In 2013, State Senator Jeff Mullis interfered with a court trial for a friend, contacting a judge who was set to oversee the case – possibly violating the law.

Per legal documents referenced by the Times Free Press, Mullis called Superior Court Judge Brian House three days before House was set to oversee a trial for former Fort Oglethorpe building inspector Mark Lindsay. Mullis was scheduled to appear in that trial to testify on Lindsay’s behalf.

What Mullis said to House isn’t in released court records, but his contact was enough to make House recuse himself from the trial – delaying the case for another year.

(Mullis’ friend, crooked ex-Fort O building inspector Mark Lindsay, was eventually convicted on seven counts of theft by receiving. [He remains free pending an appeal.])

Sen. Mullis – one of the most powerful elected officials in Georgia – admits interfering, but describes his contact as “a good deed.” He won’t comment to Chattanooga media, but told a sympathetic Atlanta reporter he only wanted to speed up the long-delayed case and told House his friend was being “railroaded.”

Motives aside, that’s unethical and probably illegal, because it’s interference with a case. Or as Judge Ralph Van Pelt described it recently, “impermissible communication.”

Mullis is ethically bereft; all about taking care of friends and supporters, inserting himself into situations where he shouldn’t be – even if that means breaking the rules – on multiple occasions, while ignoring the majority of his constituents.

A year earlier Mullis (who takes an extra salary from the county-funded NWGAJDA) actively tried to influence Georgia EPD to ignore environmental damage done by Walker County, after he was contacted by the county attorney. That was also unethical, if not illegal, so why is this latest issue any kind of a surprise?

Senator The Hutt is also the main reason Walker County voters don’t get a say in keeping or dropping Sole Commissioner government. He won’t do it because his friend doesn’t want it done even though a good number of Walker County residents want the issue on a ballot.

His priorities are clear, and being ethical is clearly not among them.       

Former LaFayette Housing Authority employee Lori Baker was arrested again Tuesday, facing three counts of forgery and seven charges of financial card fraud.

Baker allegedly stole someone’s Walmart card out of their house, made purchases with it, then PUT THE CARD BACK. The victim didn’t learn of the fraudulent charges from last month until they checked their bill.

Presumably the victim is another resident of Foster Circle where Ms. Baker is charged with cleaning $12,000 in cash and jewelry out of homes over a three month period, using LHA apartment keys.     

County Development Director Liar Brooks says again that Audia will open on August 1st (less than three months out), but now the plastic plant’s job figures have gone fuzzy again.

WQCH Radio, 06/03/15: “THE RAIL CROSSING AND THE NEW ENTRANCE ROAD ARE THE TOP PRIORITIES AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE OF THE NEW PLASTICS PLANT AT NOBLE. THE CONSTRUCTION IS CURRENTLY RUSHING TO BE READY TO RECEIVE 21 NEW 80-FOOT TALL SILOS, WHICH WILL BE BROUGHT INTO THE SITE ON THE NEW ENTRY ROAD TO AUDIA INTERNATIONAL.

“ECONOMIC DEVELOPER LARRY BROOKS SAID THE SILOS WILL BE USED TO STORE THE PLANT’S RAW MATERIAL AND RESINS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PLASTIC PRODUCTS. HE SAID THE HUGE SILOS WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO THE SITE BY TRUCK, AND SO THE MAIN ENTRANCE ROAD AND ITS RAIL CROSSING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS.

“AUDIA HAS SET AUGUST 1st AS THEIR TARGET DATE TO BEGIN OPERATIONS, AND SEVERAL HIRING EVENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN HELD IN THE AREA. THE COMPANY IS STILL STAYING ‘TIGHT LIPPED’ ABOUT THE TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES TO BE HIRED. WE DO KNOW THAT A SECOND AUDIA PLANT WILL BE STARTED AS SOON AS THE FIRST IS COMPLETED.” [Emphasis added.]

At one point Brooks claimed Audia would hire 150, then 60, now they’re “tight lipped” about employment, again. All three sets of figures have been reported by the same news outlet, WQCH, as factual. (Before naming Audia as the site occupant, Brooks and Heiskell said the company would create 200 jobs.)

NOBODY should do development deals in the blind like this. We should have a signed contract with a minimum number of jobs guaranteed for a number of years, and that ought to be made known to the public.

You’re going to be shocked when it turns out the county has spent $24+ million on a plant that employs ten people and brings nothing to the community except noise and pollution?   

Monday night in the Glen Eden subdivision, several vehicles were broken into, and two driven away, by thieves. Stolen items include the two cars, a computer, and tools.

Residents of Glen Eden Way say the thieves abandoned a vehicle taken somewhere else in their neighborhood in exchange for the two new cars swiped.

