A Wrongful Arrest
On the morning of Feb. 16, John Choe, a traveling minister with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), was on his way to worship at the Athens Friends Meeting in Arnoldsville. As heavy rain began to fall, he pulled into a gas station in Clarke County to wait out the storm. Parking responsibly, far from the entrance, he remained in his car, reading Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell.
What happened next serves as a troubling example of law enforcement overreach, racial profiling and a justice system that prioritizes revenue over rights. A sudden knock on his car door startled Choe. A man with a weapon stood outside, failing to identify himself while demanding identification. Startled but composed, Choe raised his hands and exited the vehicle. Only then did he realize the man was a police officer—his name tag read “Lavalley.” The accusation? That Choe had been parked too long and was now trespassing.
Despite calmly explaining that he was waiting for the rain to subside before continuing to church, Officer Lavalley was uninterested in explanations. When Choe declined to hand over his ID—knowing his rights and recognizing that he had done nothing wrong—the officer escalated the situation, refusing to let him leave. Choe requested the presence of a supervisor, hoping reason would prevail. Instead, the supervisor arrived only to reinforce the threats of arrest if he did not comply.
Choe was subsequently handcuffed and taken to Clarke County Jail. His belongings, including cash, were confiscated. He was placed in a filthy cell alongside individuals arrested for infractions as minor as jaywalking and tinted windows—people trapped by a system that demands payment for freedom. As he sat on the cold bench, the undeniable racial disparity was evident: nearly every other detainee was African American.
Denied water and food for the many hours he remained incarcerated, Choe also observed the jail’s striking focus on money. Choe was informed that he had to pay a sheriff’s fee and bond—reduced from an absurd $3,000 to $26 after confirming his clean record—to be released from jail. The final charge? No mention of trespassing or loitering—only obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
A first-time visitor to Athens and far from home, Choe was disoriented and was left to find his own way upon discharge from jail. The fear that his car had been impounded loomed, but using free Wi-Fi found along the highway, Choe was able to return to the gas station—a half-hour walk later—where his car remained untouched.
This arrest was a wrongful act. Officer Lavalley and his department will likely attempt to justify their actions with baseless claims that Choe was possibly overdosing on illegal drugs or hiding from the law. The truth is an upstanding citizen was unjustly targeted, harassed and detained. The fact that the police could only come up with obstruction as the sole remaining charge underscores that the entire arrest had no legitimate basis. Law enforcement officers knowingly abused their authority, and such behavior must not go unchallenged.
Choe’s experience is not an isolated incident, but a reflection of a deeply flawed system, where racial profiling remains rampant, and where the presumption of innocence is too often ignored.
This was not a lawful arrest. These officers must be held accountable.
Mokah Jasmine Johnson
Co-founder, Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement
Editor’s Note: The ACC Police Department declined to comment on an ongoing court proceeding.
Trump Isn’t Protecting the U.S.
We look to President Trump to defend the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Surely all Americans are aware of the threats to our country posed by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and of the immense challenge of defending our country from this new axis of evil. Russia has turned to North Korea to provide the troops it desperately needs in the genocidal war on Ukraine and obtains weapons and ammunition from that country and Iran. And yet President Trump threatens to cease aiding that beleaguered nation, attacks our longest-term and most faithful allies in NATO and declares the defense of Europe from Russian aggression not a priority or perhaps even a commitment. He threatens to invade Greenland and Panama, states that Canada must become a 51st state, and demeans and belittles that nation. And now he has levied huge, commerce-killing tariffs on our most important trading partners. Our NATO allies have been forced to conclude that they can no longer rely on us, even as a source of vital weapons and ammunition.
How is all of this making America safer? The obvious answer: It is not. Indeed, these incredibly irresponsible and dangerous actions have placed our nation at immense risk and made us more vulnerable than we have been in the past 80 years. We must stop these destructive and groundless attacks on our friends and allies, actions which are a gift to our enemies and threaten the safety and security of our nation.
Robert B. Covi
Bogart
Name Art Gallery for Nancy Lukasiewicz
In 1972, while I was in graduate school at the University of Georgia, Dave Dugan, director of the Athens Recreation and Parks Department, hired me to be the superintendent of parks. In 1973 Ronnie and Nancy Lukasiewicz moved to Athens. They brought with them a vision for enhancing the arts in the community similar to one I had based on the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA. Their first idea was to have an art show, and I suggested holding it in Memorial Park. Even though he was then working for the Lamar Dodd School of Art at UGA, Ronnie took over developing the show, inviting the artists and managing the event.
