused him of a long series of abuse beginning when they were 10 years old and while they were involved in a youth wrestling program where Gorman was a volunteer coach.

Gorman was arrested at his East Cobb home in March 2017 and eventually was charged by Pennsylvania authorities with a total of 513 counts, including child rape and statutory sexual assault.

After being detained in Pennsylvania, he was held on $1 million bail. His accusers claimed Gorman subjected them to frequent and continuous assaults, sometimes on a weekly basis, for several years, including in Georgia.

News reports last March and earlier this month quoted a Cobb woman who said she became concerned about Gorman in 2011 when he she saw a crude, sexually themed Facebook message sent by him to her son, then 12, and a member of the Pope junior wrestling program.

She told the AJC she went to then-Pope principal Rick Beaulieu, whom she said told her not to go to police.

Gorman eventually was investigated in Georgia, and that probe alerted authorities in Pennsylvania, according to WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pa.

Gorman also has been accused of other molestations in Monroe County that were reported to police there in the late 1980s, but they could not be prosecuted due to a statute of limitations, the district attorney said.

The district attorney’s office also said at the time of Gorman’s guilty plea that he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

 

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