From You
Sep 18, 2002
Letters
WOMEN BE CAREFUL!
On the morning of Sept 10th, a woman jogging with her dog on King Avenue was attacked by a man who attempted to strangle her. The man who was described a clean-cut, college-aged, black man with short cropped dreadlocks, baggy jeans and a gray tee-shirt, engaged the woman in a brief conversation. After she resumed her run, he came back from behind her and started to choke her. Luckily, a passerby came to her rescue. The man got away.
Women be careful! Many of you are new to Athens and have a false sense of security that a small quaint community like Athens provides. Athens has a long history of violent attacks against unsuspecting young women. In 1992, Jennifer Lynn Stone, a senior living alone in an apartment downtown, was strangled to death. From 1994 through 1999, Athens saw a rash of serial rapists who preyed on women alone in their homes, walking on campus at night and out for daytime jogs. Just last year, Tara Baker, a UGA law student was brutally attacked and killed in her east side home.
Common sense can go along way to keeping you safe. Always be aware of your surroundings. Don't walk alone at night or pre-dawn – EVER! Even a short trip to the library or down the street to meet your friends at the bar can be dangerous. Always have a friend with you or call campus security for an escort. Don't assume that because someone looks friendly or clean-cut that they are harmless. Lock you doors even when just going to the back of your apartment to take out the trash. It only takes a minute for a rapist to enter. Always have someone know where you are and how long you expect to be there. Safeguard your home or dorm windows and doors. Keep bushes trimmed back. Don't exercise on isolated roads or trails. Avoid coming home alone late at night.
It's easy to get complacent or to think it won't happen to me, but it can – in the blink of an eye. If anyone has any information on the man who attacked this woman on King Avenue or sees someone in the area fitting his description, please contact Athens-Clarke County police. Be careful!
Jennifer Griffin
Athens
Tara Baker's body was found Friday, January 19, 2001, over a year and a half ago.
Other than to acknowledge she was murdered, authorities have failed to provide relevant facts of this crime to the public. In the Athens Banner Herald, January 23, 2001, "’For the sake of this investigation, everything needs to be kept confidential at this time,' Fire Marshal Johnny Pritchett said Monday. ’You know there's been a murder and you know there's been arson. Not much more detail needs to be released.'
"Clarke County Coroner Randy Garrett said he had not yet issued a death certificate, which is required of a coroner within 45 days of a death."
Yet, even a year later, in an article also published by the Athens Banner Herald January 20, 2002, "'It's my call, and right now I don't feel it would be in the best interest of the investigation to release it,' said Clarke County Coroner Randy Garrett who is also a sergeant in the Athens-Clarke Police Department."
"Throughout, investigators have closely guarded the details of the crime. Their pattern response to requests for more information: only a handful of investigators and the killer know the details of the crime..."
The two-year anniversary of this murder is approaching and the public is still kept in the dark about this unsolved crime in Athens-Clarke County. Will they be kept in the dark at the 10-year mark of this unsolved crime too, as they have been for the unsolved murder of Jennifer Stone in April, 1992? We, the members of the public, who pay the taxes which pay the salaries of "law enforcement" officials, have every right to know what is going on in these investigations. Were drugs involved? Were drug informants involved? Is corruption involved? Is any criminal cover-up involved? Etc., etc., etc. The only way these vital questions can be answered is for all information to be released to the public, pronto. Mr. Garrett should immediately file the death certificate for Tara Baker if he has not already done so, or he must be compelled to do so by appropriate authorities.
I call upon all our local state representatives to sponsor special local legislation to force these authorities to immediately release all information about both of these crimes to the public. Obviously, secrecy has not helped solve these crimes has it? All it accomplishes is protection of possible corruption.
I call upon both newspapers in Athens to immediately, jointly, file suit in an appropriate court and demand immediate release of all details of both of these crimes. My wife and I would offer to put up $1,000 toward the legal costs of these lawsuits.
Perhaps the crimes of murder and rape and drug activity are too important to be left to "professionals" operating in secret, behind closed doors. Haven't the authorities had enough time to solve these crimes?
What if this were your daughter or granddaughter who had been killed and raped?
Would you be satisfied with the patent failure of these investigations, and similar failures of numerous other unsolved murders in Athens-Clarke County? We can take steps to correct these failures or we can continue to sit here, like bumps on a log. Which will it be? The authorities have had their chance and they have failed. Now it's time for something new. It's time to stop hiding vital information and let the sun shine in.
Winfield J. Abbe
Athens
According to the Athens Banner-Herald's Sept. 11 front page story, it now appears that the ARMC Hospital Authority wants to play hard-ball with the County Commissioners over which entity gets to select the members to the Public Hospital's Board.
Should the County Commissioners merely rubber-stamp the Hospital's choice, or should they have some input and final selection power? On all other public authority boards, the Commissioners share selection authority. Since the County pays $600,000 a year for indigent care, it seems logical to me that the County should have some power of appointment. However, the Hospital Authority's lawyer says the present situation, with Commissioners merely rubber-stamping the Hospital's sole nominee, works wonderfully well. He says, "The proof is in the pudding and the pudding is good." I'll bet it is, especially for the $750,000 a year hospital executive and his highly-paid cadre of assistants. It appears that the Commissioners' power of appointment has eroded over the years as the Hospital Authority has seized more and more power.
