Fresh Loaf

John Henderson

The reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspects who murdered John Henderson, a bartender at Standard Food and Spirits, has doubled.

The AJC reports that the $5,000 reward originally offered by Atlanta Crime Stoppers, a program of the Atlanta Police Foundation, now totals more than $10,000. Much more information is available at the Grant Park Neighborhood Association’s page on the fundraising efforts.

The paper also reports that police are investigating whether the guns fired in the Wednesday morning crime may have also been used in recent robberies.

Police ask anyone with information about the robbery and homicide at The Standard to please call Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477. You can also visit the website.

If you’d like to make a contribution to the John Henderson Memorial Fund, visit the Grant Park Neighborhood Association and follow the links to donate via credit card. Checks and money orders can also be sent to the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, P. O. Box 89235, Atlanta, GA 30312. Designate “John Henderson Memorial Fund” on the donation.

(Photo courtesy of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association)

Bookmark It

CBS 46 (”We ask the tough questions! Eat that, liars!”) reports Atlanta City Council President Lisa Border’s Southwest Atlanta home  was burglarized a few hours after Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Monday speech in which she said crime in the city had gone down. The robbers, who kicked in Borders’ front door, made off with a 26″ flat-screen television. (Click the link above to view the report.)

Another tip of the hat to Grayson for sending the link.

Bookmark It

Grayson Daughters produced an excellent video of this morning’s vigil for John Henderson, the Standard Food and Spirits bartender who was murdered early Wednesday morning during a robbery at the Memorial Drive restaurant.

Bookmark It

As mentioned in Joeff Davis’ earlier post about this morning’s vigil at the Standard, local residents Kyle Keyser and Tessa Horehled have started an advocacy group for Atlantans to connect and stay informed about crimes and other issues affecting the community.

The group, called Atlantans Together Against Crime and Cutbacks, is in its beginning stages. (Residents can share stories and information about crimes with other members on the group’s Facebook page.)

Keyser writes:

The Facebook forum will be for sharing accounts of violent crime that effect those within our community, as well as posting updates on news, protests, and other tools to help bring awareness to this issue. The mailing list below will be used to share information on gatherings, protests, and lobbying efforts to fight cutbacks. You will not be inundated with email and will only notify you of big events (estimated at a few emails a month).

Bookmark It

Management and employees of Standard Food and Spirits have established a memorial fund for John Henderson, the 27-year-old bartender who was murdered at the restaurant after a robbery early Wednesday morning.

“We are offering what help we can financially and emotionally to his family,” Chris Johnson, owner and general manager of Standard Food and Spirits, said in a press release from the city. “John was very outgoing and very lively and supportive. Our hearts go out to his parents, extended family and his many friends. It’s unfortunate that someone would take another life in such a senseless crime.”

Tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., Southeast Atlanta residents will hold a vigil for Henderson at The Standard. Management and staff are also planning a memorial service at the restaurant in the near future.

To contribute funds to the John Henderson Memorial Fund, visit the Grant Park Neighborhood Association website and follow the link to make a donation via credit card. Checks and money orders, noted as “John Henderson Memorial Fund,” can be mailed to the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, PO Box 89235, Atlanta, GA 30312.

Bookmark It

UPDATE: Standard Food and Spirits’ management request the event be a vigil, not a protest, and that participants do not bring signs or placards. Participants are encouraged to bring candles to light as a tribute to the victim. The post below has been edited to reflect the Standard’s request.

Southeast Atlanta residents shaken by the this morning’s murder of a bartender at Standard Food and Spirits will hold a 7 a.m. vigil tomorrow at the Memorial Drive restaurant.

Rally participants are encouraged to bring candles to light.

For driving directions to The Standard, visit here. To find the nearest public transit that serves the restaurant, visit here.

Bookmark It

RATTLED: Little Five Points resident Kyle Keyser says his Dec. 17 mugging reflects how brazen Atlanta crime has become.

On Dec. 17, local video producer and blogger Kyle Keyser stopped at the Pizza Hut on North Avenue to pick up a late dinner for his roommate’s boss. Five men stood outside the pizza joint. One asked Keyser if he’d buy him some food. Keyser, sympathetic to the man’s hunger, said sure.

But the restaurant was closed, and as Keyser returned to his car, the five men surrounded him and pushed him against a nearby vehicle. One shoved a gun to his neck. They demanded money. Keyser said he didn’t have any but handed over his ATM card.

The men took Keyser’s cell phone and wallet and ordered him to lie on the ground. One suspect, pistol in hand, took aim.

“I’m gonna shoot him,” Keyser recalls the suspect saying. “I’m gonna shoot this motherfucker.”

