The Chattooga County Branch of the Dixie Mafia
Chapter 1 - Branch Connelly
Part II
The following will be Part II of the synopsis and analysis of a GBI Report, # 01-0178-01-07, comprised of numerous entries, from several sources, including Special Agent Joe Montgomery, the GBI Crime Lab and Chattooga County E-911. I had several complaints that I was writing to much, and that readers resented that I was not printing directly from the GBI report. I am printing directly from the GBI report - however, I think that because Special Agent Joe Montgomery refers to himself in his reports in the third person, that readers have confused this as me writing all of this.
*Any comments/analysis about the report, are in bold italics, and preceded by an asterisk, as in this paragraph. These comments are not MY opinion, but are the consensus of a team of FBI, GBI, retired GBI, and members of the legal profession, both prosecutors and criminal defense.
As we have stated from the beginning, We do not wish to cause pain for any member of the Connolly family, immediate or extended.
The Morning of:
1. Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office Incident Report - Case Number 2007-02-3913
Reporting Officer CS10, Tom Kendrick :”On above date, approximate time and location reporting deputy was dispatched to a call in reference to a death. Upon arrival, reporting deputy found the following people who were already at the residence, Mrs. Connelly, Mr. Bobby L. Cook, Rex Abernathy, MICHAEL MACK, Ladon Lively, Herbert Dodd and two(2) unidentified EMS personnel. Reporting deputy secured the scene until CIS units arrived and took control”.
2. Entry 136508:”Investigator Schrader stated that he arrived at the scene at [Address], Cloudland, Georgia, after receiving a call from Chattooga County 911 stating that Branch Connolly had shot himself in the head. The Phone call had been made by Connelly’s wife, Kristina Cook Connelly. Investigator Schrader stated that when he arrived on the scene he met”:
Judge Connelly
Her father Bobby Lee Cook
Attorney Rx Abernathy and Ladon Lively.
*SA GBI Joe Montgomery’s report, based on Investigator Schrader’s statement, differs from the first officer on the scene, in that the name of Michael Mack is missing. Michael Mack is the driver/body guard for Bobby Lee Cook, and his presence is curiously left out of all of the rest of the reports. Michael Mack is currently deployed overseas, and is unavailable for comment.
Gunshots in the Morning vs. Single Gunshot the Evening Before
1. Entry 136656, (Interview Neighbor Husband):”[Neighbor - Husband] stated that he is not normally up that early, but he had some business in Rome he needed to attend to , so he had gotten the dogs up early in order to walk them. [Neighbor - Husband] stated that his wife was still in bed and he was walking the dogs in the woods toward Highway 48. [Neighbor - Husband] stated he could not tell where the shot came from, but he did hear one, maybe two shots. [Neighbor - Husband] stated that he could not be sure of how many shots there were or where the shots came from. [Neighbor - Husband] stated that living in the country they hear shots sometimes, but it is hard to tell where they originate”.
*Compare to these statements.
2. Entry 136656, (Interview of Neighbor Husband): “Agent Montgomery asked [Neighbor - Husband] if he had heard a shot Saturday night. [Neighbor - Husband] stated that he had not. [Neighbor - Husband] stated his wife had woke him up sometime after 11:00PM and told him that he had heard a shot. [Neighbor - Husband] stated he advised them to call the sheriff’s office. [Neighbor - Husband] stated that his wife had shined the flashlight in the yard and they may have seen something”.
3.Entry 136638, (Neighbor - Wife Interview):”[Neighbor- Wife] stated on Saturday night, her husband was asleep, and her daughter was visiting from Nashville. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that night at 11:22PM, she heard a gunshot near the residence. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that she knew it was a 11:22PM because she and her daughter were watching TV and saw the time on the TV. [Neighbor- Wife] stated she got up, went to the door with a flashlight, and looked over toward the Connelly residence. [Neighbor- Wife] stated she saw the lights were on in the living room. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that she and her daughter thought they saw someone in the dark”.
*The general consensus of the team is that Branch Connelly could have very well been shot the preceding evening, when the Neighbor and her daughter heard the gunshot, and observed someone outside in the dark. Only one shot was heard at that time. The shots heard by her husband the next morning could likely have been hunters in the early morning, as the Neighbor husband was not sure how many shots he heard. This would be more consistent with hunting, shots fired outside and echoing in the chilled air. The problem with confirming this theory is that a male answered Branch Connelly’s phone, although as the neighbor wife made it clear, it did not sound/seem like Branch:
Entry 136638, (Neighbor - Wife Interview): “[Neighbor- Wife] stated that they then called Branch Connelly to make sure everything was okay and to see if they (the Connelly’s) had heard the shot. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that Branch was very quiet and did not say a lot, and it was very unusual for him. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that Connelly told her that he had not heard anything, told them goodnight, and hung up. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that was very unusual for Connelly not to be very talkative no matter what the hour of the day”.
*If this was not Branch on the phone, who was it. If Branch had already been shot, then who made all of those calls from Branch Connelly’s phone, and WHY WAS THERE no investigation detailed in the GBI report about who was called - no explanation in the GBI report about the phone calls, whatsoever.
The Crime Scene and Autopsy Incongruities.
We will try to be as careful as possible, but there are elements of the crime scene and the autopsy which are crucial to understanding that this was probably not a suicide. VERY close, personal friends of Branch Connelly have asked that we make the case, to prove it was not, if the evidence is there to support other than a suicide. Please, if you are close to the family, or if you are squeamish, PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER.
Everyone on the team has looked at the crime scene photos, including myself.
1. Position of Gun Relative to the Body -
a) Entry 136524 - “The body was located under blankets and sheets with the arms and upper torso located above the covers. A black shotgun was located in the right hand of the body, and also near the left hand of the body”.
b) Official Report Division of Forensics Sciences, GBI, IDLJ69Y20Z0GXYEI
“The body is wearing:
1. Blue Boxers
2. White Sox
*Both the pictures and the CSI diagram show the gun laying perfect straight on top of Mr. Connelly, almost perfectly straight. It is the general consensus of the team that with a shotgun blast, the gun would most likely have recoiled with such motion as it probably would not have allowed for the gun to fall perfectly positioned on Mr. Connelly, in such a straight line.
* Both the pictures and the CSI diagram show Mr. Connelly’s right hand on the gun barrel . It is the consensus of the team that Mr. Connelly’s hand would not still have been carefully holding the gun barrel in the position, although it is possible.
*It is the general consensus of the team that Mr. Connelly was in bed, asleep, under the covers, or at least had been, as this is the position in which he was found, and photographed.
2. Remarkably Short Fingernails, Aspirated Blood and Clenched Fist & No TOD
a) Entry: Official Report Division of Forensics Sciences, GBI, IDLJ69Y20Z0GXYEI
“The fingernails and toenails are cut remarkably short, precluding harvesting for trace evidence”
b) Entry: Official Report Division of Forensics Sciences, GBI, IDLJ69Y20Z0GXYEI
“The larynx, trachea and bronchi are lined by an intact gray-tan mucosa and are free of injury, though there is prominent blood staining associated with aspiration of blood”.
c) Photo Analysis reveals Mr. Connelly left hand resting partially on his left side, with a clenched fist.
d) No where in the entire GBI report is there a reference made to a time of death. At no place in the autopsy is this estimated or pinned down. At no point in the initial CSI description, is the time of death estimated or referred to.
*Given the manner of dress, the repose under the covers, the aspirated blood in the airways, and the clenched fist of the left hand, as well as the staged looking position of the shotgun, and in conjunction with the lack of estimated TOD, and the total lack of basic answered question, (as in the phone call log), it is the consensus of the team that Mr. Connelly’s death was very likely, not a suicide. Was Mr. Connelly awakened in his bed to find a shotgun being shoved in to his mouth, cause him to breath in the blood, prior to the shotgun being fired?
*It is the general consensus of the team that the large number of persons present at the Connelly home before even the first Officer arrived, is indicative that a crime occurred for which damage control was required.
*It is also the consensus of the team that gross errors in the gathering of evidence and documentation of this death were made, by a seasoned GBI agent, which begs the question, WHY?
It is our hope that as difficult and painful as this Chapter has been to study, discuss, and report, that we have somehow raised enough questions to allow a serious and formal investigation to be reopened in Mr. Connelly’s death. His children deserve this, and his memory deserves this. Questions about the events brewing in the BLC Kingdom in the preceding months leading up to Mr. Connelly’s death need to be asked. Questions about the phone calls during the middle of the night need to be answered. The time of death should have been pinned down, and the whereabouts of Mrs. Connelly during a shotgun blast which was never heard, and dog which never barked, all need to be answered.
Teresa Watson
Chapter 1 - Branch Connelly
Part I
At 8:43:18 am, on Monday, February 26, 2007, Chattooga County E911 received a call from the home of Kristina and Branch Connolly, located in Menlo, Georgia. Kristina Connolly informed dispatchers that her husband had killed himself.
Initially:
1. Damage Control Team -Entry 136508:“Investigator Schrader stated that he arrived at the scene at [Address], Cloudland, Georgia, after receiving a call from Chattooga County 911 stating that Branch Connolly had shot himself in the head. The Phone call had been made by Connelly’s wife, Kristina Cook Connelly. Investigator Schrader stated that when he arrived on the scene he met:
Judge Connelly
Her father Bobby Lee Cook
Attorney Rx Abernathy and
Ladon Lively”.
*Before a responding officer to an E_911 call could get to the scene, an entourage for damage control was already there.
2. From Street Clothes to Nightgown?
a) Entry 136508 :“Investigator Schrader stated that Judge Connolly was in a nightgown with a blanket and was very distraught.
b) Entry 136832, (Kristina Connelly Interview) :“Connelly stated that when she saw her husband laying in the bed, and had shot himself with a long gun. Connelly stated that she collapsed, got up, and ran to the bathroom in her daughters room, where she got sick and had to change her clothes. Connelly advised Agent Montgomery that she had gotten sick all over her self and went back in the bedroom to get some more clothes on. Connelly advised that she saw her husbands body again and realized that he was dead. Connelly advised she got dressed, got sick gain, and then called her father and 911.
*She was showered and dressed for the day. She and her husband were sleeping in separate bedrooms, and she showered and dressed for court in a separate room from the master bedroom, so her night gown would not have been in her master bedroom. She certainly could have grabbed a nightgown instead of street clothes, but later we learn that the clothes which were pictured in the crime scene photos in the bathroom, with what one former GBI agent noted appeared to be blood, were NEVER sent to the crime lab for analysis. They were not even collected.
3. Deafness and Locked Door:
Entry 136832, (Kristina Connelly Interview):“Connelly advised that she has court that morning at 9:30AM and knew that her husband would have gotten her up before that time. Connelly advised Agent Montgomery that she is deaf in one ear and sleeps on her good ear, but she has a hard time hearing things. Connelly advised Agent Montgomery that normally her husband wakes her up because she has a hard time hearing alarm clocks. Connelly advised that when she exited the room, went to the master bedroom, and the door was shut and locked. Connelly advised that she could not get her husband to open the door. Connelly stated that she beat on the door but could not get the door to open. Connelly stated she exited the residence and went to the sliding glass door of the master bedroom. Connelly advised that she entered through the sliding glass doors of the master bedroom.
*Kristina Cook Connelly either slept through a shotgun blast, or showered through a shot gun blast, and never heard anything?
*Branch Connolly took the trouble to lock the master bedroom door, but did not bother to lock the sliding glass doors?
The Preceding Night:
1. Neighbors Hear Gun Shot -Entry 136638, (Neighbor - Wife Interview): “[Neighbor- Wife] stated on Saturday night, her husband was asleep, and her daughter was visiting from Nashville. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that night at 11:22PM, she heard a gunshot near the residence. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that she knew it was a 11:22PM because she and her daughter were watching TV and saw the time on the TV…..[Neighbor- Wife] stated that she woke up her husband who had been asleep and stated that they thought they heard a gunshot…. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that they then called Branch Connelly to make sure everything was okay and to see if they (the Connelly’s) had heard the shot.
[Neighbor- Wife] stated that Branch was very quiet and di not say a lot, and it was very unusual for him. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that Connelly told her that he had not heard anything, told them goodnight, and hung up. [Neighbor- Wife] stated that was very unusual for Connelly not to be very talkative no matter what the hour of the day”….Agent Montgomery asked [Neighbor- Wife] if she had heard any shots or loud noises his morning. [Neighbor- Wife] stated she had not.
*Keep in mind that sources tell us that files were confiscated earlier that week from Branch Connelly’s office.
2. Phone Calls - made Sunday night and wee small housr Monday morning from Branch Connelly’s cell phone:
Entry 137493:
2/25/07,10:48PM,(603) 252-XXXX
2/25/07,10:49PM,Personal Name
2/25/07,10:51PM,(706) 857-XXXX
2/26/07,12:21AM,KRIS
2/26/07,12:37AM,411(9 minutes, 35 seconds)
2/26/07,3:30AM,(603) 252- XXXX,(7 seconds)
2/26/07,3:30AM,(603) 252-XXXX,(30 Seconds)
One incoming call was received on 2-26-07 at 12:35 am from “home”.
At no point in the entire GBI report, is there ever mention for the phone calls again, no explanation about who they were to, or ANY explanation. This is one of the key which bothers other GBI, FBI and ex GBI officers, that no attempt at tracking down or explaining these was made.
3. The “Note” - Entry 136659: “ [Secretary] advised she would meet Agent Montgomery at the sheriff’s office in Summerville. Accompanying [Secretary] in the interview was Rex Abernathy.
*I’m sorry - the secretary needs an attorney to participate in her interview by the GBI, about finding the “note?”. Each investigator found this highly suspicious.
Entry 136659, [Interview of Secretary]: “ [Secretary] stated that she is the secretary for the law firm of Cook and Connelly and has been there for approximately ten years. [Secretary] stated that this morning when she came in to the office she opened up their e-mail account that they utilize to email documents and found an e-mail from Branch Connelly. [Secretary]
Stated that once she opened the e-mail that she immediately contacted Rex Abernathy and printed the e-mail off to be taken to Mr. Cook.
From:Branch Connelly
Sent:Sunday, February 25, 2007 9:58 PM
To:[Secretary]
Subject:Tonight
I want you to tell BLC tomorrow, if things go as I assume they will tonight, that I tried. HARD. Kris has just said to me that “I am leaving you” the only question is when…this is all a bit too much. Please tell Bob, then each of my children, that I love them, and have tried to work this through”.
*Several of the investigators who have reviewed this note are dubious as to its origin. Suicide note are more than likely hand written, and for someone as gregarious as Branch Connelly was described by friends, would have given more explanation. It is easy enough to hack in to someone’s computer and send an e-mail, and keeping it short and simple hides the unnatural writing style of an imposter.
4. Friday’s root Canal and Saturday’s outing.Entry 136659, [Interview of Secretary]
[Secretary] stated that the last time she had seen Branch on Friday, that he had gotten upset and left the office. [Secretary] stated that she contacted Rex Abernathy, and advised Abernathy that he needed to call and check on Branch and make sure that he was okay. [Secretary] stated that it was some personal things, and that she did not inquire any further. [Secretary] stated that Branch advised her he was okay and then left the office.
Entry 136832, [Second Interview Kristina]: “Agent Montgomery asked Connelly if anything had happened that weekend that would have upset her husband. Connelly stated that she could not think of anything. Connelly advised that on Friday he had a bad root canal and was taking medication for pain. Connelly advised that on Saturday they gone [sic] to Atlanta to meet their son for lunch, they drove back and had supper with her father. Connelly stated that on Sunday they worked on her fathers house and came back up and watched the Oscars together”.
