Police were called to the Par at Covington apartment complex in Dekalb County this past Monday evening. The call ended in the shooting death of a domestic violence aggressor. These are perhaps the most emotionally charged calls police have to go on and can often go awry.

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According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, when the responding officer arrived to the apartment, he heard a woman and child screaming inside. Upon his forced entry, the officer was attacked by a man with a knife and fired upon him in defense. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

There is little information about the suspect or the victims of this case, but that is not unusual in situations of domestic violence. So often these situations end badly but typically they are not ended by police.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence reports that last year in Georgia, on a daily basis, well over 170 people are turned away from domestic violence shelters due to limited resources. This means that victims may have nowhere to go when trying to escape an abuser. [Read more…]

On this past Easter Sunday a hit and run accident killed 5 people, 3 of them children. Three cars were involved and the driver of the BMW at fault left the scene and hid the fact that she had been in an accident. This fatal tragedy changed the course of many lives and marked an Easter that they won’t ever forget.

According to Aimee Michael, she had gone out to buy cake and ice cream when she caused this fatal accident. Accident victims included husband and wife Robert and Delicia Carter and their two children. In another vehicle 6 year old Morgan Johnson was killed while her mother currently remains hospitalized with her injuries.

According to this report from WSBTV, Michael went home, parked her car, and hid the accident for two days. After coming clean to her family someone attempted to fix the BMW and Michaels wasn’t taken into custody until 12 days after the accident.

Aimee Michael now faces several felony charges and an extensive prison sentence. She could be facing 5 charges of 1^st Degree Homicide by Vehicle. This serious felony offense carries a potential 3 to 15 year in prison for each count. There is no doubt that Michael’s delay in coming forward may hurt her at trial. [Read more…]

Craigslist is a pretty common place for buying second hand goods these days. The website is essentially a giant garage sale at your fingertips. Occasionally you can find a good deal on high dollar items as well. That’s what 13 Dekalb county residents thought they had stumbled upon when they were later robbed.

In the past 3 months 13 people have been lured to a meeting location to purchase a cheap Sony video game console or an iphone only to be robbed upon arrival. In some of the instances, the robbers had guns. In all of the cases, the robbers made out with the cash the alleged victim intended to use on their great find from Craigslist.

According to this article from the Atlanta Constitution, the San Francisco based website didn’t respond to their inquiries about the situation. This can’t be a surprise to many, simply due to the number of Craigslist scams currently being run. [Read more…]

According to the Atlanta Constitution, despite actual decreases in violent crime, mobilization of grass roots community efforts to reduce crime have risen. A rise in property crimes may be partially to blame for the unsafe feelings that many residents are having.

Property crimes are actually up around the country. You can blame it on the sour economy or the rise in high tech devices luring thieves. In particular, Atlanta Police have seen an increase in home robberies involving flat screen televisions and car break-ins related to GPS devices.

Community organized groups are forming and getting more active as these crimes increase, but osme of them are falsely touting an increase in violent crime as well. As a matter of fact, violent crime in half of the communities saw a drop in 2008.

There have been some highly visible and brazen violent crimes over the past year that are perhaps fresh in the public’s mind. Murders in broad daylight and adult kidnappings are bound to frighten residents due simply to their visibility and boldness.

During this time of budget shortfalls and tough economics, the Mayor has asked Congress for the money to get 200 new police officers on patrol. This simply means the property crimes will hopefully tighten up as more people are caught and more are deterred by increased police presence.

Those crimes seeing increases are larceny and auto thefts, to a certain degree. The charge a perpetrator faces for theft offenses depends on the value of the items stolen. If the value is less than $500 they will face misdemeanor charges and less than 1 year in jail as a potential sentence.

However, if the value is greater than $500 or the theft involves destruction of property or home burglary, the potential sentence is noticeably increased.

The increase in property crimes will bring a greater demand for experienced defense attorneys willing to represent these defendants in courtrooms across the state. If you or someone you know is facing charges like this in Georgia, be certain to contact us.

The Augusta Chronicle reports cases are moving through Richmond County Superior Courts much faster than in years gone by. A new system implemented at the direction of the GA Supreme Court has judges working more efficiently and ensuring criminal defendants are getting through the system in a more reasonable amount of time.

Cases that took an average of 494 days to move from indictment to completion in 1997 and only 161 days in 2008. This is a serious improvement on a system that was bogged down and backlogged with cases. The criminal justice system as a whole is overwhelmed with a large number of cases and limited people to move them through.

Richmond County judges used to work on a calendar system that was in rotation. This meant that you might have one judge arraign you, another try you, and yet another sit at your sentencing. Not only did this broken system move slower, there was not continuity in a defendant’s case.

Now, however, one judge follows their cases from beginning to end. They are responsible for their caseload and getting cases through the system in a more efficient manner.

Another telling nugget of information from the Augusta Chronicle’s report is the results of their analysis of the Richmond County cases from last year. It’s no surprise that theft cases represent the majority of indictments. Theft cases run the gamut from shoplifting to car theft.

For a summary of all the theft charges in Richmond County (under Georgia state law), take a look here.  You can also get information on what type of sentence someone will be facing for that charge.

Faster moving cases means people’s faith in the system is higher. When people believe the criminal justice system is working on their behalf, the system actually works better. Because of the crime rate paired with budget restraints, the courts will always seem crowded and busy but making them work efficiently is the challenge that this new calendar system seems to address.