Georgia Headlines

The Satilla Riverkeeper organization is hosting a cleanup of two sections of the river Saturday. read more

FOLKSTON - A.I. "Len" Robbins' first venture posting a video on his newspaper's website has exceeded all expectations. read more

The federal government is accusing Satilla Regional Medical Center and a Waycross physician of defrauding government health care programs by submitting claims for "worthless services" that also endangered patients' lives. read more

BRUNSWICK - Former Brunswick Police Chief Edna Johnson has turned down a job as the city's grant coordinator and emergency management liaison, electing instead to retire with 30 years of service. read more

Two Jacksonville teens charged with fatally shooting University Christian schoolmate Makia Coney Feb. 10 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday morning. PHOTO GALLERY: View images from the Makia Coney case Connor Pridgen and Charles Southern, charged initially with first-degree murder, will face 40 years to life when they are sentenced in October. They never faced the death penalty — applied only in first-degree murder cases — because it is not allowed for juveniles under state law.  One of the biggest questions in the case was also answered during the plea hearing: Prosecutor Mark Caliel described the slaying as a thrill kill. Caliel said Southern admitted to planning armed robberies with Pridgen and wanted them to shoot Coney so they would know what it would feel like to shoot a gun. Pridgen said nothing about the robberies but admitted he wanted to kill someone to know what it was like. “Their actions personified evil,” Caliel said after the hearing. “This was senseless killing. An act that frankly is without reason, without justification. It’s inexplicable.” Both teens said little during the hearing, primarily answering with a "yes" or "no" to Circuit Judge Libby Senterfitt's questions. Coney's family declined to comment, as did Pridgen's. Southern had no family in court. After the hearing, Southern's attorney, Rhonda Peoples-Waters, said her client was remorseful. "Certainly there is not any excuse justifiable for the actions on that day," Peoples-Waters said. Caliel said Coney met Southern and Pridgen while they were still at school and she thought their plans for later that day was to go buy some cigars after school and smoke them in the woods. But after she walked away from them, Southern and Pridgen talked of killing her to further their plans of violence, Caliel said. He described her as a victim of opportunity. “When Charles Southern pulled the truck up to the front of the school and Connor Pridgen walked Makia Coney out of the school, it was with the intent to kill her that afternoon,” Caliel said. He said Southern shot Coney first, followed by Pridgen. They used separate guns stolen from the home of another schoolmate. Caliel said he discussed the plea negotations with Coney's family, which he said agreed with the decision. Caliel said one reason for the plea negotiations is that both teens admitted to why they shot Coney, changing their original stories in which Southern said it was an accident and Pridgen said he killed the wounded girl out of mercy. "Our job as prosecutors is to seek the truth and the only way we can guarantee that the truth of this horrible action would come out is by accepting these plea dispositions," Caliel said. Caliel said the teens could have faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder, while they face 40 years to life as part of the second-degree plea. Pridgen's attorney said she and he agreed to enter the plea. Peoples-Waters said Southern decided to accept the deal against her wishes. She hoped to negotiate more lenient sentence. Coney was reported missing from the private school on University Boulevard and her body was found a few hours later in woods three miles away. Coney was shot twice, but the motive had not been revealed. Testing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicated fragments found in one wound were fired from a revolver recovered at Pridgen's home, reports said. Additionally, tire tracks matched Southern's truck and students reported seeing him with a revolver the day before the shooting. Pridgen was seen on school surveillance video exiting a hallway with Coney the day of her killing. Both teens were arrested two days later. Classmates of the victim and suspects told police about the relationship between them and mentioned odd behavior by both murder suspects after Coney disappeared. One student said Southern laughed while discussing rumors at lunch that Coney had been shot in the head. At one point, he said he wished he had seen the shooting and he told another student he had hidden a gun where police would never find it, the reports say. Pridgen told classmates he had been exonerated. A day after the shooting, the normally stoic teen started crying and had to leave school, his classmates told detectives. Some students told police that Coney was attracted to Southern, and he told detectives they had an on-again, off-again relationship that included an occasional sexual encounter, the reports indicate. Others said Coney denied a sexual relationship with Southern before she died. The students also were divided about where Coney was headed when she left school that day. Some said she was going to buy marijuana; others said she didn't use drugs. Several students also said Pridgen sold marijuana at school, and Southern had recently begun selling drugs.

