Fresh Loaf

Number of for-profit probation companies in Georgia that make money off people who can’t afford their misdemeanor court fines: 39

Number of people fined for misdemeanors who became clients of for-profit probation companies as soon as a 2000 law paved the way for the companies: 25,000

Amount of money that a former state official accepted from a for-profit probation company after he “strongly encouraged” the legislation: $75,000

Months in prison the official received for accepting the bribe: 6

Year that the Georgia Legislature passed a law allowing for-profit probation companies to keep their records secret: 2006

Minimum monthly payments that the for-profit-probation lobby unsuccessfully sought from misdemeanor probationers during last year’s legislative session: $50

Minimum monthly payments that felony probationers pay: $23

Amount that an Americus high school student was fined for violating his learner’s permit: $155

Amount he ended up paying after making monthly payments to a for-profit probation company: $505

Source: Profiting from the Poor: A report on predatory probation companies in Georgia, by the Southern Center for Human Rights

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AIG: U.S. taxpayers save the insurance giant from its own bad investments via the Fed’s historic $85 billion bailout, which, despite its unfairness, was needed to prevent the worldwide financial bedlam that would follow an AIG collapse.

STREET CRED: Wall Street’s free fall has given Obama an opening, but while he does poll better than McCain on the economy, he doesn’t poll as well as a generic Democrat against a generic Republican.

PALIN: Not ready to be Hewlett-Packard CEO, according to former HP chief and McCain economic adviser Carly Fiorina, who then dug herself an even deeper hole by adding that McCain couldn’t lead the company either.

ALDERMAN: The convicted murderer was executed Tuesday for the 1974 killing of his wife.

ERR LIKE A SAILOR: Disgraced former Georgia lawmaker Ron Sailor Jr. is sentenced to 63 months for fraud and money laundering.

FUEL AND FAR BETWEEN: Ike has left the city of Atlanta with just 15 days worth of fuel, prompting the closure of two fueling stations and a plea to city employees to conserve.

STANDOFFISH: A fugitive wanted in a 2006 Atlanta murder is arrested in Chicago after a standoff.

THE YOST IS CLEAR: After being unexpectedly fired by the Brewers, there’s some speculation that former Braves third base coach Ned Yost could end up back in Atlanta.

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AJC.com skimmers may have noticed two contradictory headlines yesterday.

“Violent crime increases across metro Atlanta”

and

“Atlanta figures project violent crime drop in ‘08.”

The first story reported that, in 2007, crime in Atlanta was way up despite an overall national decline in crime.

The AJC cited crime stats issued by the FBI. We reported the increase on Fresh Loaf in June using reports available at AtlantaPD.org.

The second story noted a decrease in the rate of violent crime in Atlanta during the first six-months of 2008.

That’s the good news.

The bad news — the rate of burglaries and larcenies are up 17 and 19 percent respectively this year. Overall crime is up 9 percent so far this year in Atlanta.

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The five four men who abducted two lawyers leaving an East Atlanta bar last year were given prison sentences ranging from 15 to 22 years, AJC.com reports.

The incident garnered national attention and came in the midst of a perceived spate of crime.

(Weirdly, all four of the kidnappers are named Christopher. Thanks to Pecanne Log for pointing out that bit of weirdness.)

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After four hours of deliberations today, a federal jury in Tennessee disregarded the testimony of a government witness who changed his story on the stand and convicted the defendant, Rejon Taylor, of the 2003 murder of Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck, Chattanoogan.com reports.

The jury will now enter the sentencing phase of the trial, during which it will decide whether Taylor deserves the death penalty.

Luck, who owned Violette on Clairmont Road, was kidnapped in Atlanta and driven to Tennessee, where he was shot to death by his captors — two of whom testified against Taylor in order to be spared the death penalty.

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UPDATE: Feds get conviction

Last week, testimony from one of the star witnesses in the federal government’s death penalty case against Rejon Taylor, the accused killer of French-born Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck, took an unexpected turn.

The witness, Sir Jack Matthews, had been indicted along with Taylor and a third man, Joey Marshall. Both Matthews and Marshall pleaded guilty to the murder of Luck, who owned Violette restaurant on Clairmont Road, and they agreed to cooperate.

In exchange for their pleas, the two men would be spared the death penalty. For their cooperation against co-defendant Taylor, they stand the possibility of having their mandatory life sentences reduced.

Marshall took the stand first, two weeks ago, and his testimony was what prosecutors expected. According to Chattanooga’s TimesFreePress.com, Marshall described how he, Taylor and Matthews burglarized Luck’s upscale home in the months leading up to his death, then — after finding out that Luck was pressing charges against Taylor — kidnapped him and drove him to Tennessee. Shortly after crossing the state line, Matthews and Taylor shot Luck, Marshall said.

A week later, however, Matthews gave a version of events that dramatically differed from Marshall’s. According to Chattanoogan.com:

Sir Jack Matthews shocked prosecutors on Thursday by completely reversing his earlier statements and saying he, Taylor and Joey Marshall had been on a trip with the restaurant operator to deliver a package of marijuana to a house in Collegedale [Tennessee]. Prosecutor Steve Neff on Friday said that testimony by the government witness was “inherently ridiculous.”