Some of the stolen material and the cars have since been recovered in Catoosa County.   

By the time you read this, Hutcheson will have fired and replaced all of its emergency room doctors.

Yesterday lawyers for the failing hospital went before a judge, asking permission to dismiss EmCare as staffing company for the Hutcheson ER and bring in another outfit. EmCare had been supplying Hutcheson’s emergency room with physicians since 2012 – an arrangement lingering from the days of Erlanger’s management of the hospital.

“From October through April, according to Hutcheson’s operating report, an average of 2,400 people each month visited the hospital’s emergency room. During that time, hospital’s average daily census was 26.” [Emphasis added.]

Hutcheson pushed to bring in another outfit named ApolloMD to run the ER, seemingly expecting the new contractor to send people to Hutcheson doctors, Hutcheson services, and Hutcheson patient floors which are practically abandoned now. The old company is referring patients to whatever hospital, doctor, or service is best for them – which probably isn’t Hutcheson in most situations.

Former staffing company EmCare (which had a contract with Hutcheson through July 16th) protested the move, saying it would leave many of their employees jobless on short notice. EmCare also argued that ApolloMD staff hadn’t been given a chance to become familiar with the hospital and its equipment.

“EmCare wants the judge to delay the plan, allowing the company to manage the emergency department for another 90 days. Their lawyers also say this transition period will give Apollo doctors time to walk the halls of Hutcheson and figure out where all the important medical equipment sits.”

No verdict was released, but later in the day Hutcheson formally announced ApolloMD would be taking over the ER effective at 7 AM today. Hopefully by 8 AM they’ve figured out where the medical equipment is located.   

Monday night’s community meeting in Catlett was, like most, poorly attended.

During the gathering Commissioner Heiskell revealed that she and some of her entourage have taken gifts from the parent company of Audia International, including trips to Pennsylvania where the business is based, and a bust of Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

Anywhere else but Georgia and those would be bribes, in return for the sweet development deal Heiskell and Larry Brooks gave Audia to build here.

On Tuesday postcards about the Commissioner’s public meetings finally reached most of Walker County, with nine of the 21 meetings already over and done with.

Not sure of anything that happened in the Chattanooga Valley meeting Tuesday night, but LU heard from several people who wanted to go but couldn’t figure out where in Flintstone the Chatt. Valley fire station actually is. [63 Cubine Rd. No idea.]

Complete communication breakdown, per the usual.       

Commissioner Heiskell is supposed to have another community meeting tonight at 7 in the Catlett fire station. So far the county has not confirmed if the gathering will actually be held as announced.

What enemies will Bebe name tonight? Come out and see for yourself.   

A bad accident yesterday on Hwy. 27 through Trion claimed the life of Vesta Grindstaff. 87-year-old Grindstaff moved to Trion after 2011 tornadoes devastated her home state of Missouri.

Billy Locklear of Summerville was also seriously injured in the crash and taken to Floyd Medical. No updates on his condition.     

Pointless conflict and drama in a local Facebook yard sale group, originating with people unable to properly divide 12 by 48, has gone viral.

Heated argument over nothing except poor math skills and soap has been seen by well over 100,000 people – not to mention the 20,000+ who saw Saturday’s post about it on LU.

[THIS JUST IN: LaFayette can’t do math, and yard sale groups suck.]

An ironic part of this, erm, “soap opera” is the administrator of that yard sale group is Christi Morgan. Morgan mistakenly accused seller Penny Hayes (who did nothing wrong) of trying to rip people off and banned her from the group, but it turns out she was herself arrested for theft in 2011. A fact that came out in the heated discussion.

Christi and her preacher husband Roger Morgan were accused of stealing over $1 million from an elderly relative four years ago. They and their son were also arrested in Tennessee for fraudulently using the same woman’s credit card there.

It seems nothing ever happened in that case (at least on the GA side) because the District Attorney’s office dropped the ball.     

More on the arrest of Hays Prison employee Jessica Nabors for having inappropriate physical contact with an inmate.

Not only was the 19-year-old prison worker allegedly messing around with convicted murderer Jermontae Artez Moss, coworkers say she let him into an area of the prison where he shouldn’t have been in the middle of the night.

She’s charged with sexual assault because that’s the law, but the risks here are mind-boggling. If Nabors let Moss into a restricted area at night to fool around, how much time would it be before she slipped him contraband, or tried to let him walk out..?

Mr. Moss, age 21, is serving a sentence of life without parole for two brutal shootings, one of which ended a life.   

LPD has descriptions of two possible suspects in the Henderson St. house fire. Two men described as “white males in their early twenties, both with dark hair and slender built” last seen heading west on Henderson St. shortly before fire was reported at 520 Henderson.