The Satilla Riverkeeper organization is hosting a cleanup of two sections of the river Saturday. Paddlers in canoes and kayaks will work on a 2- to 3-mile stretch of river near Jamestown in Ware County. People with motorboats will take care of an area near Blackshear. A picnic for Satilla Riverkeeper members will follow and new members are welcome. Those who wish to participate should meet at the Georgia 121 bridge between Hoboken and Blackshear at 8 a.m. Boat rentals are available. Trash bags and a garbage bin will be provided. For reservations or more information, call (912) 510-9500 or send an e-mail to kellie@satillariverkeeper.org .

ATLANTA – An administrative law judge recommended Wednesday that Gov. Sonny Perdue remove three Warren County school board members because their actions jeopardized accreditation of the rural county’s school system. Administrative Law Judge John B. Gatto released documents today advising that board members Clara B. Roberts, Cecil Brown and Charles Culver be removed. It is uncertain when Perdue might act upon the finding. “He wants to review the recommendation of the judge before making a decision,” said Michelle Parks, a Perdue spokeswoman. If the three members are removed, it would mirror an earlier case in Clayton County in which Perdue removed four members of the school board in 2008 after a similar hearing. In rendering his recommendation, Gatto wrote: “This Court finds sufficient evidence that respondents’ actions have jeopardized Warren County School System’s accreditation with SACS and that such actions have breached the public trust. Even if the Warren County School System ultimately retains its SACS accreditation, this court concludes that respondents’ actions have breached the public trust by placing that accreditation in jeopardy and negatively impacting an entire community.” Legal action was brought against the three school board members by a group of nine Warren County residents seeking their removal from office.

ATHENS — Lawyers for convicted murderer Troy Anthony Davis made “a strategic decision’’ not to call two witnesses at last month's federal court hearing and should not be allowed to use their choice to re-open the evidence, attorneys for the state argued Wednesday. Davis’ attorneys have worked for 15 years to gather evidence to prove his innocence and had plenty of time during two days of testimony before U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. to present their case, the state contends in its 13-page filing. “They chose only to call 'the most important witnesses,’’’ attorneys with the Georgia Attorney General’s office argued. “[Davis] still seeks to claim that he has not been afforded his day in court.’’ Davis remains on Georgia’s death row at Jackson on his murder conviction and death sentenced in the Aug. 19, 1989, slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Moore held hearings June 23 and 24 to allow Davis’ appellate team to present evidence to “clearly’’ establish his innocence. Last week, those lawyers asked Moore to reconsider his decision to reject hearsay testimony that another man, Sylvester Coles, killed the officer. Moore has not indicated when he will have his ruling complete.