*What several of the investigators noted was that if Branch had indeed had a root canal on Friday, that if he left, as the secretary noted, that it most likely have been as a result of that. But for some reason, Rex Abernathy found it necessary to accompany the secretary to the interview about the e-mail, and to make not that Branch Connelly had left upset for “personal reason”. Was this an attempt to lay the ground work to make suicide seem plausible?
Teresa Watson
Introduction:
At 8:43:18 am, on Monday, February 26, 2007, Chattooga County E911 received a call from the home of Kristina and Branch Connolly, located in Menlo, Georgia. Kristina Connolly informed dispatchers that her husband had killed himself.
RomeNewsByWatson.com is not equipped to make a professional judgment about what really happened. We will attempt to review the elements of the original GBI report, as there are enough gaps in the gathering of evidence to leave serious questions in the minds of law enforcement persons, including GBI, former GBI, and at least one FBI agent with whom we have talked.
We do not wish to cause pain for any member of the Connolly family, immediate or extended. However, on Tuesday morning, February 27 of this year, my phone began ringing with persons known and unknown to me, asking me, pleading with me to do something - to investigate this death, which no one thought was a suicide. Probably thirty times that week, and perhaps fifteen times or so since then, I have told people that this is NOT my area of research, that I had ZERO training in forensics, or any other type of criminal investigation, and that I had no desire to go meddling in things up in Chattooga County.
In October, a group of concerned citizens from Chattooga County, some prominent in one way or another, some, like myself, less so, began contacting me, individually, and then in concert, to seek my attention in this case, and many others. Cases which had either been ignored entirely, or, if investigated, were then declined by various state and federal entities for prosecution.
In the last several weeks I have met with individuals, again from all walks of life, including law enforcement and the legal community. I have gathered files, simply handed over to me, as most of the work had already been done for me by passionate individuals. I have interviewed folks in person and on the phone. I have put more miles on my car than it has seen since I stopped running back and forth to Savannah to watch my son play football and basketball.
Today, this week, I begin this series on what has been identified to me as the Bobby Lee Cook Cartel, that portion of the Dixie Mafia found in northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama. I begin with the death of Branch Connolly, Bobby Lee Cook’s law partner and son-in-law, husband to Cook’s daughter, Judge Kristina Cook Connolly. I begin with this, because it is this death which came on the heels of a serious election fraud scandal, purportedly involving, at the top, Bobby Lee Cook, which may be the undoing of this cartel. The election fraud scandal was not so unusual, as it followed the same M.O. as had been seen, before, in elections in Chattooga County. Whenever a truly viable candidate opposed one of Bobby Lee Cooks, “made men” as locals call them to me. Numerous absentee ballot s appear, which swing the election to the Bobby Lee Cook puppet. As I soften the case, votes on these absentee ballots are marked for only the single position which worries the BLC Cartel. In last November, 2006 election, many of the absentee ballots were returned, metered from the same private postage meter at one of BLC’s puppet attorneys’ office. Some of them were metered in sequential order.
But this time, there was a Republican Governor in office, not a Democratic governor to protect one of the darlings of the Democratic Party of the South. I am not naĂŻve enough to think that corruption is limited to either Democrats or Republicans, to conservatives or liberals, whites, blacks or Christian, Muslim, Jew or atheist . But what I do believe is that corruption seeks out the most convenient and well organized vehicle possible, and in Chattooga County, that was the Democratic Party. Ad a bunch of lawyers in to the mix, and you have a well oiled machine ready to do business.
But a little history lesson is required.
Towards the end of the 19th Century, towards the end of Reconstruction, disgruntled and dispossessed white Southerners, began forming all sorts of clandestine organizations. We are all familiar with the Ku Klux Klan, but often social structure was just as likely to take root in churches, or political organizations. In the early to mid 20th Century, as labor unions began to flourish throughout the country, organized crime also began to tap in to the power of the organizational structure found in the unions. In many communities, especially in the South, power bled across from church to labor group, or from labor group to KKK, or KKK back in to what came to be known and understood in the Deep South as the white man’s answer to Reconstruction - the Democratic Party. Conservative, Blue-dog Democrats, would look the other way to moon shining, bootleg liquor running friends, and the accompanying gambling and prostitution here in the Old South, as long as the person rebelling against authority was a Democrat.
Several years ago, while working on another case, I sat with a Drug Task Force Commander here in Georgia, and when I would mention modern day names, currently involved in making and selling meth, this commander could cite family genealogies going back in to the 1920’s and 1930’s, identifying the particular substance of abuse, or crime of flesh or gambling, that each generation profiteered from.
It was amazing. Modern day public corruption, at least in the deep South, has a long and rich legacy. I say this, not to paint a romantic picture, but so that readers will understand the powers of generational loyalty which honest law enforcement has to fight on a daily, weekly, yearly, decades and more basis, to get inside and conquer.
When party, union, or family loyalties could not keep mavericks in line, fear and intimidation have sufficed. And so it has been in much of Northwest Georgia, including Chattooga, Walker, Dade, Floyd, Polk, Bartow, Gordon Counties, and carrying over across the state lines up in to Tennessee, (Chattanooga), and down along the eastern counties of Alabama. Made up of loosely federated, but fiercely loyal blood and political lines, stretching back more than a century, and feeding off of resentment, bitterness, racial strife, but mostly good old fashioned GREED, this loosely structured but powerful organization has come to be known as the Dixie Mafia. Feds who will speak about it, say it is much more pervasive and insidious than any Italian or Mexican Mafia.
But instead of shark suits and violin cases, members of the Dixie Mafia will wear sear sucker, and sport goatees. Instead of names like “Vinny” or “Soprano”, we have names like “Carlton” and “Bobby Lee”. Instead of promoting drop outs from inner city ghettos, many Dixie Mafia sport law degrees, and the lower ranks pepper law enforcement communities. The Dixie Mafia reigns from benches of judicial power, and state capital rotundas. After all, here in the South, our Mafia are the offspring of displaced gentlemen of a bygone era - plantation owners, and cotton mill dynasties. Wisteria and kudzu tangle and choke our habitat - not rat infested, inner city sewers.
Into this rich and steamy loam was born one Bobby Lee Cook, on February 12, 1927, in the little settlement near Lyerly, Georgia, called Chattoogaville. His father was a farmer, and while not wealthy, he was substantial, owning many cattle, crops and a general store at the crossroads of Lyerly, Georgia, in Chattooga County. Bobby Lee Cook lived a privileged life, and attended the University of Alabama, and then the Vanderbilt Law School. But what many folks do not know, is, that Bobby Lee Cook never actually graduated from law school. Back in those days, one did not have to be a law school graduate to take the bar exam, and be admitted as a practicing lawyer. One only had to be brilliant, and that, Bobby Lee was.
Now, Booby Lee Cook did attend Vanderbilt School of Law, but urban legend has it, (and several witnesses to the surrounding events whom I have interviewed, tell me) ,that one evening, during those years at Vandy, a drunk and sodden Bobby Lee Cook was driving down from Chattanooga, Tennessee with his girl friend, and hit a black man walking on the side of the road. Bobby Lee Cook left the crumpled man, and drove in to Summerville, where he took the damaged, white Ford to a shop owned by two black men on 1st Street.
His victim later died.
The next day, a Georgia State Trooper came through Summerville, asking the car shop owners if anyone had brought in a damaged, white Ford, and the two shop owners, who had been paid handsomely for their silence, said “No”. But a few days later, the two were overheard by a witness, bragging about the situation. The witness went to the State Patrol, and Bobby Lee Cook was arrested for the death of the pedestrian.
He was taken back to Walker County, where the accident had occurred, but here is where my several witnesses’ stories get a little murky as to what happened next. The general consensus is that Bobby Lee Cook’s daddy paid a handsome sum to Walker County attorney, Ted Roster, who got Bobby Lee out of his predicament. Roster then took Bobby Lee under his wing, mentored him, and passed the baton of all things Back Room and Secret to Bobby Lee Cook.
And this is how the most powerful man in the Dixie Mafia in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama, came in to power.
That was 1948/49.
On a larger scale, the Dixie Mafia was flourishing during the 1970’s because of the enhanced drug trade from GI’s returning form Viet Nam. Drug corridors were set up along the old bootleg routes, and that was all it took.
The term Dixie Mafia was first coined in the 1970’s, by Rex Armistead, Director of Organized Crime Strike Force in New Orleans, who noted that in a ten year comparison between Cosa Nostra and the Dixie Mafia, (1968-1978), the Italian mob killed 30 victims, to the Dixie Mafia’s 156 victims.
New Orleans, Louisiana, Biloxi, Mississippi, and Hot Springs, Arkansas gambling spots were the staging area for laundering moneys, from illegal gambling, flesh peddling, (both prostitution and strip clubs), and drug trade. Hot Springs was the distribution point for the illegal drug trade to the rest of the United States and Canada.
RomeNewsByWatson.com has found direct links between Bobby Lee Cook and Mario Armas, whose father settled in New Orleans as a Consular General for their native Guatemala. The common tie that binds is Gambling Professional, and illegal book maker, Parky Tarvin. It was Tarvin’s ill gotten millions which were the object of the burglary which took center stage at last month’s Armas trial. The trail leads right through Armas, to Tarvin, to Tarvin’s ex-wife’s husband, who was related through marriage to another murder casualty from Rome, Cam Moore - and all tied right to the Bobby Lee Cook branch of the Dixie Mafia.
Another point of significance about individual Dixie Mafia entities, is that their favorite source of law enforcement cover are the Sheriffs of Southern Counties. They generally straddle the two sides of law enforcement, both in patrol and in management of the jails. It is no coincidence that former Floyd County Sheriff Tommy Rickman reigned, and current Chattooga County Sheriff Ralph Kellet reigns with such impunity, for so long. Of course, it is also necessary to control at least one Superior Court Judge, and it helps to control the District Attorney’s Office as well. Both of those are taken care of, for the time being, in Chattooga County, and at least one Floyd County Superior Court Judge has towed the party line here - Larry Salmon.
Teresa Watson
Coming Wednesday: We begin to examine the forensic particulars of the GBI report, and identify the huge gaps in information, that a first year criminologist, or, even someone like me, would not have missed.
Comments (86)
YEAH DUDE, YEAHHH.
John is right.
I can tell where you hang-out in Summerville, The “Liar’s Table”. But I do believe that you are supporting a soon to be “lost” organization here in the county. I can’t believe that your are bashing this “introduction” of information, knowing good and well that soon, all of the information that everyone seeks will be put on the table. I remember Jeff Gilley telling my wife one day, (and I do quote) ” You know, General Grant marched right down main street Summerville, and what his soldiers did to Chattooga Co., is terrible.” The organization that he belongs to, has been going strong ever since. John, I’m pretty sure that if want to see evidence, it could be arranged. But before you ask to see it, you should check with your superiors, they might not want that evidence shown. Personally, I don’t care if you are a rich liberal, poor liberal, blue-collar, white-collar, white, black, yellow, red, or any walk of life, as “Tax-payers” we have the right to change what we feel is wrong. When push comes to shove, It’ll be very interesting to see how many people take their “loyalty”. Puppet? Mr. John D., what do you think you are? You’re like Sam Bible spreading your propaganda in the weekly paper, not really to prove anything, but to spread the “rich-liberal lawyer propaganda”.You know, if we had a legal system set up in this county, that was made up of Judges, that have no ties to the county, no partners in law-firm’s, this county would be a lot different.Just like the state’s investigation on the last election, where there IS evidence of voter’s fraud (I found and held in my hands)it takes some time for ALL evidence to brought forth. I say , kick back and watch the show. It’s going to be very interesting.
Just wondering if one of the chattooga-ites, with knowledge of the families will just happen to “remember” which of the families has a member attending Emory University…….maybe law school?
Romegasir, Keen observation, but the veil could be nothing more than a weak effort to hide and disguise. Perhaps a student, faculty member, or—- more likely someone just lurking to use the library computer. Someone that has access.
John, Horrible? Perhaps, and perhaps not. The real horror is the truth being buried in the grave for so long with the corpse of the victim; that had no voice. And most of the time the poor never do. I hear both panic and fear. There should be neither if no crime or better yet no malicious act against man or God was committed. I applaud Mrs. Watson. And like many await her unveiling of evil. Which seems certain will be soon to come. And if an accused is innocent then I pray that will also be revealed. Let justice prevail for the people.
Though I’ve previously posted here as “John,” I will cease to do so. Your attempts to intimidate me are pathetic.
I wait with baited breath to see what kind of evidence you have to support your claims of vehicular homicide against Bobby Lee Cook. Good luck with that.
You are the worst kind of muckraker, a sensationalist embarrassment to real journalists.
Dear John, or Adam Al-Sayed, or Elvis -
I am sorry that you find a free press, and a free flow of ideas so threatening, and how did you put it, “intimidating”? Wow, logic can be pretty intimidating to those who hide behind pseudonyms. I have so many readers who post under “Tag Names” but who reveal their real identity to me. I would not expect you to, as I am already guessing from your whiney indignation, that you do not have the male organs to do so.
However, I am still not sure what “Attempts to intimidate” you refer to. Really. I am not even being sarcastic, I just am not sure what I have done to intimidate you. An ego as fragile as yours, to be intimidated by my first answer to you, must be incredibly painful. WOW. I am sorry.
TW
Dear John (from emroy?)
You are a sad one. Waiting for “justice” in chattooga from chattoogan’s in power is pure folly…
Watchdog
Dear Watchdog:
Did I put “Emroy”? I type to quickly in the morning when I am flying out the door to court, or parts unknown. My son slapped my hand on that very thing, last weekend.
But, perhaps CHANGE is on the way. If first one, and then another , and then another stands up, then pretty soon, you have an UN-silent majority, demanding change. I have hope for the Chattoogans. They have had a very brave soul to follow. He has been marginalized, (as I was in Floyd County for so long), for years, but the tides are turning. Now, folks in Rome, for the most part, are not ashamed to be seen talking to me. The first to come around to their senses, or perhaps, who never took leave of their senses, are the common folk, of which I am part. My Daddy earmed his Officer status in a Battlefield Commission, not through College appointment to OCS.
BUt, we all have our place, and Chattooga County has a modern day William Wallace. I just hope he does not meet the same end as Scottland’s BraveHeart.
Teresa
You and I just met - in passing- and I am fascinated by your site. It brings back memories of ‘75 to ‘79 and whiskey-soaked sessions with my lawyer husband and the people you write about. I always felt I could commit anything in Rome and get away with it - like Armas - but I moved to Europe instead. Good thing!
Karin!
I just got home a few minutes ago, and posted my story for the RCC Meeting tonight. I realize that I spelled your name incorrectly.
Now that you have seen the site, you will have to contribute from time to time for me. I can tell from your few sentences above that you have a flair for writing - how descriptive. Melonie’s World is a column which my friend Melonie wanted to be able to open up to folks who travel, read, attend the opera, museums and great restaurants. This would be a great place for you to tell about places we Romans need to see and experience in Europe.
Thank you for all of the work you do with the historic neighborhoods, and thanks for taking the time to write in. Please forgive my mis-spelling of your name in the news tonight!
Teresa
Haha, you don’t think revealing someone’s location in a public forum on the internet isn’t “intimidation?” I’m a lowly college student, a Darlington High School graduate, and a former editor-in-chief of the Darlingtonian. I watched radical neo-conservative ethics (like your own) crush the life of a man who simply wrote in support of the actions of his church. I fought for freedom of press in such a setting as hard as I possibly could. To accuse me of disrespecting the ideals of journalistic freedom is a fool’s claim, as any who know me will testify to.