“Don’t shoot him,” pleaded the guy who Keyser had offered to buy food.

“Naw,” the gunman said, “I’m gonna shoot him in the leg.”

Keyser, face down on the pavement, braced himself for a bullet. Instead, he saw five pairs of sneakers walk off. He sensed he had an exit, jumped in his car, and sped toward Midtown to call the police. He says bank receipts show the suspects purchased food with his card at a gas station a block away.

“OK, people get mugged and asked for money,” says Keyser, whose house has been broken into twice. “There’s a certain amount of crime that you associate with living in the city. It’s not forgivable, but it’s understood. You know it’s going to happen. What concerns me now is the spike in violent crime.”

Read the rest of this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

Bookmark It

Researchers at the University of Georgia and University of Missouri say people at risk of drinking and driving are less likely to get behind the wheel if they think they’ll be caught in the act.

Essentially, all the laws in the world won’t to deter people from cruising after boozing — it takes convincing them they’ll be stopped in the never-awkward roadblock.

All U.S. states have laws designed to deter impaired driving, but there is little evidence on what works to deter drivers who have a high risk of drinking and driving. The researchers found that the existence of laws, such as the .08 blood alcohol content and open container restrictions, affect only those less likely to drink and drive, and the actual number of impaired driving arrests in a state has no significant effect on drivers’ likelihood of drinking and driving.

“Essentially, law enforcement needs to focus on perceptions; it is important that drivers perceive that they will be caught if they drive impaired,” said Lilliard Richardson, professor in the MU Truman School of Public Affairs. “We found that high-risk drivers are less likely to drink and drive if they perceive they are likely to be stopped or arrested by police. However, the mere existence of laws designed to discourage people from drinking and driving does not impact high-risk drivers. The results provide support for the value of high-visibility enforcement campaigns. Public safety education and media efforts are important components of the overall strategy for reducing impaired driving.”

Now a show of hands: Who got behind the wheel after pouring a punchbowl down their gullet at the cul-de-sac Christmas bash? Yeah, me neither!

(Photo courtesy of Help-for-DUI.com. Tip of the hat to Joeventures)

Bookmark It

From the AJC:

A Fulton County jury announced today that it is “hung” on whether to sentence convicted murderer Brian Nichols to death.

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford said the jury was asking for advice on how to proceed in its deliberations. Bodiford prepared to call the jury into the courtroom for a conference Thursday morning.

The jury is split 9-3. Bodiford did not inquire whether the majority favored a death sentence or life imprisonment. He said he would have the jury continue deliberating after lunch.

Bookmark It

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

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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.)

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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…)

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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)

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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.

Bookmark It

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?

Bookmark It

Governing Magazine, a great policy mag whose recent article about Atlanta’s gentrification craze we already linked to yesterday, published a mini-profile on its website about Mayor Shirley Franklin and her mos def of deft skills: “indirect leadership.” The profile’s author, Stephen Goldsmith, is a former mayor of Indianapolis, and by golly, he knows good leadership when he sees it.

The gist of the story: When Franklin took office, the city had two separate courts — one for traffic and moving violations, one for all other city-code violations. Franklin saw low-hanging fruit and reached out to pluck it. Since she had no direct control over the city’s justice department, she gathered support in the legal community and was open with the judges involved. With the help of a pro bono analysis conducted by a consulting group, Franklin was able to consolidate the court operations and personnel. The move saved $7 million. Additional reforms created the “single, technology-driven paperless court” Goldsmith discusses in his article. The city’s court budget has been trimmed a total of $19 million, he says.

What are some examples of Franklin’s “direct leadership” skills?

Bookmark It

The FBI’s annual compendium of national crime stats shows a decrease in every major category of crime nationwide.

Atlanta, on the other hand, registered an overall increase in crime of 11 percent, driven by double-digit increases in the number of robberies, burglaries, auto thefts and murders.

Neither the mayor’s office nor Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington’s office were willing to comment, but APD Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of Atlanta’s police union, blames part of the increase on sagging morale among the rank-and-file. It’s the result, Kreher says, of the city’s failure to adequately fund the department as well as what he describes as Pennington’s absentee leadership. Kreher says he hopes the mayor will replace Pennington with someone else from within the department.

City Council President Lisa Borders — who is also a candidate for mayor — calls the increase in crime “unacceptable” and says it must be addressed by city leaders immediately. “At this pace, increased crime threatens to reverse many, if not all of the gains the city has made over the past decade,” she says.

(Chart by Erin Washburn)

(NOTE: The print edition of Creative Loafing includes a mislabeled version of the chart shown above. I apologize for the error.)

Bookmark It