But that’s not all.

(more…)

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OK, so maybe “wave” is a bit of an exaggeration. But there’s at least some anecdotal evidence that evacuees of Louisiana’s two most frightening hurricanes are stirring up trouble in Georgia.

Most recently, there were the alleged blue-jean-bandit copycats who struck in Buckhead after being displaced by Gustav. And earlier this week, a Katrina evacuee was sentenced to life in prison for a murder in Athens.

Hopefully, the crimes won’t eclipse the contributions and hardships of the evacuees who’ve worked to make a new life here.

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In the spring of 2003, French-born Atlanta restaurateur Guy Luck met with a DeKalb County detective regarding a recent burglary at his home. The suspect, 19-year-old Rejon Taylor, had been caught trying to buy high-end electronics with a credit card obtained in someone else’s name. Back at Taylor’s apartment, investigators discovered 40 more credit cards in that person’s name — as well as a briefcase and checks that belonged to another of his apparent victims, Luck (pronounced LUKE).

The detective asked Luck if he wanted to press charges. He did. Little did he know that his decision would cost him his life – and set into motion a chain of events that culminated in a federal death penalty trial that opened in Chattanooga last week.

The trial is expected to last six weeks, and it marks the first-ever capital case to be brought in the Eastern District of Tennessee. Federal death penalty cases are rare. But prosecutors claim the substantial premeditation and planning that precipitated Luck’s death – the details of which are described in more than 600 filings in the case – qualifies Taylor for the ultimate penalty.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)

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Bad times down in Tyrone, a little town in Fayette County, as revenues have fallen way below the cost of keeping potholes filled and cops on the street.

But, are you serious?

The Police Department, hit with a July fuel bill of $9,000, nearly double the average bill, has changed shifts to reduce police vehicle use.

Officers also will use a golf cart recently bought with confiscated drug funds.

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VICE GRIP: Obama says he’s picked his vice presidential candidate, but instead of finding out who it is, we get a podium. The NYT lists the most-discussed candidates of both parties here; the AP reports that Sam Nunn seems to have dropped out of the running.

HOUSEKEEPING: McCain and his countless homes can’t get out of the news as the Obama campaign capitalizes.

FAY: After overstaying her welcome in Florida, Tropical Storm Fay moseys into South Georgia today, bringing several inches of rain, which could help some drought-stricken crops. Many of this year’s record sea-turtle nests on the Georgia coast have been destroyed by storm surges, though. Metro Atlanta will get high winds but not much rain.

PANHANDLING: Undercover cops have made 40 arrests and 50 “interventions” in aggressive panhandling in the last 20 days.

POP GOES THE MEASLES: Outbreaks of the infectious disease are at a 12-year high, and many health professionals are blaming parents’ fears of MMR vaccines leading to autism.

RED, BLACK AND GREEN: Preseason No. 1 UGA could also be the top revenue-generating college football team this season, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

FREE LUNCH: A masked robber steals a Macon man’s lunchbox at gunpoint.

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The following offenses appear on a list of crimes for which Georgians can be imprisoned. The list is available on the state Department of Corrections’ website. Go figure.

Advocating the overthrow of government

Bestiality

Cheating & swindling

Child born out of wedlock

Disrupting the General Assembly

Fornication & adultery

Leave scene had injuries

Machine gun activities

Marry a bigamist

Necrophilia

Offenses against public transit

Sale/possession/etc. model glue

Seduction

Violation of bingo rules

Wife beating

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WELL-TO-DO: Former Loafer Alyssa Abkowitz writes in the WSJ how affluent Atlantans such as Tyler Perry and Tom Glavine are getting around watering restrictions by installing wells.

MATTER OF PRINCIPAL: Cobb County school board members say they hadn’t heard a middle school principal was under investigation for sexual harassment when they promoted him to principal of North Cobb High School last month.

TRIAL BY FIRE: Cherokee County firefighters are the latest in metro Atlanta to invest in thermal-imaging cameras that allow them to find hidden hot spots and victims through smoke.

CLAYTON: The school system hires 400 new teachers despite the looming accreditation crisis.

CHASE CLOSED: A North Carolina man leads police on a chase through several Atlanta and DeKalb County neighborhoods Wednesday morning, eventually being caught after trying to flee his car.

FIGHTING DOGFIGHTING: The Humane Society has been blitzing Georgia the last few months with ads promoting a $5,000 reward for information leading to dogfighting arrests and convictions.

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Reading the headlines today (aside from the one about the Braves’ inevitable loss) was a little bit like reading about a crime wave on the Island of Dr. Moreau.

The animals have turned on us. All of us. Even ex-American Idols. Sounds like a case for Marcus Livengood.

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Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane (a.k.a. Radric Davis) was arrested at a Henry County roadblock Wednesday and charged with DUI, as well as possession of a firearm and marijuana.

Last month, Gucci’s once-nemesis, rap superstar Young Jeezy (a.k.a Jay Jenkins), also was arrested after a traffic stop. Then there was last year’s T.I. debacle — for which he got off with something of a wrist-slap.

All of this begs the question: Is metro Atlanta becoming a hip-hop police state? Or are these incidents inevitable?

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