Point the finger if you must, but you should know I simply read/post on your little blog (as it is nothing more, a mere blog, the host to the paranoid delusions of a nosy busybody with nothing better to do) because it amuses me to do so. I have no agenda, I am no gear in the “disinformation machine.” I am just a voice.
Ms. Watson,
I graduated in 2006, and I attended from 6th to 12th grade.
As for your book, provide me with access to it, and I shall read it. I certainly hope that within its chapters, this “documentation” you continue to refuse public access to can be found.
P.S. If you are referencing the initials in my e-mail address, those are not my initials. My name is Adam Al-Sayed.
Then, Adam, you were in the sixth grade with my son.
I will send you a password to your e-mail address, along with instructions for accessing. Now, the Bobby Lee Cook files are not in the book. Other documents are there.
Give me about 10 minutes.
TW
P.P.S. Being “cast down and scorned by the local press” doesn’t entitle you to make libelous claims like that against any man. I actually don’t particularly care to see documentation of any injustices carried out upon you. I would, however, like to see an arrest record maybe? Anything to prove that Bobby Lee Cook is actually guilty of vehicular homicide?
Adam -
I have sent your access to the book to your e-mail address.
Read the book first. The GBI report I am working on this week, which deals with another death, are available through Georgia Open records Request, I believe. Mine came from GBI directly. If you are going to be in the area, you may look at it.
The next week, will be legal files, then, the third week, another GBI Report and Insurance Commission Report.
And of course, just keep up with the ongoing/unfoldng of the Carlton Vines case, (a BLC puppet), which you can now find on most Rome and Chattanooga news sites. BUt it was on mine first! That is over in the breaking news column.
The fourth week, I may do another GBI, or, I may do a file with local Chattooga County Courts Documents, I am still deciding on that sequence, but whwich ever I don in week four, then the other will be week five.
Then, perhaps another GBI, or some FBI files…there are so many, so very many to choose from.
The BLC hit and run, comes from witness interviews, and old newspaper clippings. I have not gathered GBI files on that - I am not even sure there was a GBI back then. I will have to google that.
Now, the recent Armas trial, that is all public record, too, and he took a PLEA. You can access those next time you are in town, since that actually was prosecuted. Just head to the Federal Building on 1st.
TW
Wow. Wow. I am SHOCKED to discover that the supposed bastion of Roman free press has actually CENSORED a dissenting voice. You are a hypocrite.
I’m excited to see this, as I have had questions about the Branch Connolly death since the day it happened, and it shocked me to the floor. I’d met Branch a few times, and he just never struck me as being suicidal.
On the morning of his death, I’m told he’d just come back from his morning run. Running releases endorphins (happy-mood boosters) - depressed, suicidal people don’t run and then shoot themselves.
Then there is some behavior I witnessed from those close to Branch - not at all what I would call appropriate for individuals who should be in mourning.
Dear Ms. Watson,
As you wrote to John, you have now been teasing us about publishing “revealing documents” for quiet some time now. WEll, we’re still waiting for your “smoking gun”.! Are you always this tardy with your work? You know, sometimes being late will get you in to hot water with your clientele.
However, my money says that no such “smoking gun evidence” exists, or if you have any documents I’ll bet they originated in the mind of your perjurered source. You know the one, perhaps the scorned Chatt. Co. lawyer you were seen accompanying at the Jeff Mullis Function on Lookout Mtn.
You are as big of a conspiracy theorist as he is. Your writings have thus far been unaccompanied by any evidence, just pure B.S.
For instance in your conspiratorial style you attempt to correct the death of Branch Connelly with an election fraud case. Neither of those investigations have one scintilla of a connection to the other. If so, show us the documents or just one of the investigating officers to confirm. You also imply the death is suspicious, when the facts and law enforcement are all in agreement….”clear suicide”.
And what a sicko fraud, in your opening salvo you state you do not want to cause pain for the Connelly family and then you merely offer up this conjecture.
How sad! Again, let’s see your police reports and not your narcissistic ramblings.
Better yet, you could just have the openness to reveal your chief source of these baseless ramblings and then all of the good “common people” of Chatt. Co. would know what sort of B.S. your writing. And, speacking of the election fraud case are you saying that Cook is involved? Go ahead, speack plainly and coherently, or are you concerned about a lawsuit? I doubt any lawyer would sue,not because of the truth of your statements, but because it would be difficult to collect from you.
Because you lost your case in Floyd Co. and that prompted you to start baseless rumors about the good folks of Floyd Co.
And like any good, disgruntled conspiracy theorist you found a mate. What a match!
Your lawyer “snitch” has been reporting falsehoods to the F.B.I. for the better part of twenty years, all of which are unfounded, and I’ll bet that is the origination of your ramblings!
Go ahead, show us your documents. The truth is, your lawyer “snitch” is the axe grinding line because he too lost his case. So, show us your evidence because quiet frankly my dear, we are growing tired of your B.S.
There is evidence I offer you here in a court order by Judge Connelly finding your bed mate to be a fraud and a perjurer.( Chattooga County Superior Court Civil Action File No.2006-CA-31,474 ) A finding upheld by the GA. Court of Appeals. Could that be what prompted you two theorists to get together, you both lost your cases in the great law courts of this Constitutional Nation!
In short my dear Ms.Watson, this is all elemetary.
Your website reveals no “smoking gun”. It is instead, all smoke and mirrors, reflecting only incessant, narcessistic, and barbaric yelping of you and your fraudulant friend.
Watchdog is right— a dog chasing his tail and now a bitch to run in his pack!!
GO DAWGS !!!
Dear “steadfast” is it?:
I am not sure what you are talking about. I began the GBI analysis today. Is your computer server slow, perhaps?
Actually, I admit, I was tardy. I had a very serious issue to deal with, which I cannot go into. Check it out. BY the way, the only people who have ever called me the “b” word to my face generally end up indicted, or forced to resign or whatever. Not for calling me that name, but generally the only people who do call me that are criminals!
I wear it proudly. I embrace the “B” word.
Now, why is it so critcal for you to know my sources names? I do not believe Deep Throat was revealed for decades.
If you want to see the GBI file I am working on, currently, you can get a copy by making a Georgia Open Records Request. I have put the GBI file number on the website. That way, you can make it clear which one you want, as there are so many on that Cartel up there. And, now, because I have your e-mail address and URL/server and IP address, in case anything happens to me, or anyone you are making reference to in your long rant, the FBI will be able to look you up.
Thanks for the trail of bread crumbs.
Teresa Watson
UGA BullDawg Momma, yep, that is a “B”.
PS - Perhaps, I should publish your email, URL and IP address. I bet the Cartel has the means to track you down. Do you think they would want to then silence you then, since you would most undoubtedly lead back to them? Decisions, decisions.
Fortunately for you, mister, I actually have integrity. The only folks who will know who your are, carry badges, and they will not find out unless something happens to me, (or one of my sources).
Wow - Bacon, Lettuce & Cheese.
In answer to John, urban legend might not stand up in court, but a thorough investigation with dedicated and genuine law enforcement
officers doing it right, could bring tremendous results.
I believe in truth. People with innocent blood on their hands, whether through personal involvement or cover-up will face justice
sooner or later. And it won’t be pretty. I thank God for the Georgia State Patrol and agencies, state or federal, who don’t buckle down to the machine, but rather have guts enough to stand up for what’s right.
Please don’t use my full name.
Haha, insanity. Sheer insanity. Come on, Mrs. Watson. Less hearsay, more documented evidence, please.
steadfast calls you a “bitch” and you publish his comments…I certainly haven’t used such profanity in my own writings, and I am censored. What prejudice!
Why don’t you make these documents available HERE for us, if everything is indeed a matter of public record? Some of us actually have lives and don’t have time to make a “Georgia Open Records Request.” The burden of proof rests on the accuser.
Dear Adam,
Actually, the “burden of proof” is not the same for the press as for the courts. I have identified what number of file I am currently working on. To scan hundreds of pages of documents is timely and expensive, and I assume that if someone wants to legitimately challenge, they will first request the documents themselves.
But more importantly, if I revealed the whole file, it would be tasteless and gratuitously vulgar. The descriptions of the scene, and the pictures which are included, do not need to be out on the internet for voyeurs to gawk at and receive some sick and perverted pleasure. That would be cruel to friends and family of the victim. Like whoever published the video of Danial Pearl being murdered. Outside of military, law enforcement and State Department persons who had to review that, only the sickest of minds tuned in to see that, I am sure. I will have no part of that sort of sensationalism. I trust you actually have figured that out, and perhaps have allowed me the opportunity to explain myself with your questions.
Thank you, Adam,
Teresa Watson
Stedfast, I think that good ol’ John was the first smoke screen and I also figure, that you are the second. You kind of feel that if ya’ll can keep an argument brewing, people would wander away from the main issue at hand. BLC has everything to do with the election fraud. Do you really think that we are all a bunch of idiots? It just so happens, that the head of the Democratic Party, and recently elected state court solicitor, Tim Perry. Now everyone in the County knows who actually leads the democraps, there number one money raiser, none other than BLC.Teresa is putting the story out exactly the way it needs to come out, slow and truthful. So far the story seems to be very factual, and I realize now why you were so angry with your writings, you all are running scared. Who will the next speaker be?
This part about Tim Perry was left out. Tim shares his office building with Albert Palmour. The same office that produced the absentee ballots that are in question.
Ok the a neighbor hears a gunshot at ll:22 at 8:43 911 is called.
If I’m not mistaken a good forensic expert can tell the time of death
of a body. If the time of death turns out to be 11:22, the neighbor
is calling Branch talking to him after the 11:22 time of death then
I would say something is suspicious.
Dear Bobo-
Actually, there are also noises heard by another neighbor, which could have been gunshots(plural), heard the next morning, which I will get in to tomorrow. It is CRAZY!!!!
TW
Dear Adam,
Actually, the “burden of proof” is not the same for the press as for the courts. I have identified what number of file I am currently working on. To scan hundreds of pages of documents is timely and expensive, and I assume that if someone wants to legitimately challenge, they will first request the documents themselves.
But more importantly, if I revealed the whole file, it would be tasteless and gratuitously vulgar. The descriptions of the scene, and the pictures which are included, do not need to be out on the internet for voyeurs to gawk at and receive some sick and perverted pleasure. That would be cruel to friends and family of the victim. Like whoever published the video of Danial Pearl being murdered. Outside of military, law enforcement and State Department persons who had to review that, only the sickest of minds tuned in to see that, I am sure. I will have no part of that sort of sensationalism. I trust you actually have figured that out, and perhaps have allowed me the opportunity to explain myself with your questions.
Thank you, Adam,
Teresa Watson
Dear Mrs. Watson,
You are not the press. You are not reporting on undisputed facts. You are making some drastic accusations and assumptions here, your finger pointed with nothing behind it except hateful rhetoric, re-written fragments of official documents, and a posse comprised of ignorance and delusion to match your own.
How dare you claim to refrain from posting an official document for the sake of propriety? Do you not consider it vulgar and tasteless to post a man’s suicide note on the internet, to make a family’s pain a matter of public discussion? Your efforts are textbook examples of journalistic sensationalism.
Love,
Adam Al-Sayed
it’s fine to question the integrity of any reporter or blogger (whatever the case may be)……in fact, I hope we all do. And to question whether or not BLC killed someone with his vehicle, when all the proof we have is “urban legend”…..that seems a bit much to me. But the issue of Branch Connely’s death has been raised throughout the area SINCE IT HAPPENED………..Luckily I live in Floyd County and BLC has no, ZERO, influence here…..when he was still a trial lawyer, he lost every case I ever saw him try in Floyd, BUT to say that he does not have influence, unusual influence amongst Chattooga is also a stretch……..If you are charged with ANY crime, and pay some attorneys (not him) the right amount of money in Chattooga, your case will never go to trial……..find out about Hispanics in Trion paying double the fine for DUI for years and years….find out about the Trion Gas Department allowing an employee to purchase a years worth of gass every summer at the summer rates…….could anyone else do that? No. Ask about the Exorbitant number of cases that are Nolle Prossed or Dead-Docketed in Chattooga and notice the name of the attorneys you see over and over again…….Notice BLC taking two Mohawk businessmen who scammed the company of Millions of dollars, going to court in Gordon County and pleading guilty, and getting probation……it was hilarious because it was on Probation Revocation Day and all of the poor people, who were actually in jail and waiting in their orange jumpsuits were staring with their jaws dropped (I just got three years for stealing $300 and they got probation for stealing millions?………….I hardly think BLC is the cause of this though, just a product of it.
Dear RomeGaSir:
As usual, thank you for your insight.
I am not sure what Mr. Al Sayed’ s problem about undisputed facts is. Is he saying that the GBI report is not an undisputed fact? I do not mind so much that he keeps insisting I am not a journalist, but his problems with me are not always valid. For instance, I see Feature Stories, both in print and in other media, which do go in to “legends” tied to the person, entity or issue being covered, especially if it sets the backdrop for the specifics to come. My “urban legends” are based on witness interviews, including someone invloved in the case back in the late forties.
And complaints by Mr. Al Sayed, and others, about my not naming sources is ludicrous. There is not a legitimate reporter or journalist in the world who has not protected the identity of their sources, especially when the source’s life or livelyhood could be in danger if revealed. That is very typical.
Even in formal, federal indictments against someone, identities of those who could be in danger from testimony or activity involved in the case, are hidden, and pseudonyms are used, or numbers assigned and referred to. Perhaps as Mr. Al Sayed progresses on his university path, and life experience in the REAL World of journalism, (not that I am ), he will learn.
I wonder if Mr. Al Sayed, who admits he is an Emory student, caught the Fox-5 News cast this evening, (Thursday), about the Carlton Vines story. Dana Fowles interviewed EMORY Law School Legal Ethics Professor about this mess up in BLC-land. Dana Fowles knows what’s goin on, and they are keeping very close tabs on both the DUI/Leaving the Scene, and the Special Prosecutor Assignment, through Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s office, in the Election Fruad Scandal involving Carlton Vines, and the whole BLC Machine.
So, thank you again, for your very lucid thoughts on the subject. It sounds as though you are either in law enforcement or the legal profession, (or both), and I always appreciate your take on things.
Teresa
Teresa
Immediately after posting this, the I-Team report on Fox 5 News says that Judge Carlton Vines’ election is now under investigation by a state special prosecutor due to “voting irregularities”….sound familiar? Not saying that it applies here, because I’m sure they’re all innocent as babes…..But just in general, the thought of old, dirty men finally paying the piper, just makes me happy inside 
Dear RomeGaSir:
Our responses crossed! How funny. What makes me so sad is that I have a very dear friend and long time supporter,(several of them in this case) who was contacted by several other “friends” of mine, asking her to convince me not to cover this BLC case, as IT IS HURTING MY CREDIBILITY! The naysayers always line up and grill her about her association with me - how can she suport me - they tell her it will reflect on her.
So many of these same people nay-sayed with Bob Saylors. They nay-sayed with Mario Armas, and just held fast that the Walstadts knew nothing, and that Armas was innocent.
Everytime I go after someone,there are those who know better, and are so concerned about my reputation. Thye try to intimidate my friend for her association with me. But these people do not pay my bills, or by ad space, or invite me to their social gatherings, so I am not sure what credibility of mine they are concerned about. They never think I have credbility to begin with. So, I guess they are true friends to be concerned about her reputation.
Some things never change. But my friend is still my friend, because she is a true and real friend.
