the NEWS May 30, 2015
Volume 7, Issue 7
Salem, Rockdale graduation, PAGE 8-9
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Serving Rockdale County and Conyers
rockdalenews.com
Murder suicide: man kills wife, self in front of children, PAGE 4
Probate Judge Mays to run for re-election
Felony case withdrawn from Superior Court, to be filed in Magistrate Court By Martin Rand III
mrand@rockdalenews.com
Photos by Darrell Everidge/The Rockdale News
Love of junk, cars leads to movie business By Sandra Brands
news@rockdalenews.com
It started as a hobby; an obsession, really. It morphed into a business—and just in time. Conyers resident Tim Thompson had worked in information technology for the Southern Company for 35 years. On the day he was told that, because of cutbacks, he was to take early retirement he received a call from a movie studio looking to use an old car of his. It was the start of Atlanta Picture Cars. “He went from being very sad to be very excited,” said long time friend, Gerald King. Cars had been his passion, a passion, Thompson said, started when he and King played with toy trucks as five-year-
olds in Redan. His first love was a 1934 Ford pickup truck a friend of his father’s owned in the 1960s. “I don’t know why, I just fell in love with it,” he said. He bought a 1934 pickup in 1988, he said, “and it’s made a lot of money [in the movies] since then.” “Cars are fun,” he said. “It’s just my love for cars that started this business.” It’s a business that’s taken off. Thompson owns 26 antique cars, but has access to over 600 cars, including 75 from Rockdale County. Thompson serves as a broker, renting the vehicles to production companies on request. Currently, he is in conversation with representatives to bring three cars to Memphis for a project that will film in June; with a production company
The case involving Rockdale County Probate Court Judge Charles Mays and former Probate Court worker Freya Pearson is over in Superior Court, having been dropped earlier this month. Pearson’s attorney says they will be filing a case in Magistrate Court instead. After nearly seven months of accusations, Mays’ defense attorney Gary Washington announced Pearson and her attorney, Mike Waldrop, who also serves as Conyers’ attorney, filed a motion to dismiss the application for an arrest warrant against Mays without prejudice on May 5. Two weeks ago, upon request, the Mays camp received a letter from the DeKalb County Superior Court, where the case hearing took place, saying the “there are no more issues pending” and “there is nothing for the court to rule on,” said Washington. “It is over. It is finished. It is done,” said Washington, during a press conference held at the Hawthorn Suites, 1659 Centennial Olympic Parkway, Conyers. Waldrop said afterwards in a phone interview, “It’s neither over, finished, nor done.” Accompanying Mays and Washington at the press conference Tuesday were Mays’ wife, children, other members of his family and friends “who have continually stood beside me,” as Mays described them. On Oct. 15, Pearson, through Waldrop, had
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