Crime

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Security video from a Georgia jail shows a detainee being pushed against a wall by guards and repeated punched in the head and neck after five deputies come into the man’s cell.

An attorney for the detainee, 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs, released the video Monday. Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels said authorities should pursue criminal charges against the sheriff’s deputies in Camden County who swarmed Hobbs, who is Black, after he was booked for traffic violations and drug possession charges Sept. 3.

“It’s undeniable that Mr. Hobbs was approached by jailers and he was assaulted, punched multiple times in the back of his head, kneed in his head and dragged out of his cell,” Daniels said. “This is a brutal beating, a brutal attack.”

Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor’s office said in a statement Monday that the sheriff had reviewed the video with members of his command staff and ordered an internal investigation “to begin immediately.” The sheriff’s office did not release any details about the jailers involved, including their races.

Daniels questioned why nothing happened sooner. The confrontation between Hobbs and the jailers happened more than two months ago, and Hobbs was charged with fighting the deputies that same day.

A spokesman for the sheriff, Capt. Larry Bruce, declined to answer further questions, including whether the guards involved remained on duty.

Jail records show Hobbs, of Greensboro, North Carolina, was arrested Sept. 3 in coastal Camden County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah. He was initially booked on charges of speeding, driving on a suspended or revoked license and possessing an illegal drug.

Kelly Sifferd, a former actor with whom he briefly dated Harvey Weinstein testified at the Toronto International Film Festival when she was 24 in the early 90s that she was sexually assaulted by a producer in 1991 and again in 2008.

She said the jury that after Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to look at a movie script for a potential role, he forcibly gave her oral sex and raped her, despite her repeatedly telling him to stop. Years later, during a chance encounter at TIFF, when she was about to confront Weinstein for assaulting her nearly two decades later, he cornered her in a hotel bathroom and masturbated in front of her.

Over the years, Sifferd told a handful of friends about the alleged assault, but did not report the assaults to authorities until much later. She testified Monday in Los Angeles that she told her friends what happened between 2012 and 2016. But when Weinstein’s defense questioned Sifferd, they asked why she waited to go to police until after the #MeToo movement, which began with Weinstein’s shocking stories in 2017.

“You told the authorities for the first time,” said Weinstein’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, after “the whole world turned on my client and accused him of being everything under the sun, including a sex offender.”

Several Georgia residents are under arrest after police followed a trail of candy wrappers to smash a burglary ring.

Police said a series of break-ins in homes and cars took place in Coweta County between Oct. 4 and 7, according to The Newman Times-Herald.

“The offenders were burglarizing homes and entering autos in an area close by to where they lived,” said Sgt. Toby Nix, public information officer for the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.

The critical clue in cracking the case came from a man who said he was robbed of clothes, guns, ammunition and a chainsaw.

The thieves’ downfall was not those items, but a bag of Milky Way candy bars in the victim’s refrigerator.

Sweet tooth and trail of candy wrappers lead to arrest of burglary suspect. Coweta County investigators say Gerald Bennett is part of a ring breaking into homes and autos. Couldn’t resist taking the candy and throwing down the wrappers as he headed home #milkyway @FOX5Atlanta pic.twitter.com/RhWJC21nkC

— Doug Evans (@dougevansfox5) October 25, 2022

“During our walk on trails through the woods, he was able to point out some of the wrappers,” investigator Christian Spinks said, according to WSB-TV.

“And when he found one wrapper, we were able to walk a little bit further and find another wrapper. And so on and so forth. And it just formed a trail, and it showed us exactly where the individuals had walked,”

The trail of wrappers led investigators to multiple locations.

Georgia elections once again dominated the headlines with the new allegations against Senate candidate Herschel Walker (R) of paying for the abortion of a woman who also later fathered one of his children.

Walker is challenging incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock (D), who flipped the long-held GOP seat in 2020. The latest controversy underscores the high stakes of what could once again be the pivotal contest in deciding the balance of power in Congress's upper chamber.

On the same ballot, Georgians will also cast their vote in the country's highest-profile gubernatorial election, where national voting rights advocate and former Georgia State House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D) is in a rematch with Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

Peach State Politics
While Georgia has long been a GOP stronghold, Democrats have made significant gains in a rapidly growing and diversifying electorate which put the state in play as a presidential battleground for the first time in decades.

Dunwoody, Oct 4, 2022 — Herschel Walker, who has vehemently opposed abortion rights as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, paid for an abortion for his girlfriend in 2009, according to a new report published late Monday. The candidate called the accusation a “flat-out lie” and said he would sue.

The Daily Beast spoke to the former girlfriend, who asked that her name not be used out of concerns for her privacy. The news outlet reviewed a receipt showing her $575 payment for the procedure, along with a get-well card from Walker and her bank deposit records showing the image of a $700 personal check from Walker dated five days after the abortion receipt.

The woman said Walker encouraged her to end the pregnancy, saying that the time wasn’t right for a baby, The Daily Beast reported. As a candidate, Walker has characterized abortion as “a woman killing her baby” and has played up his opposition to the procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year stripping a woman’s constitutional right to access abortion services.

In a statement, Walker said he would file a lawsuit against The Daily Beast on Tuesday morning.

“This is a flat-out lie — and I deny this in the strongest terms possible,” he wrote.

Matt Fuller, the politics editor for The Daily Beast, tweeted in response: “I can tell you we stand behind every word and feel very solid about the story.”

Later Monday night, Walker appeared on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News, where Walker was asked if he recalled sending a $700 check to a girlfriend.

A report that Republican candidate Herschel Walker paid for his then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009 has roiled the high-profile Georgia Senate race.