TW
Dear Teresa,
KEEP IT UP! Don’t let people like Adam and Steadfast try to intimidate you, fight back. We need muckrakers like you around here. Now please do investigating locally on our officials and the way they manage their books?
Dear Georgia Boy,
You are new to this sight! Thank you so much.
TW
Dear Georgia Boy and Mrs. Watson,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Me. Intimidate. Her. I laugh.
Since this begun, Teresa Watson has done NOTHING but try to intimidate me into silence. She revealed my location, challenging me out of anonymity, and then proceeded to completely inconvenience myself and those around me.
Teresa Watson called the Director of Student Conduct (poor woman, I can only apologize for wasting her time) at my university and “reported on my behavior” because it “concerned her.”
If that’s not intimidation, I don’t know what is.
And as for you, Mrs. Watson, I shall recant a section of my post you seem to have completely ignored:
“How dare you claim to refrain from posting an official document for the sake of propriety? Do you not consider it vulgar and tasteless to post a man’s suicide note on the internet, to make a family’s pain a matter of public discussion?”
I’m not going to take your word as to what these documents actually read, and no one else should have to either. Your credibility is nil, as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure things have been conveniently omitted, summarized, or otherwise skewed in such a fashion as to support your conspiracy theories.
And again, shame on you for your obvious lack of respect for the Connelly family and their own pains. The reproduction of that e-mail on this web page is an ethical atrocity.
Love,
Adam Al-Sayed
Dear Mr. Al Sayed:
1. First of all, I have no idea who, have never heard of, and have never talked to - the woman you refer to, the Director of Student Affairs. Not at Emory University, or any other College or University.
2. Secondly, I never revealed you location or your name. I mentioned that your URL came through Emory University, as does about 20,000 other e-mail addresses, or more.
3. You could not argue logically, so you proclaimed to the world, on this website, that you :
a) were an Emory College Student, b) that you had been posting under a pseudonym c) what your real name was d) that you had formerly attended Darlington Acadmey, from the 6th -12 grades e) that you were the Editor in Chief of the Darlintonian.
4. I e-mailed you personally, and offered to conceal this information for you, and you begged and demanded for me to release it on the site.
5. I am not sure how I have intimidated you, or inconvenienced you and MUCH less those around you? What does that mean? How could I be intimidating or inconveniencing people around you?
6. You do not have to read my website, unless it is a homework assignment. If this is so intimidating and inconvenient, (sort of like Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth?), then why don’t you move along, young man. NO one is forcing you to read OR respond. (Unless you are doing so at the behest of the BLC Cartel, and in that case, considering the many, many people I have interviewed, I understand your fear and frustration).
I do restate my analysis of you. I believe that you need to seek professional counseling, as your inability to make any valid claims, or present any logical arguments, or to even follow a logical argument, is quite serious, and quite annoying, I might add. Please, get some help. Please, do not visit my website again, until you can grow up, and certainly, do not post again, unless you can present mature and logical arguments.
Thank you,
Teresa Watson - Editor
P.S. Forgive my incorrect usage of the word “recant.” If only there were a feature allowing posters to edit their posts. I see potential for future blog improvement!
Just ignore this Al-Sayed. I’m not so sure its even this persons (male or if im right, more likely FEMALE) real name. He sure does sound informed for someone who lives out of county and unconnected,and awfully defensive of the powers that be.
I’m guessing probably a relative of one of the local puppets/players.
I HOPE IM NOT THE ONLY ONE TO NOTICE THIS!!
also, i’m not trying to argue with anyone, but i believe i read a entry that eluded to BLC not having any influence in Rome.
Man, you have no idea, BLC has fingers everywhere ……..from Atlanta to Washington DC.
and if you doubt that, find another blog.
cause you sure dont know these people. OR the power they exert.
Dear NG -
Thanks. I am not so worried about Adam’s rantings. BUt, I will not allow him to disparage Darlington, as he did in the post I “dis-approved”. I willnot allow him to disparage any entity or individual on my site, (except for crooks). I still do not know who the woman is to whom he refers, but I had no contact with her. I did speak with an Emory Campus Police Officer, (male) and a Psychiatrist (also male), but given the level of his rage, I am guessing that he frequenlty gets sanctioned by many different folks where ever he is.
Anytime he rants against someone other than me, I will simply put him in “Time-Out” by Disapproving his post.
And, you are right, from Arizona, up thourgh Colorado and over to Arkansas, down to Louisianna, through Mississippi, Alabama, across Georgia and up through Tennessee, Virginia and right to the Capital Rotunda. And it is not just Democrats, but even the likes of Republican wheelers and dealers, including Jack Abramoff. BLC has been one of the Grand Poobahs.
TW
1) Adam - you need a better hobby. Or a girlfriend. Your choice.
2) Teresa - first, thank you for finally bringing some of this nonsense to light. I grew in up in Chattooga County, and have seen firsthand the regime in action. What you are doing here is wonderful.
3) I watched my stepfather literally go from hanging out with the principals of the BLC gang to being ferverently opposed as time went by. He is an honest man, and did not tolerate dishonesty on any level in his community. I remember in great detail, on several occasions, him sitting me down and saying “Listen, there are a lot of people out there that may try to hurt me or have thier children (that were my age) try to hurt or intimidate you. You have to be the bigger man and walk away.”
I wonder how hard it was for him to have those talks with me? Next, I wonder how hard it was for everyone else opposing the BLC gang to have those talks with thier kids….
Dear VFRMonkey,
I am sure there must be some kind of story behind that tag.
It sounds like you had a father like mine, who teaches you that the only thing you can be sure of in this world, as far as humans are concerned, is your own integrity. If you know who you are, what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s really important, then you are pretty well off. Then, if you have a few good friends/family who love you, then you are truly wealthy.
The BLC crowd does not undertsand this. They cannot figure out that there are people in this world who do not crave power and wealth. It is a foreign concept to them. And so they ultimately lose trying to control us, because they cannot.
Thanks for the encouragement.
BY the way, I have put Adam in Time-out for awhile.
TW
Good job Mrs. Watson, you’ve failed the first test of journalistic ethics. Way to uphold that there first amendment.
Dear TW,
KUDO’S to you!!!!!!!!! and keep digging. you are a hound dog on a hot trail!!!!!! you have NO IDEA how deep and far this goes. The GOOD, GOD-FEARING people of chattooga county have been praying for a “WALKING TALL BUFFORD P” to come in and clean house. This “good ole boy” group controls the whole county. Many people’s lives have been ruined by this system. Including the lives of children. How? let me give you an example: Ally and Jay live together and have a baby, they are meth users and dealers. They cook, sell, and use meth. They do not pay their bills, clean house or work. The draw welfare checks.The fuss and fight all the time. They drive around UI delivering their meth. The baby breathe’s in all the fumes from the cooking and using of the meth. He is left unattended and neglected. He has bruises where he was hit by crossfire during the fights. Not to mention he is made to ride in a car with drivers are UI. DFACS gets called. During the investigation they get busted. They get released because the turned on other dealers and users. They get busted again. Court day comes and they are looking at possible sentences and DFACS taking the baby. The Lawyer is a “MADE MAN”. One for which profits from the sales of their meth. The judge, well he/she is higher on the pole and they walk. A few days later they are making meth and cause a fire, they get out but the baby down the hall doesn’t. They where too high to react quick enough to save him. Families have been fighting druggies and dealers for years trying to save the lives of our counties children. But the druggies and the dealers always seem to win. The judges and lawyers make sure of that. Because they do not what attention drawn to their world by some low life loud mouth. Tales have been flying for decades. Former druggies and dealers gone straight have told the stories. But without providing proof it’s only a story. Who is going to listen and do something about it? Who can be trusted? Who do you tell when the law is involved? Who do you go to when the judges are some of the top dogs? What elected offical do you turn to when they are supported by the money made?
TELL US T.W. WHO DO WE GO TO? Where is our ” WALKING TALL?” PLEASE HELP US FIND HIM AND TURN OUR COUNTY GOVERNMEMT CLEAN!!!!
Mr. Adam Al-Sayed, you need professional help! You sit there and bash TW, but I notice at the end, you say “Love you”. What’s up[ with that. You sound like a physco, that needs to be locked up. You don’t scare me with your words, but with your attitude, if I were an Emory student I’de be worried. I think that you are just jealous of TW, and want to be where she is at. Give it up dude. Just make sure you stay at Emory and not come to Chattooga Ca., I’m afraid that you wouldn’t last long. Let me ask this, “What is your interest in Chattooga county?” What do you have to gain with all your ramblings. How did you get into Emory without learning to read? All any common man has to do is just read the entries that TW has posted, and the supporting reports made by all person(s) involved, put two and two together. How about waiting until TW has a chance to post everything. to draw your conclusions. Better yet, If you are such a good reporter, come up here, do your research like TW has done, and see if you have the same results. Put up, or SHUT-UP!!!
Adam, Your anger has a personal voice. Has someone in your family been the focus of un-fair media scandal and you are on a campaign to wage a one man war? If so, get there by going in another door. Your outrage is going to defeat your intent and make you look like a fool and I think you’re far from a fool, but rather terribly frustrated.Teresa Watson is bringing her goods to the table. Bring yours. If you have something to say; you have an audience. It’s obvious you have a dog in this fight, but for what reason I am not sure.
Where’s Bufford, you bring up a point that has been questioned for ages. I call it the “circle-jerk”. It is a lot stronger now than it has ever been. we have (had) 2 judges that were in with the solicitor, and most of all of the cases were “done deals” before the court case would even come to trial. I remember at one time we read the Summerville Gossip, there were 39 cases of Possession or manufacturing of Meth, all but two got probation, those two that got actual jail time were two mexicans. It has gotten a lot better, but the problem still goes on. Speaking to a drug task force agent, you’ll find that he has no support. Chattooga co., use to be the number one county for meth, so why do we only have one agent? If you ask Cherokee Co. AL., you’ll find that they’ve got close to 10 agent’s. Only one agent? That makes you wonder why. Again, I say bring Judges into town that have no ties to the county. That way, partners aren’t standing in front partners. What really get’s my goat, is, police, sheriff’s deputies, and most of anyone in law-enforcement, can not have a record to be hired, but the person who is in charge of putting these people in jail can HAVE a record. Shouldn’t the person that resides over the court be under more scrutiny ? Even though Mr. Vines agreeded to step down, the people of Chattooga Co. shouldn’t be paying his salary, while under investigation. Seeing that the county elected (which is actually under investigation) him, we should be able to petition to recall him. He should never be quailfied to run for a judge’s position, much less even practice law.
I went through a divorce and had to go up against “lawyer” Vines with “Judge” Connelly. Judge woods was the original judge assigned to my case, when my ex showed up at our first hearing UI of “something”, (it looked like he had been up for days) Judge Woods was infuriated. Needless to say they had my next hearing put off until it could be heard under Judge Connelly.
Carlton Vines gave the go ahead for an auction comany to sell my farm. They put auction signs up all over the county with “DIVORCE SALE by order of the court!” on them. I called the auction company and told them the Farm was in my name and my name only and Vines did NOT have my permission or the permission of the court to sell my property. The signs came down that same day and within a month Vines dropped my husband as a client & party pal. I had paid out $6000 for a lawyer to represent me & my EX had paid Vines $300. Vines wanted that farm & when he saw that I wouldn’t be intimadated he had no more use for my EX. But he did tell my EX that he would get me one way or the other. He did, less than a year later, I won’t go into all the details for fear of something else happening, but I went through a year of agony, had to pay out a court ordered $15,000, with Connelly as the Judge,and lost all faith in the entire justice system. Many of the “made men”/”puppets” were involved and it’s a wonder I was able to walk away with no more injuries.
I wonder how many more stories like mine there are.
As soon as I heard about Branch dying I knew/felt it was murder
Just Call Me, “OUT FOR JUSTICE”
Dear Ms.Watson,
Your reply was just like your journalism, i.e. no substance!
You don’t answer any of the questions, only blast the Connelly family for no apparent reason. You sickly and sadly stated that you do not want to cause harm and then you go ahead, not with just factual investigation files, but sick inappropriate, baseless analysis.
But, enough about your sick so called “Rome News”(another fraud), back to truth.
You replied that and I quote “I am not sure what you are talking about.” Oh, but you do! You attended the Mullis republican affair with one disgruntled summerville lawyer William “Ben” Ballenger.Not to be confused with William Wallace of Scotland, which you penned to “watchdog”.
Now here is a quote from the order by Judge Connelly(open order) that the Ga. Court of Appeals affirmed-quote” The Court finds that defense counsel did not pay the accrued Court costs to the Clerk as stated in his Affidavit and sworn testimony, and the Court further finds that defense counsel W. Benjamin Ballenger knowingly filed a false Affidavit and gave false testimony under oath in an effort to perpetrate a fraud upon the Defendant and the Court. In view of this finding, the Court cannot give any weight or credibility to the sworn testimony of Mr.Ballenger.”
And that is the reason your pack started on the Connelly’s during this tragic time! Mr.Ballenger, was tardy in answering a lawsuit that cost his client in excess of $100,000. Of course, good ol’ William told his client not to worry he(Ballenger) would pay it. He did not. Now his client has sued him for over $300,000. And that is why you are on this sinking ship with him.
Now back to the Dixie Mafia, and Election Fraud. We’re still waiting on you connecting these dots to the tragic Connelly death. Or is the above correct? If not, connect the dots!
Still Steadfast
Dear Still,
How are you feeling? I understand you have been ill. Now, of course I was at the do, with Mr. Ballenger and others. But I attended with two other gentlemen, and at the request of a third, other than Mr. Ballenger. I have only come to know Mr. Ballenger in the last few weeks, since I started telling the tale of your kingdom. I have come to learn, from law enforcement in other counties, as well as from FBI and GBI agents whom I trust, that they see Ben more as a William Wallace type. Some of them had their doubts at first, but have grown to trust his understanding of all that is Bacon Lettuce and Cheese. When they introduced us, they told me he has failings and short comings, (most of us do), but that most of what I would hear from your camp is greatly exaggerated. They encouraged me to gather, as Paul Harvey says, “the rest of the story”.
I am slowly picking apart the “Headline” you post, and am reading up on that whole thing, as the boys and Mr. Ballenger thought I should, so that I would be prepared. “Know thy enemy”, so to speak. BUt you know you have routed the enemy when they cannot intimidate you, and they have to choose other targets, like Mr. Ballenger.
So, do you not realize that everyone has figured out that the Great Judicial mind ruling on Mr. Balleneger’s case, is Daughter of the Prince of Darkness? Have you operated with such impunity for so long, that you cannot see reality anymore? Do you not know she is a laughing stock in most of the state, and if she did not first practice, and then rule from a Bench - all in that Dark Kingdon, she would never have survived.
Was it not Judge Connelly who ruled against what the O.C.G.A. set out for judicial appointments in vacated benches, and was then OVERTURNED by the Court of Appeals when she tried to help rig the appointment/election brou-ha-ha in 2004, in a foul attempt to keep Carlton Vines’ seat secure for him? Princess Connelly would not know justice if it bit her on the broadside.
You are weak, and dried up, and you will be scattered to the winds. Regardless of what happens to me, or to Mr. Ballenger, the Kingodm which has been will be no more, because those you have reigned over with such a ruthless tyranny, have a new vision. You are already defeated, sir.
Teresa Watson
Depending on the depth of the problem you have in Chattooga County, sometimes one would do just as well to call GHOST BUSTERS as to call the local S.O. When will the people get enough of Ralph Kellett and insist on a decent county in which to raise our children?