ATLANTA — Gov. Sonny Perdue called to order the first meeting of a special tax-reform commission Wednesday afternoon and then passed the chairman’s position to banker and former Atlanta Olympics executive A.D. Frazier. Before he did, the governor noted that convincing the General Assembly and new governor to approve the commission’s eventual recommendations will be critical and difficult. No one knows who the new governor will be next year when the commission submits its recommendations for changing the state’s tax laws, and nearly one-third of the assembly that created the commission will not be returning. “The tough work begins when the ball is handed off because there are going to be some things that are not necessarily politically palatable,” Perdue said, adding that legislators may be skittish since any tax change can be used as a weapon by political opponents. After all, total taxes could go up as a result of the recommendations. Frazier said after the two-hour organizational meeting that the commission is focused on drafting job-creating policies rather than aiming for a certain level of state revenue. It is not bound to any requirement to hold steady the total taxes brought in by the state, he said. “I expect to see our actions as a manifestation of economic development, as a manifestation of job creation, good business judgment, not so much an effort to fund existing expenditures,” he said. “Someone asked if it will be revenue-neutral. I don’t expect it to be revenue-neutral at all. “We’ve got a gap in the state budget because of a loss of stimulus money. So, we may flatten the rate and broaden the base. I don’t know,” he said. “I refuse to speculate on what we’re going to do.” Frazier said he will decide how to proceed in future meetings around the state based on what other commission members want when he confers with them individually. He couldn’t say whether they would devote individual meetings to certain types of taxes or look at policies next. To illustrate how politically sensitive the commission’s task may be, moments after the first meeting ended, one gubernatorial candidate fired off a statement to the news media. Republican Nathan Deal offered a warning to the commission. “Reform recommendations should not increase taxes at all,” he said, though he did add that existing exemptions should be examined to see if they merit continuation. Their elimination would result in higher taxes if other cuts aren’t made at the same time. Georgia has 119 sales tax exemptions and about that many corporate income tax exemptions. They were enacted in hopes of spurring jobs for one sector of the economy or another, but the state doesn’t regularly monitor to see that they are working. At the same time, the commission must deal with steady declines in the state’s two main sources of revenue, sales taxes and personal income taxes. House Speaker David Ralston instructed the panel to focus on a tax system that is business-friendly and provides a more stable revenue stream for the state. The commission will present its recommendations Jan. 10 to a special legislative committee which will draft them into a single bill. Lawmakers in the House and Senate won’t be able to make any changes in the bill before they vote on it. Neither will the new governor, who will have the power to veto it. walter.jones@morris.com, (404) 589-8424

FOLKSTON — A.I. “Len” Robbins’ first venture posting a video on his newspaper’s website has exceeded all expectations. Nearly 200,000 viewers worldwide have visited the Clinch County News website since Robbins first posted a startling video on July 11 showing dozens of alligators in an apparent feeding frenzy. The alligators were churning the waters near the boat ramp at Stephen C. Foster State Park near Fargo on the west side of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Several days after upgrading the paper’s website to show videos, Robbins said the international attention began. “It took four or five days, and boom!” he said. “I’m still getting eight YouTube comments an hour, at least.” Robbins said a newspaper from Paris, France, called Tuesday for permission to post the video. Initially, Robbins said he didn’t watch the video, which was sent by a Facebook friend. But after his wife watched it, she insisted he take a minute to check it out himself. “To see this many alligators is startling,” he said. “They [normally] don’t work in conjunction with each other.” Sarah Aicher,  a wildlife biologist at the refuge, said she was shown the video by a fellow ranger who told her she’d probably be questioned about it by media. Sure enough, a few days later her office starting getting calls for interviews. Aicher said she has heard of alligators participating in what she described as cooperative feeding but had never seen the behavior before she watched the video. “I wish I would have seen them feeding,” she said. Aicher said low water levels likely led to the alligators gathering to feed on fish trapped in pools of water. She questioned the wisdom of the fishermen who took the video as their boat was bumped and splashed by feeding alligators. “They probably felt they had the protection of the boat,” she said. “It probably wasn’t that wise.” Ray Cason, the Clinch County man who took the video, could not be reached Wednesday. Robbins said Cason was offered money for the video by national media but refused the offers. Instead, he gave the video to Robbins to help promote Fargo and the Okefenokee swamp. Travis Griffin, manager of the state park, said the video’s popularity hasn’t led to more visitors, other than some media requests for interviews, but that could change. “It’s just hitting the national media now,” he said. Griffin said park staff have been instructed to be on the lookout for large gatherings of alligators, but he doesn’t expect it to happen again anytime soon. “It’s a very rare occurrence,” he said. “It might happen again. We’ll keep watching for it.” If the alligators gather again, Griffin said he has instructed his staff not to rent out boats or canoes until the animals stop feeding and leave the area. But he insisted it’s safe to visit the state park and boat or canoe in surrounding waters. Griffin said he would never risk driving a boat through a narrow canal with more than 100 alligators unless his duties forced him to do so. “If something would have happened like a rescue, I would have had to do my job,” he said. “Otherwise, I would have waited until they left.” As for advertisers, Robbins said they shouldn’t expect nearly 200,000 hits when he posts his next video. That one shows the media frenzy from his posting of the alligator video. “It’s good for advertisers,” he said. “But, they’ll probably be disappointed when I put on a video and it only gets 3,000 hits.” gordon.jackson@jacksonville.com, (912) 729-3672