Robert D. Clements
Athens
On the morning of Sept 10th, a woman jogging with her dog on King Avenue was attacked by a man who attempted to strangle her. The man who was described a clean-cut, college-aged, black man with short cropped dreadlocks, baggy jeans and a gray tee-shirt, engaged the woman in a brief conversation. After she resumed her run, he came back from behind her and started to choke her. Luckily, a passerby came to her rescue. The man got away.
Women be careful! Many of you are new to Athens and have a false sense of security that a small quaint community like Athens provides. Athens has a long history of violent attacks against unsuspecting young women. In 1992, Jennifer Lynn Stone, a senior living alone in an apartment downtown, was strangled to death. From 1994 through 1999, Athens saw a rash of serial rapists who preyed on women alone in their homes, walking on campus at night and out for daytime jogs. Just last year, Tara Baker, a UGA law student was brutally attacked and killed in her east side home.
Common sense can go along way to keeping you safe. Always be aware of your surroundings. Don't walk alone at night or pre-dawn – EVER! Even a short trip to the library or down the street to meet your friends at the bar can be dangerous. Always have a friend with you or call campus security for an escort. Don't assume that because someone looks friendly or clean-cut that they are harmless. Lock you doors even when just going to the back of your apartment to take out the trash. It only takes a minute for a rapist to enter. Always have someone know where you are and how long you expect to be there. Safeguard your home or dorm windows and doors. Keep bushes trimmed back. Don't exercise on isolated roads or trails. Avoid coming home alone late at night.
It's easy to get complacent or to think it won't happen to me, but it can – in the blink of an eye. If anyone has any information on the man who attacked this woman on King Avenue or sees someone in the area fitting his description, please contact Athens-Clarke County police. Be careful!
Jennifer Griffin
Athens
Tara Baker's body was found Friday, January 19, 2001, over a year and a half ago.
Other than to acknowledge she was murdered, authorities have failed to provide relevant facts of this crime to the public. In the Athens Banner Herald, January 23, 2001, "’For the sake of this investigation, everything needs to be kept confidential at this time,' Fire Marshal Johnny Pritchett said Monday. ’You know there's been a murder and you know there's been arson. Not much more detail needs to be released.'
"Clarke County Coroner Randy Garrett said he had not yet issued a death certificate, which is required of a coroner within 45 days of a death."
Yet, even a year later, in an article also published by the Athens Banner Herald January 20, 2002, "'It's my call, and right now I don't feel it would be in the best interest of the investigation to release it,' said Clarke County Coroner Randy Garrett who is also a sergeant in the Athens-Clarke Police Department."
"Throughout, investigators have closely guarded the details of the crime. Their pattern response to requests for more information: only a handful of investigators and the killer know the details of the crime..."
The two-year anniversary of this murder is approaching and the public is still kept in the dark about this unsolved crime in Athens-Clarke County. Will they be kept in the dark at the 10-year mark of this unsolved crime too, as they have been for the unsolved murder of Jennifer Stone in April, 1992? We, the members of the public, who pay the taxes which pay the salaries of "law enforcement" officials, have every right to know what is going on in these investigations. Were drugs involved? Were drug informants involved? Is corruption involved? Is any criminal cover-up involved? Etc., etc., etc. The only way these vital questions can be answered is for all information to be released to the public, pronto. Mr. Garrett should immediately file the death certificate for Tara Baker if he has not already done so, or he must be compelled to do so by appropriate authorities.
I call upon all our local state representatives to sponsor special local legislation to force these authorities to immediately release all information about both of these crimes to the public. Obviously, secrecy has not helped solve these crimes has it? All it accomplishes is protection of possible corruption.
I call upon both newspapers in Athens to immediately, jointly, file suit in an appropriate court and demand immediate release of all details of both of these crimes. My wife and I would offer to put up $1,000 toward the legal costs of these lawsuits.
Perhaps the crimes of murder and rape and drug activity are too important to be left to "professionals" operating in secret, behind closed doors. Haven't the authorities had enough time to solve these crimes?
What if this were your daughter or granddaughter who had been killed and raped?
Would you be satisfied with the patent failure of these investigations, and similar failures of numerous other unsolved murders in Athens-Clarke County? We can take steps to correct these failures or we can continue to sit here, like bumps on a log. Which will it be? The authorities have had their chance and they have failed. Now it's time for something new. It's time to stop hiding vital information and let the sun shine in.
Winfield J. Abbe
Athens
According to the Athens Banner-Herald's Sept. 11 front page story, it now appears that the ARMC Hospital Authority wants to play hard-ball with the County Commissioners over which entity gets to select the members to the Public Hospital's Board.
Should the County Commissioners merely rubber-stamp the Hospital's choice, or should they have some input and final selection power? On all other public authority boards, the Commissioners share selection authority. Since the County pays $600,000 a year for indigent care, it seems logical to me that the County should have some power of appointment. However, the Hospital Authority's lawyer says the present situation, with Commissioners merely rubber-stamping the Hospital's sole nominee, works wonderfully well. He says, "The proof is in the pudding and the pudding is good." I'll bet it is, especially for the $750,000 a year hospital executive and his highly-paid cadre of assistants. It appears that the Commissioners' power of appointment has eroded over the years as the Hospital Authority has seized more and more power.
Robert D. Clements
Athens
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