Kellett makes excuses for his buddies, covering them for all manner of crimes, whether it’s death by convenience or robbing their Mama.
But let a decent person get pulled over for an improper tag and the officer radio in. If Kellett doesn’t like them or their family, they go straight to jail. I’d hate to be in his shoes on judgement day. He is pathetic. We need a purging of all that bunch of hoodlums. They should be the ones behind bars.
Wow, I haven’t been to this site in a week and this story (and others) by TW is EXPLOSIVE!
The question we all have to decide is this:
Is RomeNewsbywatson:
a) the Washington Post
b) the National Enquirer
I think the jury is still out. Actually, it seems a little of both…LOL. The problem for me is trying to figure out the reality from the fiction. There is some of both here I am sure of… BUT, regardless, even if SOME of this is N.E level, there is enough positives to make her site worth a regular visit. So, to that extent, you’ve succeeded.
Flyboy
Dear Flyboy,
You always have such good stuff. I am a little shakey, and it made me laugh. Did you read what I just posted on Breaking News?
TW
Adam, do you have a comment on Still Steadfast? See Adam, Steadfast has a plan; he carefully prepares, come to the table and presents his case. And then he is kicked to the floor by a woman who doesn’t even have a law degree. Now—even you will have to admit that’s pretty impressive. Study my boy it will help make you a man or better yet one hell of a woman——————– And if this leaves you speechless jump over to Breaking News…
Hahahaha, deleted again. Wow. What a woman you are, Teresa.
It is so good to see so many good people signing on. One by one we are going to grow so large that the “Dixie Maffia” won’t stand a chance and change will have to happen. That’s all it takes folks. instead of bickering back and forth with likes like Stedfast and Al-Sayed, why don’t we come up with a way to deal with this situation. State-court is an elected position, and the voters should be able do something. All we have to do is put our minds to it, using all of our assets and fix this. Enticing a riot? I would hope so.
If you’re drawing flak, you must be over the target!
Flak (disambiguation)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Ten things you may not know about images on Wikipedia •Jump to: navigation, search
The word flak can mean:-
Anti-aircraft gunfire, derived from the German Flugabwehrkanone, for “aircraft defense cannon”, during World War II. See also 88 mm gun
Flak jackets are protective clothing worn by soldiers and others to protect themselves from debris and shrapnel.
criticism, as a metaphorical extension of the previous, e.g. “I’ll have to take the flak for what that confounded reporter dug up.”
As a component of mostly Dutch, but also German and Scandinavian area place names, flak and similar may mean “flat land” or “flat sandbank”: e.g. Flakfortet, Maasvlakte, Goeree-Overflakkee: compare English “flake”.
Flak is a fictional Commanding Officer in the Advance Wars series.
Flak Magazine
.
See also: flac
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
I’m going to giggle uncontrollably when Bobby Lee sues you for libel, because the only possible outcomes are you losing and apologizing for your deliberate untruths or you winning because the court rules this slop is too ridiculous to be mistaken for the truth.
Dear Young Andrew Dodd,
I believe I may have watched over you when your were a little boy in DLS Extended Day.
Now, you obviously have no clue about the Libel and Slander laws of our land. You may want to look up the O.C.G.A. in title 51-5. Then look up what the term “Public Person” means with regards to libel and slander. Google the whole topic, and then look up various court rulings, both at state levels and U.S. Supreme Court levels to learn what rulings come down about when the Press can be sanctioned. I have witnesses, I have public documents, I have proof. The fact that nobody I have written about so far has sent me a Demand Letter should tell you something. (Before a suit for libel or slander can be brought, the “offended” party in the action must identify what elements are false, and they must allow for a retraction BEFORE THEY CAN SUE.
I have received no Demand Letters, young man.
Stop allowing the Bacon, Lettuce and Cheese crowd to manipulate you, and do a little research before you embarrass yourself next time. Do not allow them to use you as a pawn. This has become a Rumplestiltskin situation, and Bacon Lettuce & Cheese is having a fit, and trying to get others to fight his battles, as he always has. But, Chattooga County residents, and beyond, are waking up, and realizing that Bobby Lee Cook has fooled some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but he has not gotten away with fooling all of the people, all of the time. Rumplestiltskin is stomping his foot, right now, right through the floor to oblivion.
By the way, little girls giggle, and grown men stoned on pot giggle. Real men laugh.
Teresa Watson
Pedro, You seem to speak from a position of first hand knowledge. I tend to agree with most of what you are saying except a couple of things: I do not believe for one minute that Al and Steady are one in the same. From the same entity? Al could be Steady’s confused secretly hidden away off-spring; I do see a family resemblance there. Who knows. One thing I do know is it’s not fair to imply that with a little money the entire DTF or FBI can be paid off. I’ll give you the probability that there’s usually one bad apple in any bunch, but to imply all those boys are on the take——Nope I’m not buying that.
Dear Kayron -
You are right. MOST of the FBI, DEA, DTF are hard working, good guys (and I refer to women as guys, too). They will be vindicated soon, at several levels, as well as a couple of State of Georgia entities. I will owe good bottles of Scotch, brews and buttermilk pies to the whole lot of them.
And you are also right that Adam and Steadfast are two wholly different persons, but perhaps you are to something in the “flowing from the same stream”.
TW
Andy, are you and Al brothers?
You have provided no proof that the hit-and-run incident took place. If Bobby Lee had been arrested for the man’s death, such documentation would be available. Your feeble “urban legend has it” disclaimer indicates that you are aware that certain parts of that story, perhaps all of it, may be grounds for a libel case. This one minute instance where you left a window open for a quick escape is rendered utterly ineffective by an obsession with and suspiciously frequent usage of the words “truth” and “facts.” Your tone gives the impression that either you believe what you’ve written or you want other people to believe what you’ve written. If it be the former, then you have been reckless and negligent by not verifying the truth, which qualifies as libel. If it be the latter, then you know you’re making some or all of it up, which also qualifies as libel.
Mr. Cook’s status as a public figure would not effect a libel suit. You either wholeheartedly believe what you wrote due to a failure to check your “facts” and gather proof or you deliberately lied for the sake of rallying a crusade against Mr. Cook; in either circumstance, your actions were performed with what legally qualifies as “actual malice.”
I would also like to point out that I can find no mention, excluding this page, of the phrase “Dixie Mafia” being used before 1993.
Dear Mr. Dodd:
1> Do you think that I would really be so reckless as to print something I cannot back up? BUt even if I did not have the facts, I prefaced my story under “Urban legend”, and that is protection enough. But your hero will not risk a civil suit for defamation, because a) he knows I have the proof, and b) civil discovery would render him exposed on so many criminal fronts, it would not matter that there are several major opertaions going on as we speak. And, because I have the facts, he woudl lose, and then I could swoop in and collect his vast wealth and fortune, for Abusive Litigation.
2. I am sorry that your research skills are so under developed that you cannot find any reference to the Dixie Mafia before 1993. I would have thought an education at D would have taught you better. BUt that must mean that you are using ONLY the internet as your research source. My Music Professors at Shorter required that for references in term papers, we had to limit or research citations from the internet, which required us to use libraries, and to borrow books from other libary sources, and to search public documents when available. I hope that in your search for higher education, you will encounter professors as challenging as the ones at Shorter College, who make you dig for the truth, instead of regurgitating internet wikipedia dribble. The internet is for Gigglers. Libraries and govenrment documents/record rooms are for real men.
3. If you want proof, witnesses etc, I suggest you spend months researching as I and others have done. I suggest you make Georgia Open Records Requests, and Freedom of Information Requests. Talk to witnesses, and gain their trust, and perhaps they will then allow you to copy their decades old newspaper clippings and copies of court records, and pictures.
You know nothing but what you have been spoon fed. Do not assume that everyone else is as ignorant as you are. That is arrogance, sir.
Do you know that in Rome and Floyd County, there were many, many people, right up until the moment he entered a Plea Deal, even after so much evidence had come out about him court, who held fast to their fantasies that Mario Armas was an innocent victim. BUt I had worked on that research for over a year, and I knew better…and I did not know the tip of the iceberg.
Federal Agents sat me down several week ago, when they realized that I was preparing to do this series. They told me that Mario Armas was a Choir Boy compared to Bobby Lee Cook and his machine. They told me that BLC had the power and means to ruin me and those around me. They said his influence is very international, and goes far beyond the Democratic elite, and jumps the aisle to the Republican elite as well. They warned me what I would be up against if I went forward. They told me would happen, each step of the way, and said that they were not trying to tell what to do or what not to do, but they wanted me to know the facts. But I had already seen some of BLC’s handiwork. I have tasted some of his justice, down the chain of command from him. I have seen pictures, and they are gruesome. The files are heavy and well documented. The witnesses, the ones still alive, have lives which have been ruined and destroyed on so many levels. You need to grow up a little, and get out from under the discipleship of your hero. When you have lost the sort of things some of us have lost, including children or spouses, to the powerlust and greed of BLC and his princes, (and princesses), then you come back and talk to me.
You need to read some of these files, you need to see pictures, you need to talk to victims. You need to do your homework.
You are 19 or 20. Come back in a few years and tell me how wrong I am. (Perhaps it will only be a few months or weeks, though).
However, I do appreciate how civil your tone is.
TW
Being a Chattooga Countian myself….you would have to be blind to not know and see the “Good Ole Boy” justice in this county…Im not sure if there is a decent judge living in our county…Maybe Judge Ralph Hill , VanPelt, and Woods….but I don’t think they live here….I know very few that trust the courts and attorney’s in the county…they feel they are all on the take and crooked. The ones that do hire one of the attorneys only hopes they pick the one that is in the “click” so they may get the ruling the want….it certainly isn’t going to have anything to do with what it right and just. The same with our investigators…they know who to arrest and who not to….they dare not arrest the wrong drug dealer…he may have ties to some of the judges and attorneys and why would they jepordize their jobs for an arrest of a drug dealer that is just going back to selling and being protected? If it was so pathetic….it would be a great movie…..
This is in response to “Out for Justice”….I think I know about this one…and you are probably right…they wanted your land. Everyone knows “Connelly, Vines and Palmour are thick as theives”.
Let’s see where everybody stands. I was given a little piece of information today that could solve a little bit of Chattoga’s problem. TW you’ll have to help me out with this one. There is a Georgia Statue named, “Statue 21-4-1thru12.” This is a “recall petition” and if I can get only 30 % of the registered voter’s of Chattooga co. to sign this petition and we can fix it so we don’t get embarrassed again. Now If I know my numbers, Judge Finister was leading the race all the way up to the, “in-questioned” absentee ballots, where he lost like 3-1. Surely there are 30% of good decent, conservative voters around willing to sign on.TW if you could check to make sure that I am correct with this particular Statue, seeing that you have better access than myself. If it is legit, I’ll be glad to walk it around, and then present it to the proper authorities. It’s the least I can do.
Dear DirtyBoy:
I am not an attorney, and by most crtics, am not even a journalist. I am not offering legal advise. But I have read Title 21, Chapter 4, and it looks like these are the basics.
1. Sponsors - you have to have at least 100 sponsors of a Re-call Petition OR 10% of the eligible electorate voting in the last election. Eligible, not actuall voters, but eligible, registered voters.
2. Once an Application is requested and received, All the necessary sponsors have to sign within 15 days (excluding weekends and holidays).
3. After the Sponsors are verified/certified, in a small, non-state re-call where less than 5000 signatures are needed for the election re-call, then the Sponsors have 30 days to get the re-call Petition signed. That number of signatures is then 30% of eligible voters in the last election. Again, not actual voters, but eligible, registered voters.
Timing is critical in this whole process, so, NO ONE NEEDS to ask for an application unless you already know how many SPONSORS are needed, because the 15 day lock starts running then. Be sure you can support the application process, FIRST.
Also, note the percentages required for both Application Sponsors AND Re-call Petition are percentages of ELIGIBLE Electors at the last election. Not Actual voters, but eligible.
So, if you had 11,605 voters in the last election, (I checked and that is the Chattooga County stat for registered voters for 2006 ), no matter how many showed up to vote at the election where this official was voted in to office, you still have to get 116 Verifiable Sponsors to sign an Application, and then 3,482 VERIFIABLE Electors to sign the Petition.
One final note, there are campaign reporting rules to follow, just like in a regular election.
What you should do is go to the local courthouse, and copy the code section out of the O.C.G.A. Every County is required to keep up to date copies of the Georgia Code, freely and easily accessible to the citizenry, or do the same at a friendly attorney’s office.
TW
Once again, check the number of Nolle Prosse, Dead Docket and Dismissed criminal cases there are in Chattooga county as compared with other counties……you’ll see SHOCKING figures……..then once you (not you TW, I know you have your hands full, this is for those who deny the corruption)……then once you find that there is something strange going on up in Meth Country, you’ll notice that most all of the cases that end up with that disposition, have the same three or four attorneys as the defense attorney……Then, if you get real suspicious (and have research skills other than Google and Wikipedia) check out how those cases ended up with those dispositions….here’s what you’ll find……….A majority of them are continued, over and over and over and over again………(this would never happen in Floyd county), even continued for up to two years, every court calender, the case is continued UNTIL finally, the arresting officer fails to appear for court and the case is immediately disposed of in one of those three manners……..I’ve seen cases that have been continued TWELVE times……….simply waiting on the officer to miss court.
One of the DTF officers in that area was convicted this year for stealing money in the course of his job……..he was accused of much more……….this officer was working in the drug task force (a very critical position) and he had been fired ( or forced to resign) twice before for misconduct…….The good officers knew about it and told people who could have done something about it PRIOR to an indictment….they did nothing. I know officers from other agencies who GROAN when they get a subpoena for a Chattooga County Court (usually because the officer arrested someone who is on probation in Chattooga) because they all know how dirty the court system is.
Dear RomeGaSir:
Once again, you say what I struggle to. And, in closing you have actually provided a nice segue in to my Rumplestiltskin Feature Story next week - Mike Davis of the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force. I have the GBI file in my lap, and have started working on the story. Then, next week, I have permission from a very brave, single, blue collar mom, to tell her story. The file is well documented, about how she had worked so hard to save $20,000.00 to buy a home for she and her kids. After trying to clean it up, she learned that it was a meth house, AND THAT EVERYONE AROUND, including the Chattooga County Sheriff, Ralph Kellet, and then Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force Officer Mike Davis, knew it was a meth house. But even during the process of buying it, when she asked, when she tried to find out, they all denied it. And guess which Rome attorney took her money to “look in to it”, but has done nothing about it? WADE HOYT III.
But we will start with Mike Davis, who worked for the Rumplestiltskin Machine. I will have to start with the mea culpa to our Floyd County District Attorney, though, because when I first teased this series several weeks ago, I mentione dthis case, and got my facts allwrong. When the prosecutor up there recused themself, Leigh Patterson did take it to the Grand Jury, and GOT and Indictment….but the Deal was unbelievable, and I can only hope it was for talking
TW
1) If you actually do have indisputable proof that the “operations” you claim to exist do, in fact, exist, then you are doing nothing but postponing a just punishment for Mr. Cook, as I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the FBI would be positively ecstatic to stop such a grievously powerful branch of the heinous Dixie Mafia.
Your failure to have already brought the evidence to light demonstrates that the evidence does not, in fact, exist. You can pretend you haven’t already received that cease and desist letter because Bobby Lee knows you have the dirt on him, but the fact of the matter is, you haven’t received that cease and desist letter because this series is nothing but idle threats and defamation with just enough ambiguity to avoid legal repercussions. You can say you have the evidence all you want, but until you present it, it doesn’t have any legal significance at all.