The federal government is accusing Satilla Regional Medical Center and a Waycross physician of defrauding government health care programs by submitting claims for “worthless services” that also endangered patients’ lives. The government asserts the hospital allowed the physician, Najam Azmat,  to perform highly specialized surgical procedures on patients at its Heart Center Cath Lab that he was not trained or authorized to do. That misconduct endangered the lives of those who received benefits from the federal health care programs Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Waycross. The suit states those patients didn’t know that Azmat was not qualified or competent to perform the endovascular procedures, that he lacked the necessary training, had never done them before and didn’t have those privileges at the hospital. Azmat performed unnecessary procedures that were of no medical value. Fraud resulted when the health care programs were billed for those surgeries, the government stated in the suit filed under the federal False Claims Act. The lawsuit is intended to recover the federal money paid to Azmat and Satilla for “those worthless services,” the suit says. Justice department lawyers say the amount to be repaid will be determined later. Azmat could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His lawyer, Adam Ferrell of Blackshear, said they had not had an opportunity to thoroughly review the 65-page suit. “However, Dr. Azmat strongly disputes any allegation that while treating his patients he committed any act or omission that would constitute a violation of the [False Clams Act]. Accordingly, Dr. Azmat will present a vigorous defense against any such allegations made against him in this case,” Ferrell told the Times-Union. Hospital spokesman Clay Thomas characterized the lawsuit as unfounded and old news. Thomas said it is a whittled-down version of an old complaint, which also is unfounded. “The amended complaint is hardly news. It is essentially a narrower version of a four-year-old medical malpractice claim that has yet to prove a single fact,” Thomas said. The hospital “will continue to defend itself vigorously against these meritless allegations,” he said. Although separate, the government suit is rooted in a 2007 whistleblower lawsuit filed by Lana Rogers, a nurse who formerly worked at the hospital’s Heart Center. In April, the government intervened in that suit, but now is proceeding with its own. By filing the suit, the government would be eligible to recover up to three times the amount of its losses if it wins in court. It also would be eligible for civil penalties based on the number of false claims filed, according to the law. The case illustrates the need to protect patient safety and the integrity of federal health care programs by “aggressively enforcing our health care fraud laws,” said Tony West, assistant attorney general with justice department’s civil division. “When health care providers cut corners by allowing unqualified doctors to perform complicated medical procedures, patients suffer,” West said in a prepared statement. The lawsuit accuses hospital administrators of covering up for Azmat and ignoring repeated complaints from cath lab nurses that he was incompetent to perform the surgeries. “The hospital took no formal action for at least five months, during which patients were seriously injured and one patient died from hemorrhagic shock following an endovascular procedure during which Dr. Azmat perforated her renal artery,” the suit says Suspending Azmat, the lawsuit states, was not in the financial interest of the hospital because it counted on his surgeries to help offset a drop in revenues generated by the cath lab. Thomas said although the suit requires more study, it appears to have abandoned many of Rogers’ original claims, particularly those against hospital employees. “This means the government has effectively thrown out a significant portion of the so-called whistleblower’s lawsuit,” Thomas said. Chief U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood will preside over the trial of the suit, which had not been set for a hearing Wednesday. The government has used the False Claims Act to recover about $3 billion in cases of health care program fraud nationwide since January 2009, records show. teresa.stepzinski@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405