Nothing so far (nothing made public at least) links them to the Villanow St. or Flora St. fires earlier in the same week, except suspicious timing.

[LU and other media outlets originally reported the Henderson St. fire at an incorrect address. The home that burned is at 520 Henderson.]

The Underground has learned more about the house that burned Sunday on East Villanow: That property actually belongs to the city. It was transferred to LaFayette last fall in a foreclosure situation. That probably has no impact on the fire itself but should be of interest to tax-paying citizens of the city.   

Walker DFCS director Kimberlee Gravitz wasn’t fired, as some earlier reports claimed, only demoted to a lower position within the agency. Per this report, the decision to punish her was made at the state level several months ago.

Gravitz oversaw DFCS while the agency ignored 13 reports of abuse involving a single child in LaFayette, but that may not be the specific reason she was demoted: Additional news stories say Gravitz’s demotion is part of the state’s broader reforms of DFCS and resulted from multiple complaints about agency leadership in Walker County.   

Items stolen out of a storage barn on Grant St. taken by mistake; Summerville couple led to believe the items belonged to a liar who owed them money. A somewhat unique situation…

WQCH Radio, 05/28/15: “YOU MAY RECALL A RECENT REPORT OF ITEMS STOLEN FROM A STORAGE RENTAL UNIT ON GRANT STREET IN LAFAYETTE. POLICE NOW SAY THEY’VE RECOVERED ALL THE STOLEN ITEMS, AND THEY’RE TAKING OUT AN ARREST WARRANT AGAINST A LOCAL MAN FOR THE BREAK-IN.

“INVESTIGATORS SAY THEIR SUSPECT WAS TRYING TO ‘PAY OFF A DEBT’ TO A SUMMERVILLE COUPLE, BY MISREPRESENTING THE STORAGE UNIT AND ITEMS INSIDE, AS HIS. THEY THINK HE BROKE INTO THE UNIT EARLIER, FOUND THAT IT CONTAINED ITEMS OF VALUE, THEN BROUGHT THE COUPLE TO THE STORAGE COMPLEX AND TOLD THEM TO TAKE THE ITEMS IN LIEU OF PAYMENT OF THE MONEY HE OWED.

“VIDEO CAPTURED AN IMAGE OF THE COUPLE’S PICKUP, WHICH POLICE SPOTTED LATER. WHEN PULLED OVER, THEY TOLD POLICE THEY BELIEVED THE SUSPECT’S STORY. ON LEARNING THEY HAD BEEN DUPED, ALL THE STOLEN ITEMS WERE RETURNED – AND WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNER. POLICE EXPECT TO MAKE AN ARREST IN THE CASE.”

Can the guy be charged with outright theft since he didn’t actually take the stuff? Theft by deception maybe?

Lawyers..?   

Last night Commissioner Heiskell held her 4th “public meeting” of the year at the Rock Spring fire station.

Per usual, the meeting was lightly attended (likely due to many in the county never getting notification postcards) but one brave person in the crowd asked Heiskell the hard questions she needs to be asked. And of course got her usual hateful, defensive answers.

An account of the meeting from Matthew Hyde, a paramedic from Rock Spring:

“There were 4 people present not including Bebe and three firefighters on duty. Of the ones present, myself, a seemingly huge Bebe supporter, a concerned citizen, and a Bebe side kick (close county employee).”

[Bebe’s two supporters have been ID’d as a county employee and the spouse of an insurance agent who does a lot of business with the county.]

“The meeting started at 7p and the commissioner boasted bringing the county from the non credible debt owing county it was to what she has made it today. Her main defending points was the improved road and fire departments the county now has operating. I must give credit, the Walker County Emergency Services has come along way since Randy Camp became the fire chief.

“She then changed to more of a defensive tone as she started talking about the Mountain Cove Farm, raising taxes, the bank and Hutcheson.

“The commissioner defended the purchase of the bank by referring to employee heath in the current tax office and the EPA reports that the building is too hazardous to inhabit. Though she states the Environmental Health Services will remain in the old building because they are comfortable and don’t want to move. She plans on giving the old building to the City of Lafayette who will use it as storage.

“Bebe states the immaculate Stearns bank building was a steal by only paying $750,000 for the building which originally cost $3.5 million including property. The cost of the property and updates to building will be borrowed from Sterns Bank. This was done to sweeten the deal in the offer to buy. At one point she asked me what I would do if I was commissioner in the purchase of the bank. The total cost of the update and renovation to accommodate the incoming offices was not known.”

Bebe confirmed it: on top of spending $900,000 to BUY the bank building we don’t need, she’ll also be spending an unknown additional amount to upgrade and renovate the practically brand-new facility before the tag and tax office moves in. That’s more of YOUR tax dollars she’s burning through.