Health & Wellness Sponsored section ►►PAGE 20
Johns Creek music teacher up for Grammy Inspirational educator fills students with his passion for music ►►PAGE 8
Raiders roll over W. Forsyth Mete out 38-6 spanking ►►PAGE 11
September 11, 2014 | northfulton.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 18, No. 36
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN JOHNS CREEK »
Johns Creek takes aim at massage parlors New ordinance not yet tried, but enforcement coming By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com
HATCHER HURD/STAFF
Johns Creek Councilwoman Cori Davenport stands with the JCVA Memorial Walk Chairman Wayne Kidd in what will be Davenport Plaza, the entry way into Memorial Walk. Davenport and her husband John donated the cost of the plaza in memory of his father Marine Maj. John W. Davenport Sr. The Davenports have also donated the Naval plaza and two benches.
Davenports’ $52K donation brings memorial closer Veterans Memorial still $35K short of goal By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Wayne
Kidd, chairman of the Johns Creek Veterans Association’s campaign to build the city’s Veterans Memorial Walk, has a huge smile on his face after talking with Councilwoman Cori Davenport. She and husband John wrote him a $52,000 check to fund Veterans Walk’s en-
Keep Your Business Moving Forward.
try plaza and Vietnam War plaza as well as two memorial benches. “That makes her the largest single donor for the memorial,” said Kidd. “We have had some very generous donors, but we are still $35,000 shy of
See MEMORIAL, Page 6
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Citizens of Johns Creek have noted a peculiar number of massage operations in the city for some time now, and with the right website address accessed, it is obvious certain establishments advertise services of a sexual nature rather than a therapeutic one. This situation rankled many citizens, so March 13, 2013, around 100 of them decided to go to the City Council meeting to ask their council to do something about it. The result has been a tougher massage ordinance that is designed to protect those legitimate purveyors of massage therapy while discouraging those that offer prurient satisfaction. But it has not happened overnight. As Police Chief Ed Densmore explained to the citizens at that March 13 meeting, it is a difficult and time-consuming operation to use the tried and true method of a sting, in which an undercover agent is used to arrest a woman who is actually working as a prostitute. Such a case requires wearing a wiretap, backup officers and an officer willing to be a “john” in the operation.
“And at the end of the day, we have a prostitution arrest, but the business could remain open. Usually, they were open the next day and STEWART the woman out on bail before the arresting officer was back from court in Fulton County,” Densmore told the citizens that night. In the end, the only one really punished in the arrest was the woman, who is often a victim herself. Often, these women in massage operations are near-slaves who may be drug-dependent, undocumented or have the pimps holding their documentation. But that evening, the citizens were demanding action and the elephant in the parlor was at last being discussed. Councilwoman Kelly Stewart called the meeting an “eye opener” for her when these citizens came demanding action. She quickly realized this was a much larger problem in the city. After talking to the police chief and city manager, she went online to find out what clients of these establishments were telling one another and in explicit terms. “I knew we had a problem when I was informed there were more massage parlors in the city limits on Medlock Bridge Road than there were
See MASSAGE, Page 4