2) Again, until you cite specific examples of the phrase being used before 1993, Wikipedia’s statement stands as the truth, as they provide a link to the source of their information. I’m not sure how it worked back when you went to school, but putting “It’s true because I looked it up at the library in a real book” in your bibliography didn’t fly well with the teachers in my day.
3) Is that what you plan to tell the FBI? Once again, you have done nothing to assuage the inert status of your “evidence.”
The sheer incredulity of your confabulations shock me. Federal agents sat you down and warned you of the consequences of this series? If federal agents are that aware of Mr. Cook’s activities, he would already be in a federal prison, because if you, a private citizen, were able to get enough evidence to expose Mr. Cook, then the FBI would’ve been able to do it accidentally in their sleep with both hands tied behind their backs; this isn’t some Venezuelan druglord hiding away in a secret mansion fortress in the Andes mountains, this is Bobby Lee, the guy with the law practice down the street.
Dear Mr. Dodd,
Once again, your ignorance of the judicial process, as well as law enforcement process amazes myself and all of my readers. I had finally, almost caught up with the e-mails to my website from this past week, and now, thanks to your totaly wet behind the ears, clueless ignorance, I am way behind again. Contacts from Federal Law Enforcement men and women, Local Law Enforcement men and women, real heors in the trenches day in and day out, from Chattoga, Walker, Polk, Floyd, Bartow, Douglas, Gordon counties, here in georgia, and Cherokke & Dekalb in Alabama, and the Chattanooga area in Tennesse, as well as so many others, have responded in e-mails and phone calls, identifying themselves, to me. They cannot reveal themselves because thier lives or their jobs would be at stake.
Your ignorance is one of those great examples of those, whose freedoms are protcted with real blood, who sit back in comfortable homes and universities, and postulate about what you think might be the case, instead of really finding out the truth.
1. First of all, the 1947 incident was dispensed of legally, already, and Mr. Rumplestiltskin cannot be charged again. It was all “legal” so to speak. It was brushed under the rug, but a process was followed. I used it merely as a point of reference for how Bacon, Lettuce and Cheese got in to the Dixie Mafia. If you read my whole introduction, that should have been self evident, as would have been the name of the gentleman who first used the term Dixie Mafia, long after the 1940’s, but long before the 1990’s.
2. Have you ever heard of John Gotti? What about Al Capone? How about the countless other names tied to organized crime in the United States? Have you ever actually read a real book, cover to cover, that was historical and not fiction? You will see how long federal cases take to develop. There are massive numbers of people to track, and the HEAD of a CRIMINAL Organization is the LAST to GO DOWN.
Mr. Rumplestiltskin’s time is coming, and with the gun shots he fired across federally controlled phone lines in rage the other day to threaten me, he only facilitated the nearing of his final eclipse.
AS I said, Mr. Dodd, you need to grow up, experienc REAL life, instead of caosting on the backs of others, and walk a few miles in the shoes of Honest Law enforcement. READ A Book, Mr. Dodd…Read a history of organized crime, and see if you can figure out what is going.
They have him in their cross hairs, Mr. Dodd, (metaphorically speaking). Some of these readers/commentors to this website are in law enforcement, and they are trying to help you to stop embarassing yourself.
My expose is very timely. Take their advice, not mine.
The sheer depth of your ignorance, arrogance and supposition shocks me, and most grown ups. And one more time, and I will type slowly so you willl understand. This series will last about 12 week. This series comes out in three parts, each week. Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Documenting each segment takes time and effort. Rome was not built in a day. Books are not introduced, developed and concluded in one chapter. You and your co-horts were accusing me last week of not having any real proof. I think this last week proved you wrong.
Rumplestiltskin wants you and others to push and dig, to get to all of the evidence now, so that he an prepare to answer the LOOMING indictments when they come down. But even with as many reports and as much evidence as I have, I still do not have the biggest and the best, and so he will have to wait to read his indictments when they are unsealed….as will I.
TW
LOL……..such a great American, Andy……I’m sincere……it’s people like you who are still shocked that O.J. was found Not Guilty………There are plenty of examples of “good ole boys down the street”, who are obviously guilty of major crimes, but without enough evidence YET to convict them, EVEN the good ole FBI has to bide their time……look up the case of Sam Parker if you have doubt……if you claim that to be an exception to the rule, let me know, and I’ll fill up this page with examples (but only if you promise once I do so to admit you were wrong). I challenge Bobby Lee Cook to defend his honor and file the lawsuit….i don’t think he’s got the backbone because he knows he’s dealing with a crazy person….someone that can’t be bought and doesn’t mind admitting that they’re flawed…………
It is amazing how truly ignorant we all are.
BLC has ruined my buisness just because I had problems with one of his clients who paid him approx.$250,000.00 to defend him in federal court
where the client was found guilty by a jury in rome, BLC has so much reach that his client and wife only got probation, all others in volved with that case recieved some form of prison time what is wrong with this?
I truly believed that justice will prevail thank you for investigating,God knows no law inforcement officers have
romegasir:
“But your hero will not risk a civil suit for defamation, because a) he knows I have the proof, and b) civil discovery would render him exposed on so many criminal fronts, it would not matter that there are several major opertaions going on as we speak. And, because I have the facts, he woudl lose, and then I could swoop in and collect his vast wealth and fortune, for Abusive Litigation.”
Verbatim. She either has the evidence or she doesn’t, and, despite her talk, she doesn’t act like she has it.
Mr. Dodd,
BLC can’t cover up all evidence and silence all witnesses.
then I ask…………..is this the first time BLC didn’t snatch easy money?………….is this the first time BLC didn’t sue just for justice’s sake?………doesn’t the man have any pride?????……..
RGS,
That is a great question. Has he ever balked at suing someone for either cause - money or “Justice” -(LOL). I am quoting from Steadfast’s first comment Wednesday evening, I believe it was:
“Better yet, you could just have the openness to reveal your chief source of these baseless ramblings and then all of the good “common people” of Chatt. Co. would know what sort of B.S. your writing. And, speacking of the election fraud case are you saying that Cook is involved? Go ahead, speack plainly and coherently, or are you concerned about a lawsuit? I doubt any lawyer would sue,not because of the truth of your statements, but because it would be difficult to collect from you”.
As you can see, he wants me to reveal my sources, something no credible reporter or journalist would do if the source’ life or job would be jeopardized by it. BUT MORE IMPORtantly, he builds himself an excuse for not suing - “But it would be difficult to collect from you”.
This I am not ashamed of. I have no wealth, no power, no position, and that is why he is in such a rage, because he cannot touch me. Everything important to me was taken away over the course of eight years, and five law suits ruled over by a Rumplestiltskin puppet judge in Floyd County with the final blow coming in 2000. I have healed from that, and life and joy have been restored, and BLC and his minions cannot touch me. They can cause momentary scares, and shake me up a little, as he did on Friday. But I drop to my knees, and am reminded that Everything is Pre-ordained. But witnessing Rumplestiltskin, (one of my federal contacts called him that after the outburst the other day), and his uncontrolled outburst of rage was such a treat for so many of us, (in retrospect), and has re-invigorated many an honest law enforcement person.
As I said the other day, HE IS DEFEATED already, and he knows it. And because this is getting so much publicity, (my site is teetering at 100,000 hits per day, mostly from Northwest Georgia and North East ALabama), he cannot get his regular puppets to do his bidding. HE HAS LOST CONTROL, and has resorted to getting 19 and 20 year old college students to pary amd thrust!
Thanks you, RGS, and all of you guys in law enforcement, for speaking out. And thank you for living and fighting in the trenches, day in and day out, to protect ones like myslef and Andrew Dodd.
TW
I really don’t know what world you live on Mr. Dodd, but if you would research the documents that she has spoken about, instead of spending your time arguing with people on this web-site you might learn something. But I doubt you really need to read any of those because it sounds like your stuck right in the middle of the “BLC regime”. I have always been taught, that a good defense is a good offense. And I think that TW is running down the field, and is scoring. She has the defense running around with their heads up their W#! trying to figure out what they are going to do next. Public records are just that, public records, free for you to read. Try investigating like TW has done, and then draw your conclusions, But I don’t think that even though you have the evidence slap you in the face, you’ll still deny what you’ve seen. That’s what BLC instructs you to say. Run a smoke screen to try to keep people from talking about the true issues at hand. We can sit here a bicker all day long about what you think, but if you are so right, why can’t you find some type of disclaimer rebuking what TW has shown. You can’t.
Pedro:
Do you actually know of an honest canidate that is not in the “click” with every other attorney..judge…law enforcement officer?
Its like the domino effect.
Its sickening how this county works.
The ones that might have a shred of decensiey wouldn’t dare to buck the BLC crew. If they only had the backbone of TW.
Dear Teresa,
You have started a very intersting dialogue and I wonder how far in terms of revelations it will go. Lots of folks around know lots of details about the matters upon which you touch and I suppose that this is a near ideal forum to let these things see the light of day.
I have some considerable first hand experience with these sorts of matters, though from twenty or more years ago and not from Chattooga but rather more local to Gordon and Whitfield county.
This post is mostly a test to see if your system will let me participate.
BR
Dear Bill,
Most certainly, I have just approved your other post as well. Love it. I was taking some family time this afternoon, and have just gotten back to work. A first time poster has to be approved, before the post can go up. But unless I have to disapprove a later post, all of your contributions,from now, will post automatically. I have only had one person I have had to limit with disapprovals, and that was because he was saying things about entities which could not respond, without their crossing boudaries which could have opened them up to violations of privacy issues.
Please, your knowledge and understanding seems to be a combination of both “book learnin” and personal experinece, and this makes for the best historical enlightenment.
Thank you,
Teresa
Teresa,
From your blog:
“our Mafia are the offspring of displaced gentlemen of a bygone era - plantation owners and cotton mill dynasties.”
I come from such a local family and am well versed in family and local history and I really believe that you are looking at this in the wrong way and that such a focus tends to diminish your otherwise excellent effort. I can tell you with considerable authority that it just wasn’t this way around here, surely not in Gordon and not that I know about in Whitfield or Floyd if you go back in time before the current era.
By the current era, say by the time we had developed a sort of criminal underground (and your “Dixie Mafia” term was being used around here by the early 1980’s) class distinctions had become a bit more blurred, but even then there was a clear class bias to the activity and I can tell you that it was almost exclusively the domain of men of humble origins and little education.
In Gordon county, for sure I can’t think of a single exception to this sort of class bias.
Now I don’t intend to demean folks who had a daddy or grandaddy who was a sharecropper as most of these folks were fine men, as fine as any. But believe me, the folks who by the 1960’s were beginning to deal in stolen trailer loads of carpet, stolen cars or were transporting moonshine came from humble origins, in Gordon county, anyway, I can’t think of a single exception.
You mention moonshine. Liquor making was completely legal till the 1920’s, only requiring the payment of a small tax. After that the activity became much more difficult, requiring much hard work and long cold nights spent out on the creek bank. And the market around here was a local market and very competitive and this part of the south, till way beyond WWII was very poor. The men who ran the moonshine business tended to be the same tobacco chewing overall wearing men who made the stuff, sometimes aided and abetted by the sheriff and some of his deputies. I do know of a couple of cases (rather famously so in Whitfield) where a local family engaged in fairly open retail bootlegging (though by the 1960’s mostly bonded whiskey brought in from elsewhere) over a period of years, up into the late 1970’s and were surely being protected to a degree by some fairly powerful men, but these particular bootlegging folks, whatever their good or bad qualities were surely not related to “plantation owners and cotton mill dynasties”.
Maybe elsewhere things were different, especially in the cities of the south and in some other areas, but here locally I know I am on solid ground. And it could be that Chattooga had a bit different pattern than say Gordon, Floyd, Whitfield and Murray.
Murrry, for instance had a bit rougher background. There you had an open stock law till the late 1920’s and people ranged their livestock wild-west style.
Now the landed gentry and the educated folks surely had their failings back in those bygone days. But to believe that back then they were engaged in an organized criminal conspiracy, especially with men from other parts of the south (with this criminal “networking” being the primary characteristic or your “Dixie Mafia”) is just not the correct way to look at this.
The Dixie Mafia arose not from the property owning classes but from those less prosperous “men on the make” of the lower classes.
But then drugs came along, and meth, and that is another and more contemporary story.
BR
Dear BR,
Fascinating stuff. I must admit, most of my research has come from articles, some books, and a little internet reserach. I have also talked with DTF folks from various areas of Georgia. I am the first to admit that writers of books often over generalization, and I bow to your local roots and familiarity.
Thank you for more clearly idenitfying the roots, at least in Northwest Georgia, of the Dixie Mafia You have done us a great service. Thank you also for clarifying that the term Dixie Mafia was used around these parts, since the early 1980’s. That would make very good sense, as it probably took a few years to migrate from use in the New Orleans - Biloxi - Hot SPrings area where it was first used by the feds and local law enforcement there in the 1970’s. I think sometimes that younger folks cannot appreciate how things have changed, since the internet came in to being. NOw, A term can be used in one place, at one event in one part of the world, and be in common use by the next week or month, throughout the world, thanks to the internet.
Thank you so much for this better and more specific explanation than I gave in my brief introduction. I hope you will continue to contribute, as we try to understand the history and dynamics of this fertile ground for the public corruption of Northwest Georgia.
Teresa
You seem to be the one with the limited knowledge of legal matters. If you truly are building a case against Mr. Cook, then this public website is doing nothing but showing him how the prosecution will attack, which would give a ringleader in an organization as powerful as you have ascertained more than ample time to prepare an effective defense.
I don’t feel a need to argue any further, as you clearly have no desire to listen to anyone who doesn’t agree with you wholeheartedly (a character trait that will undoubtedly yield some interesting results in a courtroom). If I see no legal action taken against Bobby Lee any time in the next few years, I feel a civic duty to notify mental health professionals of your unhealthy obsessions with him for the safety of Mr Cook and his family, as such illnesses that you display the early symptoms of can degenerate into homicidal tendencies. Good day.
Oh, Andrew,
I needed a good laugh. Thank you. After the threats this Friday froom the BLC camp, GUNSHOTS left as a threat on my answering machine, I have been a little too serious. Thank you so much for lightening the mood. I have been thinking all along that you were serious about your challenges, and I just could not figure out with all of thse logical law enforcement folks writing in, how you could ignore reality. NOw I know you were just teasing me. You knew all along that I allowed a law enforcement person with a VERY different take on Leigh Patterson tha I have, to post a well developed op-ed a few weeks ago. It challenged me, and made me take a second look, and I might have to come around to RomeGaSir’s view of our DA.
And you knew that I allowed David Doss to post a very opposite view from mine, after ranting for days on the blog portion, because he made a logical and valid argument. I did not agree with it, but he stated it well, and different views are necesaary ot a healthy republic.
I had thought all along these last few that you were one of those who disagreed with me. But I see, you have bene pulling our leg all along. Thank you again for the tension relieving, gut, busting laugh. We all need that now and again.
Teresa
Dear Teresa,
Thanks for your kind reply.
One thing that has worried me for quite some time is related to your “displaced gentlemen” assertion in that though I don’t think that this was true in the distant past locally, I GREATLY fear that this sort of thing may be true now and not just on any local basis but on a national, even global basis, though the “gentlemen” now are anything but “displaced” or disadvantaged in any way.
You have very large numbers of our politicians and agency bureacrats being “paid” for their every action by way of the “off-shore cutout” in places like the Republic of Panama and a hundred other places. You wonder how reliable our elections are anymore. And leading politicians, Bush 41 or 43 and to be sure leading democrats too, are doing the most inexplicable things.