BRUNSWICK — Former Brunswick Police Chief Edna Johnson has turned down a job as the city’s grant coordinator and emergency management liaison , electing instead to retire with 30 years of service. Johnson's lawyer Neil Henrichsen contacted City Attorney Lynn Frey before a noon Wednesday deadline, saying his client would not accept the commission’s job offer but wished to retire effective Sept. 17. “I think it’s a smart thing for her to do that,” Frey said. “She had a bunch of accumulated leave so she won’t lose that, but would let that carry forward until her anniversary date [on Sept. 17].” City employees who reach the 30-year milestone receive increased retirement benefits, according to Brunswick Administrative Assistant Gail Mobley. Neither Johnson nor Henrichsen returned calls. Johnson was fired last month for giving city leaders incorrect information about disciplinary action she took against an officer who had sex with a prostitute. She said she had suspended the officer for 10 days because he did not know the woman was a prostitute and had passed a polygraph. An internal affairs report showed the officer had failed the polygraph and had then admitted knowing about the prostitution. That report was available to Johnson. City Manager Roosevelt Harris advised Johnson to resign, and when she refused, he dismissed her. Johnson appealed the case to the City Commission, which upheld the dismissal, but offered Johnson a new job as grant coordinator. Even though Johnson initially refused to retire, on Wednesday Frey said she had not technically been fired because of the appeals process. The city commission’s decision amounted to a demotion The retirement option also remained on the table, he said. Even if Johnson had been fired, as a vested employee she would have still received retirement benefits she had earned.

Matthew Reid is a 13-year-old whose 2-year-old stepbrother, Aidyn, is dealing with cancer. If that’s not enough, Matthew stutters, making him the target of school bullying, he admits. But thanks to eloquent words he wrote about his life with stuttering, his spoken words now flow more easily. Matthew’s essay won a SpeechEasy Sean Anderson Scholarship. And a tiny hearing aid-like device was presented to him Wednesday at Wolfson Children’s Rehabilitation Services in Jacksonville. He called that “pretty sweet.” “I actually feel pretty excited and it just feels awesome,” Matthew said after a few minutes of steady speech with the device. “His stuttering had gotten so bad everybody was getting a bit aggravated,” said his mother, Dora Reid. “It is so different to actually have a conversation with him. … I can’t ask for a better blessing, with the exception of healing Aidyn. This is a blessing beyond words.” Matthew is a tall teen with two older sisters and his stepbrother who live in Waverly, Ga., with Dora and Mark Reid. His stuttering lengthens and sometimes stalls words. Home-schooled for three years due to bullying and Aidyn’s medical issues, he had to stop speech therapy when his stepbrother was diagnosed with germ cell cancer and underwent nine chemotherapies, 25 radiation treatments and 11 surgeries. He admitted that school with a stutter was very tough, so he couldn’t wait for the device so he could go back to class as an eighth-grader. “Every other week, this one kid would try to pick fights, but that’s just how he is,” Matthew said. “I want to just talk a little bit smoother and just hope people would stop making fun.” The road to SpeechEasy started when the Wolfson staff noticed Matthew’s stuttering when he was there visiting Aidyn and arranged an evaluation. He was urged to write an essay about how stuttering affected his life, which won the scholarship. Started by Ocoee residents Andy Anderson and Martha Lopez-Anderson, the scholarship provides free SpeechEasy devices and therapy to children who stutter. It is named in memory of their 10-year-old son Sean, who received the device nine months before his death in early 2004. Looking like a hearing aid, the $4,700 SpeechEasy mimics what is called the choral speech effect. That’s when stutterers improve when they talk, sing or read with other people, said Judy Hammer-Knisely, the speech pathologist who evaluated him. “The stutterer thinks someone else is speaking with them,” she said. Hammer-Knisely placed the device in his left ear Wednesday and asked his mother to help with simple exercises. “How do you think this is going to help you with your brother?” Dora Reid asked. “It will help a lot because I wouldn’t want him to try and talk like I do,” he answered. Lopez-Anderson said she had happy memories as she held her late son’s photograph through Matthew’s first session. “I see the same progress and the same improvement I saw in my son,” she said with tears in her eyes. “A child should have an opportunity, besides speech therapy, to have an improvement in their stuttering, anything that will give them the tools to not withdraw.” This is the fourth year a child served by Wolfson rehab has received the Florida scholarship. dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

A 13-year-old Waverly, Ga., 13-year-old with a stuttering issue received a new SpeechEasy device Wednesday that lets him speak more naturally, after his essay on how rough life is with the stutter won him a scholarship award.