Following the Memorial Park Art show, Ronnie wanted to teach a community art class, and once again came to the recreation and parks department. We began discussing the possibility of turning the Lyndon House, which had been owned by the city since 1939, into an art center. It had once housed almost the entire recreation and parks program. We undertook the task of fixing up the Lyndon House, and Nancy was in charge of the new art center. In 1974 she organized the first juried art show. Fifty years later the show is still being held annually.
After the success of that first exhibit, Ronnie became the city’s first cultural arts supervisor, and the Lyndon House became a full-time arts center. Since then the Lyndon House has been restored and a beautiful annex built to better serve the cultural demands and needs of the county.
Along the way, because of the community’s growing awareness of the arts, many other venues have been built or improved. The mobile art program, the Harvest Festival and many other programs began during Ronnie’s time as cultural arts supervisor of the new Cultural Arts Division. When Ronnie was hired by the Georgia Museum of Art in 1978, Nancy became the cultural arts supervisor.
In 1975 I was hired as director of parks in Charleston, SC. The mayor there asked me to merge the parks and the recreation departments. We did that, and included a Division of Cultural Arts in the new Department of Leisure Services. I held that position until 1981, when the UGA Institute of Community and Area Development hired me to head its Recreation Technical Assistance Office. My job was to assist agencies at the city, county and state level as part of the university’s public service and outreach arm.
Shortly after I returned to Athens, Nancy asked me if I would help find a way to enlarge the Lyndon House. That effort resulted in the repair of the house itself, the annex to the Lyndon House and the creation of the Lyndon House Arts Foundation. Ronnie and Nancy took lead roles in this effort. Unfortunately Ronnie died of a heart attack before the new addition opened to the public.
A few years after the new Lyndon House opened, I asked Commissioner Cardee Kilpatrick if she would help get one of the galleries in the building named for Ronnie Lukasiewicz. Though it took a while, the gallery was named for Ronnie.
Ronnie and Nancy were a dynamic team dedicated to improving community arts in Athens-Clarke County. I felt Nancy should also have a gallery in the building she helped make possible. In the early 2000s, I suggested the gallery above the one named for Ronnie should be named in Nancy’s honor. She was the county’s second supervisor of cultural affairs and an integral member of the team that created the community art programs we enjoy today.
I suggested naming a gallery for Nancy before the ACC Government decided it needed a process for naming facilities. Because my request was not acted upon until after the new process was begun, a simple process that named a gallery for Ronnie now has become difficult and lengthy. Bishop Park had been named for a mayor while he was alive and in office. Thomas Lay Park was named after a longtime superintendent of recreation after he died. In 2021 the former East Athens Community Center was renamed the Aaron Heard Park and Community Center Park in honor of another former employee who dedicated years of his life to the ACC Leisure Services Department.
Athens-Clarke County has one of the finest community arts programs, and finest supporting facilities, in Georgia. It took many years of hard work, and it happened because three people had a dream, and two of them took the lead to bring that dream to fruition.
Julius Bishop was the longest serving mayor in Athens history (1964–1976) and got a whole park named after him. Nancy dedicated 49 years of her life to make the arts available to everyone in Athens-Clarke County and beyond. The simple act of naming an art gallery for a professional artist who, with her husband Ronnie, gave so much to Athens-Clarke County should not be so difficult.
The University of Georgia named its School of art after Lamar Dodd. Maybe we should consider naming the entire Lyndon House Arts Center after Ronnie and Nancy.
Daniel Hope III
Athens
Congressman Collins, Do the Homework
A huge number and variety of sources claim to provide Americans with accurate and objective information. It is no easy task to determine which sources are trustworthy and reliable and which are not. In this regard, the records of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System are extraordinary.
NPR (which reaches 43 million people weekly) has received numerous awards and prizes for its journalism and broadcasts, including the Pulitzer Prize, Edward R. Murrow Award, Gracie Award and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, among others. PBS and its programs have also won numerous awards, including Webby Awards, IDA Documentary Awards, Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, National Headliner Awards and others.
So why does our congressman, Mike Collins, want to defund NPR and PBS, proven sources of the highest quality journalism and reporting over many decades? It seems unlikely that Congressman Collins knows about this incredible record or, indeed, cares about it. Ironically, the easiest and most effective way for Collins to inform himself about the impressive performance of NPR and PBS would be by simply listening to NPR and watching PBS.
By failing to inform himself, Collins consistently speaks and acts in ways which are extremely detrimental to the welfare of our district, our state and our nation. Surely we, his constituents, are entitled to expect more of Collins, an individual to whom we have given such extraordinary power to either enrich or impoverish our daily lives.
Bruce Menke
Athens
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