FINANCE
MINISTRY
Community building block
Civil rights litigant
Renard Beaty’s dedication to his martial arts students and community helped land a $25,000 Wells Fargo grant. 4
The attorney for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others will wrap up Hillcrest Church of Christ’s Black History Month programs. 6
Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean Please Don’t Litter Our Streets and Highways
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER • STONECREST
Copyright © 2018 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
February 24, 2018
Volume 23, Number 43
www.crossroadsnews.com
Indictment, sentence for workers accused of abuse By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
presented in court show that Hamilton, 54, admitted tasing the woman even though he knew it was wrong. Following an internal investigation, he resigned from the county in February 2012 in lieu of termination. During his Nov. 20, 2017, guilty plea, Hamilton said that on Nov. 1, 2011, he responded to the medical floor of the jail when an inmate asked to speak to a supervisor because her family visitation had been unexpectedly cancelled by jail staff. Instead of explaining the situation to the inmate, Hamilton tased her until she
“Law enforcement officers stand in the gap every day to keep us safe, whether they are patrolling a beat, or a correctional officer working in a jail or prison. Hamilton’s conduct is not reflective of how we expect officers to conduct themselves.”
Two sets of workers who caused harm or death to people in their care are facing legal reckoning. A DeKalb County Jail sergeant and his former supervisor were sentenced by a federal judge to prison and a halfway house Byung J. “BJay” Pak, U.S. Attorney respectively for tasing a female inmate without “legitimate justification,” and two nursing home nurses and an aide who ignored an was sentenced to one year in federal prison sentenced to 21 days of confinement in a elderly man in respiratory distress have been on Feb. 6. When he is released from prison, halfway house for attempting to obstruct the indicted in his death. he will be under federal supervision for three federal investigation into Hamilton’s use of excessive force by making false statements years. Unjustified tasing A day earlier on Feb. 5, Lt. Leonard to the FBI. Dwight Hamilton, who tased the inmate, Dreyer, Hamilton’s former supervisor, was The charges and other information Please see ABUSE, page 3
Broken, abandoned utility poles irk residents Some say dangling lines pose hazard to public safety
A Comcast contractor crew (left) transfers the cable company’s lines from a broken pole with a Bellsouth tag (upper right) at South Rays and Rockbridge roads in Stone Mountain. At 4764 Rockbridge Road, an two pieces of an old pole and wires (middle photo) with the AT&T tag (bottom right) left abandoned near the replacement pole.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
A utility pole, shattered from its anchor in the pavement, is still dangling at the corner of South Rays and Rockbridge roads in Stone Mountain – more than three weeks after it was damaged. The pole, leaning at a precarious angle, is ringed with splinters where it was hit. A lone hubcap sits by the chunk of wood lying on the sidewalk, outside the yellow “Fire Line Do Not Cross” tape. On Feb. 22, a crew from Comcast subcontractor Quanta Telecommunication Services was removing the cable company’s lines from the pole and anchoring them to the new pole when they were done. Terry Mason, Quanta’s project manager, said they were only authorized to free their cable wires from the pole – not to take down the damaged pole. “Comcast doesn’t own the pole,” Mason said. “We don’t know who is the owner of the pole. Only the owner of the pole can remove it.” Mason said that AT&T wires are still on the pole, which had a small metal tag with the word “Bellsouth” branded into the metal. He said AT&T would have to remove its cables before the owner of the pole can remove it. Mason said he did not know why it was taking more than three weeks to take down the damaged pole. He said his company was only given the job of relocating the Comcast cable two days ago. Georgia Power, which owns thousands of utility poles across the county, also did not know Thursday if the pole belongs to it. Craig Bell, a Georgia Power corporate communications spokesman, told CrossRoadsNews that “not all utility poles are owned by Georgia Power.” He was not immediately aware of the
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
broken pole at the corner of South Rays and Rockbridge roads but he promised to investigate the matter. “This could take a few days,” he said. If there are dangling electrical lines, Bell said Georgia Power is the first to get to damage poles. “That’s a safety issue and we get there as fast as we can,” he said. Otherwise, he says that the owner of the pole has to wait for the other utility companies who co-locate on it to remove their lines. Joscelyn O’Neil, a community advocate who is a candidate for House District 86 seat that includes the area, said the hanging pole at the corner of South Rays Road is a safety issue, as are two pieces of abandoned utility pole left lying by the roadside near 4764 Rockbridge Road. “People have been calling me about it,” she said Feb. 22, showing photos she took on Feb. 15 of the damaged pole.
O’Neil said damaged and abandoned utility poles are a common problem in South DeKalb where utility companies don’t act quickly and when they do, some of them don’t haul away their debris. “We have had children playing within 50 feet of cable wire left by my community park,” she said. “Then I begin to notice what the problem is and started contacting the utilities with no results until a news report was done.” Bell said that Georgia Power does not leave broken poles behind. “If we take a pole down, we as a company are not going to leave poles and wires behind,” he said. “But there are a lot of contractors who operate on behalf of utility companies, so it’s hard to say what might happen.” If residents see materials left behind, Bell said Georgia Power wants to know about it. “We want people to contact us when
they see things or if we are not moving fast enough so that we can move faster,” he said. State Rep. Michele Henson, who represents the area and lives close by the dangling pole that is across the street, said she only became aware of the broken pole at Rays Road this past weekend when she saw comments about it on Nextdoor and Facebook. “I am not being remiss about my job,” Henson said Thursday night. “I live two streets away but I use a different street to get to Rockbridge Road and didn’t go that way to see it.” Henson said the issue of utility poles has come up at PRISM meetings and they have invited George Power and AT&T to come to a meeting to discuss the issue, but AT&T was a no-show. On social media pages, residents frustrated by the problem describe contact and Please see POLES, page 3