On Monday evening, had urged his girlfriend to end her pregnancy and included a signed check from Walker to cover the procedure, a receipt from the abortion clinic, a “get well” card from Walker and corroboration with friends of the women, who remained anonymous. Walker has staked out a staunchly anti-abortion position in the campaign, saying the procedure should be banned with no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother.

Walker disputed the Daily Beast’s report in a statement, calling it a “flat-out lie” and saying, “I’m not taking this anymore. I [am] planning to sue the Daily Beast for this defamatory lie. It will be filed tomorrow morning.” Public figures’ lawsuits against media outlets have a high bar of proof in the U.S.; it’s unclear what evidence Walker may offer in court to attempt disproving the report.

When asked about the $700 check during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s primetime Fox News show, Walker said, “I send money to a lot of people,” noting that he gives scholarships and “is always helping people.” Walker said the report was a “flat-out lie” and said it left him “energized.”

In contrast to material damage, an injury to the body, mind, or emotions is referred to in law as a personal injury. The phrase “personal injury” is most frequently used in common-law jurisdictions to describe a certain category of tort action in which the plaintiff has experienced harm or damage to their physical or mental health.

According to Georgia law, anyone who suffers an injury as a result of the careless or negligent actions of another person or entity has the right to hold that person or entity financially liable for the damages brought on by the injuries. By putting the plaintiff back in the original position they were in before the injuries, damages are meant to make the plaintiff whole. In other words, personal injury lawsuits are brought against the person or entity that engaged in negligence, egregious negligence, reckless behavior, intentional misconduct, or in some circumstances, strict liability, and caused the harm.

Personal Injury Claim in GA

If you were injured in an accident and it was someone else’s responsibility, you can file a personal injury claim in court. It is the official procedure for obtaining payment from the other party that caused your injury.  In Georgia, a personal injury claim rewards those who have been injured in accidents or by societal injustices such as character slander. In these situations, the damaged party is referred to as the plaintiff, while the defendant is the one being sued.

Personal injury claims can take many different forms, including:

• What is the Georgia Helmet Law For Motorcyclists?
• How Wearing DOT Approved Motorcycle Helmets Can Affect Your Personal Injury Claim
• When Does My Failure to Wear A Helmet Affect My Motorcycle Accident Settlement or Verdict?
• An Important Note About Comparative Fault in Motorcycle Accident Cases in Atlanta
• Contact Spaulding Injury Law After A Motorcycle Accident in Atlanta

What is the Georgia Helmet Law For Motorcyclists?

As a motorcycle accident lawyer in Atlanta, I can tell you that Georgia law requires all operators of motorcycles and those riding on a motorcycle to wear a regulation compliant helmet at all times while the motorcycle is moving. Under the law, a compliant helmet must be what in rider terms is frequently referred to as a “DOT helmet.” In other words the helmet must met the Federal safety standard to ensure adequate protection.

Unfortunately, many of the popular, cool looking helmets are not DOT helmets. Before purchasing a helmet make sure it has a sticker or other packaging indicating that it meets the Federal safety standards. If it has a sticker, you are going to want to keep that sticker on the helmet. If it does not have a sticker, keep some packaging material that identifies your helmet and reflects that it meets the requirements.

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Georgia investigators have made few public statements in the gruesome murder of Debbie Collier, a 59-year-old Athens office manager found naked, burned and clutching a tree at the bottom of a rural embankment earlier this month – but they are expected to reveal more on Friday as the three-week mark approaches.

Collier’s daughter and husband reported her missing on Sept. 10 in Athens. Deputies with the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office found her remains 60 miles away the following afternoon, with “charring” on her stomach.

The daughter, Amanda Bearden, told Athens-Clarke police she received a Venmo payment of $2,385 and the message, “They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.”

Bearden said her mother’s car was in the shop and identified her rental as a Chrysler Pacifica, which Habersham deputies found abandoned off Route 15, a quarter-mile from her body.

DEBBIE COLLIER MURDER: UNFIRED ROUND FOUND NEAR SEEN OF GEORGIA WOMAN’S UNSOLVED SLAYING

The Venmo payment and the fact that Collier’s remains had been partially burned are key clues that detectives are likely dissecting as they make other investigative moves behind the scenes.

The burning, in particular, shows either extreme malice or an attempt to hide evidence, according to Teresa Leto, a retired first-grade homicide detective who served 30 years in the NYPD.

As police investigate the murder of Georgia woman Debbie Collier, a threatening note allegedly from the boyfriend of Collier’s daughter has emerged.

Collier, 59, of Athens, was reported missing on Sept. 10. The next day, her naked and partially charred body was found in a ravine in a wooded area in Habersham County, about 60 miles from her home.

On the day she went missing, Collier put $2,385 into the Venmo account of her daughter, Amanda Bearden, and wrote a message saying, “They are not going to let me go, love you there is a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door.”

A Georgia mom found dead in a ravine the day after sending a desperate text to her daughter was nude with severe burns, per the NY Post. Debbie Collier, 59, was 60 miles from home after wiring $2,385 to her daughter, along with a chilling note on September 10.@DonnyBrennan pic.twitter.com/YNTFSPkoet

— SNN (@SNNTV) September 20, 2022

Two weeks later, no one has been arrested, according to Fox News.

However, a note allegedly written by former amateur MMA fighter Andrew Giegerich and threatening violence has now come to light, according to the New York Post.

“If you or your family ever come near me again I will hurt them,” the note said.

“Have a nice life you lying a** b****. Don’t ever contact me again!!!” the note also said.

The note came to the attention of police during a May 2021 domestic violence investigation involving Bearden and Giegerich.