Major kudos ...
Put Litter in Its Place
... to volunteers who tackled the monumental task of clearing piles of trash that had accumulated along southbound Wesley Chapel Road at the entrance ramp to I-20 westbound.
Let’s Do Our Part to Keep DeKalb Beautiful
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
April 23, 2016
Copyright © 2016 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Gregory Adams
Diane Adoma
George Chidi
Faye Coffield
Volume 21, Number 52
Jerome Edmondson
Randal Mangham
Rita Robinzine
www.crossroadsnews.com
Edward Patton
John Tolbert Jr.
Nine want to be the next Super District 7 commissioner By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
The race to fill the open DeKalb Commission Super District 7 seat has attracted a crowd. Nine candidates, including seven who have run for office before and a former state representative, qualified April 11-13 to run in the Nov. 8 special election. The six men and three women seeking to
finish Stan Watson’s term of office are:
Lithonia resident.
from Clarkston. n Diane Adoma, a Conyers businesswoman who lives in Lithonia. n George Chidi, a journalist and Pine Lake City Council member. n Faye Coffield, a private investigator and Lithonia community activist. n Jerome Edmondson, a businessman and
state representative who lives in Stone Mountain. n Rita Robinzine, a teacher and DeKalb Democratic Party operative who lives in Decatur. n Edward Patton, a Stone Mountain Realtor. n John Tolbert Jr., a General Motors dealer Please see DISTRICT 7, page 2
n Gregory Adams, a pastor and police officer n Randal Mangham, a lawyer and former
relationship manager who lives in Decatur. Patton and Tolbert are the only political newcomers in the race. All the other candidates have run multiple times for local and state offices, and some of them – Adams and Edmondson – have competed in the same races in the past. This race is Adams’ second run for the
Family files suit over son’s beating at Stonecrest Civil action seeking punitive damages
Chavella Hamm, mother of the injured teen, speaks at an April 20 news conference with Decatur-based attorneys Robert Bozeman (left) and Mawuli Mel Davis.
By Ken Watts
The family of the 15-year-old Atlanta youth who was beaten by security guards last year at the Mall at Stonecrest has filed suit against the mall, the two guards who were caught on video pummelling the teen, and their employers – Securitas Security Services USA Inc. Police did not file criminal charges against three guards in the June 27, 2015, incident, but attorneys for the family said the lawsuit is the family’s quest for justice after DeKalb Magistrate Judge Howard Indermark declined to issue criminal warrants against the guards at a probable cause hearing on Aug. 10. “We haven’t given up on criminal charges,” said attorney Mawuli Mel Davis of the Decatur-based Davis Bozeman Law firm that is representing the family. “We’ll continue to pursue that while we move forward with the civil suit.” During the April 20 news conference to announce the lawsuit filed earlier that day in DeKalb County State Court, the family distributed a photograph showing a deep gash over the teen’s left eyebrow. The family has not identified the teen, saying he is a minor, but his mother, Chavella Hamm, said that while the cut has healed, her son is still grappling day to day with the emotional aftereffects. The civil suit, which is seeking to hold the security guards – Howard Bell of Conyers, John Battle of Covington and Glenn Russell of Stone Mountain – “accountable for the violent attack upon and physical beating,”
Ken Watts / CrossRoadsNews
It also is seeking to hold Securitas and Stonecrest LLC “liable for the acts or omissions of its agents, officers and employees.” Neither the Mall at Stonecrest nor Securitas Security Services USA responded to telephone calls and emails by press time Thursday. According to the suit, an argument escalated into violence when the teen and a small group of male and female friends were inside the mall just before the mall’s 7 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied children under 17. The suit said Bell, Battle and Russell asked also seeks unspecified punitive damages whether the kids were accompanied by an from the defendants. adult, then asked them to leave. It said the beating caused the boy “to sufThe teen said his mother was shopping fer injuries, harm and losses for which the at a nearby Walmart and was on her way defendants bear moral and legal liability.” back to pick them up, but the group agreed Hamm’s 15-yearold son suffered a deep gash to his face and other injuries on June 27 when security guards beat him at the Mall at Stonecrest.
to leave. The document says the guards followed the teens outside, shouted profanities and punched the teen, who has not been identified by name. He suffered the gash when Battle shoved him into a metal bench. A witness captured the incident on video and posted it on Facebook and other social media where it was viewed by thousands. Hamm said she was shocked at the extent of her son’s injuries. “My child was bleeding,” Hamm said Wednesday. “His clothes were ripped and hanging off his body and he had cuts and scratches on his face.” The security guards were suspended without pay after the incident and banned from working at Stonecrest.