When you mentioned that BLC may have a “global” reach of some sort, that really got my attention. Is that true? He shouldn’t have, any more than I do. After all, he is just a local lawyer.
Hey, Bill,
You are right. He should not have that sort of reach. But I think that today, Celebrity is key to power. BLC has built a Celebrity personana for himself, coupled with moneys he has gotten both legally and otherswise, and has spinned that in to global reach. I watch folks sometimes, associated with the United Nations, and I have to laugh. It is obvious that many people lack the intellect to be in the positions they are in, however, they have risen through the various and sundried diplomatic ranks, dodging hard issues, playing yes men to entities of some power, and they end up being little celebs, making decisons which do not effect them anymore in the United States Penthouse apartments, and spending US Dollars, indiscriminately. I see BLC no differently. But with BLC, I sense a more sinister agenda, and I am at a loss as to education and intellect to figure out what that agenda is.
TW
BR
Andrew, If you are in fear of Mr. Cook and his family’s safety then why are you going to wait a few years to notify mental health professionals? You’re going to sit back and wait a few years first to see if charges are filed against Mr. Cook… Maybe it’s just me, but your statement does not make a lot of sense. I mean it could be early signs of a degenerative mental illness; which could cause a person to ramble on about a subject and make no sense. I feel it’s my civic duty to adivse you and I do hope you’re not practicing law.
Good evening Sir
It is time Chattooga County is cleaned up. Corruption has gone on long enough. A new age has begun do we have enough people to stand behind the changes? We have some law enforcement that work hard to keep our county clean only to have their employers, or lawyers and judges sweeping it under the rug. The price for some people to have charges dismissed or altogether disappear ranges from paying out money, sex, or drugs. There are some in law enforcement just as frustrated as many of our citizens in mafiaville but, who do we turn to with information? How do we find someone that will not turn the information back to the bad guys, who in turn may burn down our house, hurt our family or take our jobs that earn a living to feed our family and put a roof over their heads. It is frustrating to see things go on day after day, to watch good law enforcement get a slap on the hand or worse lose their job because they arrested the wrong person. Can anyone guarantee us that during the next election we will have outside help in making sure the elections are not fixed? If we do not have outside help the results from the last few years will be repeated. The machines may determine who is elected, it is who determines what is put into it that decides who is elected. Absentee ballots can disappear if someone does not like who has been selected on them, others can be added that you can only find in one of our local graveyards. When people are stating all over the county that a change is needed they are fed up but the election results puts the people in office you have to start questioning the polls. I believe with all my heart that most people just gave up on voting due to the fact that you cannot win. There were a few good changes but when someone comes into office and tries to do “good for the people” it usually makes some of the “good ole boys” mad and they do not usually last more than one term in office. Good luck TW hope doors get opened that cannot be closed, I hope that enough can be made public to bring in the cavalry. We have to think of our children’s future in this county.
The Dixie Mafia”BANNED BY EDICT from smuggling drugs, the Italian American Mafia missed out on the most lucrative crime wave of the twentieth century. It was left to others to profit from the $100 billion a year market in cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamines. Those best placed, by geography and criminal tradition, were the loose-knit groupings of the South, known to law enforcement as the “Dixie Mafia.”
The term was first coined by Rex Armistead, the Director of the Organized Crime Strike Force in New Orleans in the 1970s. Less famous than the Cosa Nostra, the Dixie Mafia was, and still is, far more dangerous. During a ten year period from 1968 to 1978 when the Italian Americans were in the headlines for a spree of thirty murders, their redneck counterparts quietly dispatched 156 victims.
This is a exert from a web-site on the Dixie-Mafia.. Plainly states they were formed In the 60’s…. As on reply stated cannot find anything on them before 1993… Dig a little deeper on the internet and you can find more information out… Happy Hunting….
Did you ever see Walking Tall “Buford Pusser’s wife was killed by the dixie mafia”
Teresa,
I can assure you that there is no “Cartel”. If you truly have the best interest of Kristina and Branch’s children at heart, you will stop this. They have been through enough. In fact, leave this family be. The entire family has had enough heartbreak to last a million years.
Of course Judge Connolly called her Daddy. Wouldn’t you do the same thing? I know I would. I can’t imagine what it’s like to find your husband dead like that. You are not her.
His fingernails were “remarkably short”? If you knew Branch, you would know that he was a nail biter. But it’s clear that you do not know this family, or anything about them. Kristina was in her nightgown? God knows, I don’t know that I could have gotten anything on were I in her position.
A suicide email? Frankly, that sounds just like him, as does the language. And I KNOW to whom he made those phone calls. And it’s none of your G@#$@#$M business.
It is a pretty strong accusation to accuse some of murder, even if it is a veiled accusation.
Leave these tragic people in peace. If you can’t do that, then it simply speaks volumes about your character.
Dear HSTGRL,
I never claimed to have the Connelly children’s best interest at heart. I am concerned and saddened for them, but they are grownups. I am MUCH MORE concerned with the TRUTH, and JUSTICE, and the countless lives which have been ruined by the Dixie Mafia - all of the children who have lost their parents to meth. All of the young children exploited. All of the lives ruined by crooked real estate deals, or civil cases where the outcomes were predetermined by a corrupt judicial system.
Finally, I did not accuse anyone of murder. I asked questions, or, rather, repeated questions asked about the case by Career law enforcement officers/agents trained in these matters. Their conclusion was “likely murder”. But no one was accused, not on this website. Get your facts straight, Missy.
None of my business? Are you kidding me. Since when is possible murder, and rampant corruption not EVERYONE’s business.
And I did not say remarkably short…that is a direct quote from the GBI report. Most of that whole week’s worth of story is directly out of the GBI report.
a) Entry: Official Report Division of Forensics Sciences, GBI, IDLJ69Y20Z0GXYEI “The fingernails and toenails are cut remarkably short, precluding harvesting for trace evidence”
By the way, nice vocabulary there. Do you talk like that in normal conversation, or only when you are protecting children’s feelings?
Thank you, thank you very much.
TW
Teresa,
For the final time, there is no Dixie Mafia.
Dear HSTGRRL,
Finally?
Seriously, you need to do some research, and you need to go ask some FBI agents, and some local law enforcement, and some GBI agents. You need to go do your research. Do not take my word for it. GO find out the truth for yourself.
TW
THANK YOU HSTGRL FOR STANDING UP AND SPEAKING FOR THE CONNOLLY CHILDREN. IT IS HARD LOSING A FATHER, ESPECIALLY THAT WAY. AND TERESA, FYI, I AM THE SAME AGE AS THESE CHILDREN AND I HAVE LOST MY FATHER 4 MONTHS BEFORE THEY LOST BRANCH AND MY HEART STILL ACHES EVERYDAY. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU ARE “GROWN UPS” YOU STILL ARE YOUR FATHER’S CHILDREN. YOU ARE CRITICIZING AND BELITTLING MY FAMILY, RALPH KELLETT (UNCLE), (AND ALSO PEOPLE THAT LEAVE COMMENTS ABOUT BRIMP WARREN, HE IS MY GRANDFATHER). I AM PROUD TO BE A PART OF THIS FAMILY, WE ARE ALL HARDWORKERS AND COMPASSIONATE PEOPLE, AND THAT IS WHY I AM SPEAKING UP FOR MY FAMILY AND ALSO THE CONNLLEY FAMILY.
I LIVE AT CLOUDLAND AND THESE PEOPLE ARE MY NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS, WHO HAVE HELPED ME AND MY FAMILY THROUGH THICK TIMES, AND ALSO CONTINUE TO DO SO. REX ABERNATHY HAS BEEN A GREAT SOURCE OF DIRECTION TO ME AND MY SISTER AFTER OUR FATHER’S DEATH. HE IS A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND WITH OUR BEST INTEREST IN HEART. HE HAS NEVER CHEATED OR MISLEAD US. I AM PROUD TO HAVE KNOWN REX FOR THE PAST 7 YEARS, HE EVEN HELPED ME WITH HOMEWORK WHEN I WAS IN HIGHSCHOOL! NOW DOES THAT SOUND SELFISH TO YOU?
YOU HAVE ATTACKED SEVERAL FAMILIES, AND I HAVE FIRST HANDEDLY SEEN THE HURT YOU HAVE CAUSED THEM, NOT TO MENTION MYSELF AND MY FAMILY. THESE PEOPLE ATTACKING RALPH KELLETT ARE MOSTLY SPEAKING FROM HEARSAY, AND IF THEY DID KNOW HIM THEY WOULD KNOW THAT HE IS HONEST AND HARDWORKING. AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU FLOYD COUNTY PEOPLE TO MAKE ACCUSATIONS?
AND IF ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED IN THE DIXIE MAFIA, THEN WHY THE HELL DO THEY ALL HAVE TO WORK 9-5 EVERY DAY OF THE DAMN WEEK???
Dear Daddys girl:
If your uncle is Sheriff Ralph Kellett, then your uncle is as Corrupt as Heck, in my opinion. The sort of stuff which has gone on and is still going on under his watch is appalling. Sticking together is fine, if someone has made mistakes - family should support each other through rough times. But require accountability. You should not facilitate and enable someone to remain corrupt. You should not make excuses.
I have NOT attacked anyone’s family, but I have come after the elected officials, like your uncle, to hold them accountable. GBI reports are not hearsay, Missy. Police Incident Reports are not hearsay. Medical examiner reports are not hearsay. Public documents are not hearsay.
Furthermore, saying that any Georgian not from Chattooga County or any AMERICAN not from Chattooga County has no right to speak out about corruption there is absolutley absurd. This is our country, even up in Chattooga County. This is our state, even in Chattooga County.
And I would suggest that if Mr. Abernathy is filling in the gap since your father died, then he needs to wash out your mouth.
Thank you, thank you very much.
TW
TW
LISTEN, I UNDERSTAND THE FACT AND OBVIOUS TRUTH IN YOUR REPORTS FROM THE GBI. WHEN I WAS TALKING ABOUT HEARSAY I AM TALKING TO THE PEOPLE WHO LEFT COMMENTS AS I STATED.
ALSO, DO NOT CALL ME MISSY.
MY ONLY PURPOSE FOR MY COMMENT ON HERE WAS TO TAKE UP FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO. I KNOW THE GOOD IN THEM, AND MAY NOT SEE THE BAD FOR THAT MATTER , BECAUSE THE GOOD IS WHAT I SEE EVERYDAY. IF YOU SEE THAT BAD IN THEM THEN DO WHAT YOU FEEL IS RIGHT. BUT THE CHILDREN OF THESE PEOPLE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO DESERVE THIS.
FURTHERMORE, NOONE IS FILLING IN THE SPOT SINCE MY FATHER DIED, SO DON’T ASSUME THAT EITHER. AND IF YOU DO FIGURE OUT WHO I AM, AND WHO MY FATHER WAS, YOU WILL NOT FIND HIS NAME IN ANY OF THIS YOU’RE INVESTIGATING INTO, SO DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME B/C HE WAS NEVER INVOLVED IN POLITICS. AS FAR AS WILLS AND MONEY IS CONCERNED, THAT IS WHERE REX’S GUIDANCE HAS BEEN HELPFUL, ALONG WITH PROPERTY ISSUES AND CONTESTING.
I NEVER SAID WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS WRONG IN THE BIG PICTURE, BUT TO ONLY THINK OF THE CHILDREN OF THESE PEOPLE. WOULD YOU WANT YOUR CHILD THAT YOU LOVE TO READ AWFUL THINGS ABOUT YOU? NOT ONLY ARE WE GOING TO READ THINGS ABOUT THE ONES WE CARE ABOUT SOON IN THE PAPERS, BUT YOUR CHILD IS GOING TO SEE THINGS WRITTEN ABOUT YOU ALSO. AND THINGS MAY NOT BE TRUE ON EITHER ENDS SOMETIMES, AND IM SURE SOME THINGS MAY BE TRUE, BUT THIS WILL ALL BE SETTLED IN THE END, AND I HOPE FAIRLY.
OH, AND WHY SHOULD MY MOUTH BE WASHED OUT? I NEVER CALLED ANYONE A SUSPECT OF MURDER. AND I HAVE NOT SAID ONE UGLY WORD ON HERE THAT I HAVE NEVER SAID IN FRONT OF MY FATHER, THANK YOU.
I WILL NOT POST ANYTHING ELSE ON HERE UNLESS I SEE NEED TO, SO I ASK YOU DO NOT RESPOND. ALL I WANTED WAS TO SAY I STOOD UP FOR MY FAMILY, JUST LIKE YOUR FAMILY WOULD STAND UP FOR YOU, BECAUSE WE LOVE THEM AND THAT IS ALL WE KNOW.
P.S. DO YOU ALSO HAVE A MYSPACE?
Dear DG
Well said, on the first part of the post. I do not know who your father is/was. YOU told me that your uncle is Ralph Kellett. My quarrel is with him, and not really with you. But You are absolutely right, family Should stand up for each other.
Now, as to me, if a newspaper prints something which is inaccuarte about me, they have to retract it once I let them know. If they are quoting someone, he/she will have to retract. There is website in town that is already allowing GROSS, (as in large) LIES to be posted about me, but mostly by ignorant high schoolers. The comments even involve a serious investigation, in which several names have been identified in the shooting. But these lying kids have put out that it was a prank they did. It’s been out there long enough for some adults to start repeating, in public, the lies, overheard by friends.
The Mouth being washed out comment was in reference to the “HELL” . I apologize.
The Myspace thing - that is my son’s generation. I am an old grandma. NO My Space. I can see it now…..Grannies gone wild. (oooooooHHHHH )
tw
PS, I really am sorry for your loss. And it is very good to see a young person stand up for their family.
I, too, am sorry for your loss, Daddysgirl. It’s always hard for a daughter to lose her father. I lost mine over 10 years ago, and it never gets easier.
You are right. Family should stick up for each other. I don’t, however, think that it constitutes “organized crime”. I am beginning to believe that Teresa doesn’t know anything about the families that she “reports” on. If she did, she would know the stories about Carlton Vines defending a woman with two toddlers against a home invasion many, many years ago. She would also know that Bobby Lee Cook sits on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Innocence Project and that Bo Woods is a decent, honest man.
As far as Teresa being covered under “Shield Laws”, she should do a little research into recent precedence. It wouldn’t take much to discover that Josh Wolfe, a blogger from San Fransisco and BONA FIDE journalist, was jailed this year for the longest contempt charge in the history of American government. It is now federal precedent that bloggers are NOT considered journalists and must turn over their sources and/or information upon demand.
Dear hstgrrl:
I am not a blogger. You will not find me having blogged on other sites. This is a Real News site, I have real press credentials, and a business license with the City of Rome, as a News Agency. I am even on the Approved Federal Press Release List, as well as many other Press Release entities. I cover real news stories, and I sit along with other press entities at regular news conferences. Bloggers do not cover real news. Bloggers do not bother to get press credentials. Bloggers do not pay for business licenses. Bloggers do not spend hours of each day attending public meetings to gather news. Bloggers do not spend hours of each day researching court documents and interviewing people. Bloggers sit at a computer all day and blog, expressing opinions about what Real News people are reporting on.
I happen to have a running blog on my site, for my readers, as do most news sites now. And, the Blogger in California was sued for something HE wrote, not one of his bloogers.
This is not a Blog. I supppose that you need to check YOUR FACTS.
TW
(snip). Perhaps Teresa should do her OWN research of what she has put out there on the World Wide Web. Here is an example of how she contradicts herself. http://blog.support-the-cratons.com/2007/03/03/welcome-from-charles.aspx
Teresa,
A proper journalist does not inject their editorial comments within their “reporting”, and that is exactly what you do when you refer to Carlton Vines as “disgraced” as you did today in your Breaking “News” segment. Perhaps you should reference your Chicago Manual of Style, Missy.
Happy Hanukkah to all!
Dear HSTGRRL:
Before you go giving a lesson journalism, perhaps you should check out your facts.
I did not own a website when I wrote that as a Letter to the Editor of the Rome News Tribune. Charles Craton simply asked if he could place it on his website. I have never posted to his website. I was not a reporter at that time, and had not even started writing for Jerry Duke at RomeNewsWire yet.
I launched this website on August 6, 2007. You are welcome to check YOUR FACTS with the Rome News Tribune or RomeNewsWire of you would like, or check out the Georgia Secretary of State Website.
TW
“You will not find me having blogged on other sites’
-TW
That is a direct copy and paste of Teresa’s response to me earlier. I attempted to cite in my above post, but for some reason, it didn’t post.
Dear hstgrrl:
As I said earlier, before you go giving a lesson journalism, perhaps you should check out your facts.
I did not own a website when I wrote that as a Letter to the Editor of the Rome News Tribune. Charles Craton simply asked if he could place it on his website. I have never posted to his website. I was not a reporter at that time, and had not even started writing for Jerry Duke at RomeNewsWire yet.
I launched this website on August 6, 2007. You are welcome to check YOUR FACTS with the Rome News TRibune or RomeNewsWire of you would like, or check out the Georgia Secretary of State Website.
TW
Teresa,
Clearly, you DID post to his blog and it is irrelevant as to whether or not you had a website at the time. You indeed stated that you did not post to other blogs. What are readers to think when your post is on Charles Craton’s blog (owner of Entice). I personally am a big supporter of his right to operate any legitimate business that he so desires. I never thought we’d be on the same side of an argument, Teresa.
Dear hstgrrl,
Clearly, you are misinformed. I did not, but I allowed Charles to post what was a Letter to the Editor in the ROme News tribune. Call him and ask him. And again. it was before I ever dreamed of having a website. Charles and Susa have come to be friends of mine, because we both support FREE SPEECH.
I e-mailed him a copy of my Letter to the Editor, and he asked permission to post it, which I gave BEFORE I owned a website. Look at the dates.
Boy, someone is pulling no stops at researching Teresa Watson before Friday.
TW
Please enlighten me as to the important events on Friday. But your post to Craton’s website makes you appear that you are a supporter of the adult entertainment industry in Rome, Georgia. I personally believe that it is no one’s business what they do in bed, as long as they are not sitting in my lap. I am going to assume, due to your friendship with Susan, that you feel the same.
Dear HSTGRRL,
Then apparently you cannot read. I clearly state that i do not like the adult entertainment business, but that I LOVE FREE SPEECH and I hate hypocrites.
I have never seen the side of Susan Craton that everyone likes to gossip about. I ahve been in their home to interview charles father, becaus ehe is a WWII vet. I love and appreciate people who fight for freedom, and do not try to stifle free press.
By the way, speaking of Free Press, the Josh Wolf thing was unfortunate. I am prepared to go to prison, HOWEVER, in JW’s case, he was refusing to answer a FEDERAL GRAND JURY, wher he might have had evidence of a serious crime. I am not sure I know what I would have done then.
BUt in my case, an old man with a desperate need to find out who and what my sources are, to see if he can head the feds off at the pass, has used two willing straw clients to do this. He is seriously threatening their financial security to do this, and he does not care. BUt if you go to the USC I hinted at, you will see exactly what is protected, and you will see that Federal District Courts have upheld the protection, even of BLOG owners. Serious Sites even more.
And while you are at it, google SLAPP suits.
I do not have anything against the Hammitts, but, I do hope that one of the three attorneys representing them will get a conscience before it is too late, and there is no turning back. They could lose everything because of Bobby Lee Cook’s, Rex Abernathy’s and John Dennis’ Hubris. So could Janice Galloway.
As to Friday, I have to get a pedicure for the holidays.
TW
Teresa,
Good work on the Josh Wolf case. I also believe that the man got a raw deal and truly hope that he wins his election in San Fransisco. (I’m sure he won’t). You are correct in that his case was a federal case as opposed to a civil and/or circuit court case. However, federal precedent often supersedes circuit/state law and you should be aware that you are exposing yourself as a blogger as opposed to a journalist. Your editorializing isn’t helping your cause. It can be misconstrued as mean spirited and as a personal vendetta.
As far as (snip) you have made MANY vitriolic accusations in your “news” posts about him that would make anyone take action against you. I know that if you were making the same veiled accusations about me, I would take legal action against you.
As far as your inference in another thread as to me being a “player”, I am a “player” in a way you cannot imagine. If by “player” you mean a well educated member of society who doesn’t believe everything she reads on the internet, then, yes, my dear, I am a player.
Dear hstgrrl,
I hate to admit it, but concur with you in the JW case. Furthermore, regardless of where one falls on the Valerie Plame “outing”, if that is what it was, I think the cave in by the press was unfortunate, although what’s her name tried to make it. If you cannot stand the heat, you should not be in the kichen. Josh Wolf was the true journalist of those three, even though he had less “Credential” than the others in their case.
This is why I am so concerned. I do not want to go to jail at Christmas time, or ever, but I fear I may have to, and all of my plans with my family for Christmas, will be up in smoke. But my Daddy jumped twice in WWII with the 82nd, and twice in Korea with the 187th, and served two tours of Viet Nam, so how can his daughter be less afraid to stand up to tyrants?
I need thousands of dollars I do not have yet, for an attorny to sit with me at in a deposotion for a case I know nothing about - (not the law suit filed against me), in which Bobby Lee Cook is trying to depose me to emabrrass and get to my sources. I will claim protection under 24-9-30. I will show my Business License through the City of Rome, and my Press Pass through the Rome Police Department, but that little party is in a Chattooga County case, and those judges will most likely send me to jail.
Spelling and grammar aside, along with your obvious superiority over me in education, I think we may be more alike than not, although you seem to favor my opponent’s side in this issue. And that is where reasonable minds can disagree.
I will remind you however, that in journalism, both Op-ed’s and Feature Stories, which is where most of my BLC-Dixie Mafia stuff runs, are allowed to have color and opinion.
By the way, the Georia Shield laws do not say someone has to be a journalist, butonly a news gatherer and disseminator of news That’s all. I ahve never claimed to be a journalist. I think that dessignation is earned. I am a gatherer of news, (GBI reports, Real Estate Documents, Court Documents, Public recirds of all sorts, Public Meetings, Press releases), and I report and disseminate. So I am protected.
One more thing, “veiled accusations”, like for instance the ones “redneck” and “Shadow” posted last week about me and some unnamed thing in Florida, do not make for an action in libel or slander. And given how very public Bobby Lee Cook is, then, well, he is fair game. But this case is not about him. He is using the Hammitts to make it a case about him, and that is as pathetically narcissistic as it gets. It will destroy the Hammitts.
As for the Hammitts, I made no accusation of them. Someone else did, and if you have looked up recent Federal Court rulings on websites, you see I am protected from what posters/bloggers post on my website, and cannot be held for libelous content others post to my website. But I now have a cause to come against them and countersue for their hard earned money, and I will have to do so with a vengeance, to protect my corportion’s name. Unless they withdraw that is.
You see why I loathe the legal community? The Hammits are being manipulated for someone elses’ ego, a lawyer’s, and countersuing is the only way to stop it.
Of course, their claim is void because they did not follow the prescribed course for filing a suit in this case.
TW
PS - Keep us posted about JW. I was not aware that he was running for office. I wlil check that out.
tw
Teresa,
I read very well. I also read between the lines.
As someone who grew up in Chattooga County and couldn’t wait to get away from the “good ole boys” I commend you for your website. I find it very interesting reading. I once had the idea of doing something similar to what you are doing and let my family talk me out of it because they feared for my safety. Kudos to you.
Dear Kristen,
Thank you so much for your encouraging words.
TW
this is getting way out of hand don’t u think???? none of it is going to help only hurt people why not just stop now and let it go…geezzzzz
Dear Mark,
I am sure that British Sympathizers said the same thing in the beginning days of the American Revolution. Early Christians’ families probably advised the same thing. I am sure the Southern people who tried to assert questions about slavery in to the mainstream dialogue, were told that this would not gain them popularity or help anyone, and really good people on both sides of the Black-White divide during the 1960’s probably thought that Martin Luther King was a trouble maker, and that leaving things alone, allowing the status quo, would be best for everybody. No violence that way. No assasinations, no National Guard.
Like Benazir Bhutto’s son proclaimed after her death last week, “My mother once told me that Democracy is the BEST REVENGE”.
I agree. What Chattooga County has now is not true Democracy, but an imitation, a pretender, a fraud. Sure, there are elections, without opponents, and rigged election fraud. That is corruption, not democracy. The average people, not the judicial aristocracy will prevail.
TW
Has anything ever been reported about a heated discussion branch and Kristina were having in the middle of the road they live on earlier on the same day that Branch died? I know this happened and they had a couple of cars trying to get by and she was completely red faced screaming at the top of her lungs. I was wondering if any of this was reported to the authorities?
Wow. I have lived in Rome almost all my life, I have written to you Teresa, and told you about my ex and brother and their friend, when they came across a pot field in Lyerly. To this day folks listen to us tell about that and I just don’t think they believe it, it is too hard to think that in this day, or even 15 years ago, that level of coruption could possibly exsist, but it surely does, all around us. I have had that proven to me personally by Gary McConnell. Who doesn’t know Bobby Lee Cook is as crooked as they come, that one is a given. My father in law hired him not long ago to get his other son out of a jam, he had gotten busted again with a large amount of meth, 3 time loser, but, of course Bobby Lee worked his ‘magic’ and he only served a couple of months and was out again. I hate that. Bobby Lee is revered in this area by the criminal element as THE MAN that will bring the freedom they need to continue their criminal lives without further interuption. But I know that the Dixie Mafia has such power in this area, or rather in Chattooga County, even judges and attorney fear going up against them. Chris Frazier. Know anything about him? You should find out what he went through. And he is an attorney, his father was a long standing judge. Even he couldn’t touch them.
Dear Merry,
Which judge was your father-in-law’s son in front of?
The feds are collecting these stories, looking at the cases, and if there is something amiss, they are investigating. For instance, if it was in front of Kris Cook Connelly, as in many of the stories we have collected with BLC representing someone who gets off easily, then both BLC and Judge Connelly have broken the law. There is an investigation at the Federal Level regarding this very thing.
Please let me know. But not all e-mails get across on my Contact@RomeNewsBYWatson.com, so if you can post here, again, under a different username, giving me the information, I will see it, but it will not post to the site. I will keep it hidden from view, and pass the info along.
Even if it is not Judge Connelly, because of so many other deals they have discovered with MOST of the Judges in the LMJC, the feds will know what to do.
Thanks,
TW
Forgive me Teresa for using such language on your site but. Adam Al-Sayed, you sir, are a complete d-head. Who’s family tree do you come from in all this coruption, it is obvious you are attempting to shield this operation, but I say you are on the wrong site, folks like me are here because we WANT this exposed. It is 2008, time to weed out the coruption and free those who suffer because of it.
Dear Merry,
I have edited your post, slightly, but my readers will still get your intent. I modified what you said to Mr. Al-S, to “D-Head”.
TW
I was a close friend of Branch’s and know all about the fight with he and Kris…I also know many other “family” secrets I am sure they would not want aired. I have made contact with the GBI and the FBI in regards to Branch’s death. I am also the 603-252-0000 phone number in Branch’s cell phone log. You would find the same number if you checked Mr. Cook’s home phone log, Branch’s office log, Branch’s house log…etc. Even though it is evident that Branch spoke with me several times a day for years, no one ever wanted to hear what I had to say in regards to this case. It is deeper and darker than anyone would care to admit or know. A good man is dead and the evil goes on. As an outsider (not a Georgian) I certainly have NO fear of Bobby Lee Cook, his family, his friends, his “Dixie Mafia”, his daughter or anyone else his influence touches. I do know that Branch loved this man very much, he considered him a second father and his respect for Bobby Lee was deep and real. I also know he loved his children more than anything on earth. My public silence, thus far, has been fueled by the desire to protect his children more than anything else. I do, however, believe that Branch deserves more than he has been afforded. I think it is important that the truth, good, bad or indifferent be brought to light. As we approach the two year anniversary of Branch’s death, perhaps it is time to expose the truth. I am happy to share the information I have with those investigating the case.
Dear Linda,
Thank you for your bravery.
Would you like for me to add this to a current story, as well? Branch’s wife is RIGHT SMACK dab in the middle of controversy and poor taste right now, on the front page. Check out the whole running article since Friday under Breaking News.
I have also passed this along to some of the feds I know who are working this case, in case they never got the information that passed on to them. Did you ever talk to GW?
tw
tw
Teresa,
I would say that YOU are the brave one. There is nothing the Cooks can do to me. I am far beyond their reach. Having read your breaking news story regarding Kris I can tell you that it is a public affirmation of the very private hell she put Branch through for years. As for poor taste, you have not even begun to scratch the tip of the iceberg. How a sitting judge can participate in the activities that I KNOW Kris to partcipate in , is beyond my comprehension. Of course, we do things a bit differently in the north.
Branch was always delighted to remind me that I was a Yankee. I am, indeed that.
We all have secrets. I would suggest to you that Kris’s are darker than most. I cannot say I would want her to sit in judgement of me. I do not think she should be sitting in judgement of anyone.
I am happy to have you pass along my information to the FBI, GBI or any other organization doing an investigation. (they should have it) I don’t want to be a part of the rumor mill but I would like to be an instrument in bringing the truth, about Branch’s death, to light.
You must be an amazing person. Thank you for giving a voice to those who are not able to find their own.
Linda
Dear L,
Thank you for your VERY kind and generous words. I know there are folks who cannot know how close the feds are, who could take some comfort from learning another strong and brave person has stepped forward.
May I print this on the newer story, or no?
tw
Teresa,
Feel free to print . ….L
Thanks you, Linda.
tw
[…] Linda Oct 6, 1:53 PM — The Chattooga County Branch of the Dixie Mafia […]
That was horrible. Nice murder accusations. You need some stronger evidence than “urban legend”. Half of is based on your conversations with jealous conspiracy theorists from Chattooga County. You assume that people are “puppets” without giving a shread of evidence. You base a murder accusation on “urban legend”. You say you’ve got piles of federal documents, and you cite nothing. Maybe these people just don’t like rich liberal lawyers. Apparently that’s your problem with these people. Most writers have a hook to get people interested, but they don’t drag it out over a month.
Dear John,
Thank you for writing in. I have been teasing this for several weeks, that I would start this series today. I see that the propoganda machine was sitting on ready to begin it dis-information campaign. Most folks who live in this area see through your thin disguise. This series will probably last about 12 weeks, because there is so much. How can you expect the whole story and every detail to come out in something entitled “Introduction”?
But, I notice your URL comes through Emory University. My sister did her undergrad there back in the seventies, before her law school at UGA. It was liberal then, and I suppose some things never change.
Now, as far as the murders, you can research yourself, if you are interested in the truth prior to my revelation. Crime stats come from the feds, and there are plenty of books covering the topic in general about the Dixie Mafia, as well as articles including interviews of fed’s and locals. So, do yourself and your institution a favor and complain only AFTER you have all of the facts, not before.
It’s an INTRODUCTION.
Thanks for reading and writing.
Teresa