FORSYTH COUNTY — Forsyth County Authorities have officially ruled as arson the house fire Jan. 18 that burned down single mother Pam Graf's home on Lanier Drive.
The blaze has captured national attention because of what appears to be racially charged graffiti left on scene and the fact that Graf was a public supporter of President Barack Obama.
Graf maintains she was targeted for her political beliefs and said she'd received written threats in the weeks before the incident.
No one was harmed in the blaze, which completely destroyed the home. Graf's three children, ages 11, 14 and 17, were staying with their father, as she was on her way to Washington D.C. for Obama's inauguration.
Division Chief Steve Anderson, who is heading up the investigation for the Forsyth County Fire Department, said the arson ruling comes from information gained in interviews and from evidence on the scene.
"But we won't go into where it started or what started it," he said.
The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives have also been working the case. Anderson said ATF agents joined the case because Forsyth is a member of the agency's metro arson task force.
Because the graffiti could possibly be construed as a threat against the president, Anderson said the Secret Service and FBI have been contacted.
"They are only monitoring the case right now," he said. "Not actively working it."
Capt. Paul Talyor, head of Forsyth's Criminal Investigations Division, said the primary focus of their investigation is the graffiti.
"We're trying to determine who wrote it," he said. "Maybe that person can tell us what it meant."
Anderson said at this point, everyone is a suspect.
"We have not eliminated anybody at this time," he said. "The owner, occupant and operator of anything that burns have to be looked at and eliminated at this point."
Graf said she would expect nothing less. She said she's met with Anderson numerous times, as have her parents and the friend who was driving her to Washington D.C. at the time of the fire.
"Of course it's normal for me to be investigated," she said. "I mean, that's the first thing you do. I have nothing to hide — they know everything that I know."
In the week since the initial incident, the case has garnered a lot of attention from various local media outlets — some of it directed at Graf's past.
According to Forsyth County Sheriff's records, Graf is the filer of or mentioned in 11 separate incident reports dating back to September 2006.
They included various domestic situations with her estranged boyfriend — a man who goes by the alias "Reno Savetini" and against whom she'd taken out a restraining order — and accusations of shoplifting from a Browns Bridge Road Hollywood Video in late November.
The shoplifting case was a big mistake, Graf said. She said the store's manager has offered to back her up publicly.
The rest of the reports stemmed from "making poor choices" in who she "associated with years ago."
"It makes it sound like I'm a criminal," she said. "I don't see the connection in what happened to me years ago can somehow link me to blowing up my own house."
Graf said the only thing she can think of is the "obvious" choice: "They're trying to take the glare off the racial hate crime that's happened here."
She said the accusations have hurt her children.
"If I was a suspect and I was arrested for destroying my life and my children's lives, then I could understand pulling up every horrific thing this woman has ever done," she said. "But I am a victim here. If the point is to move this democrat out of Cumming, Georgia, it's working."
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Jan. 18 fire ruled arson
Monday, January 26, 2009
Former Forsyth deputy, wife plead guilty in illegal alien case
A former Forsyth County deputy and her husband pleaded guilty in federal court for harboring an illegal alien to work her as a nanny for little or no pay.
Woodstock residents Malika Garrett, 43, and her husband, Russell Garrett, also 43, a former Forsyth County deputh sheriff, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Orinda D. Evans to one count of harboring an alien for private financial gain. Malika Garrett also pleaded guilty to an additional count of making a false statement to the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said harboring illegal immigrant domestic workers to work for little or no money is a crime of greed depriving of their civil rights and often, as in this case, their freedom.
"Coercing such victims with threats of jail and deportation, and lying to federal agents, is also an abuse of the legal system. Regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, crime victims can bring their cases to federal officials without fear of reprisal," Nahmias said. "In fact, such victims may be eligible for special visas that allow them to remain in the United States and vindicate their civil rights."
The defendants took advantage of their nanny's undocumented immigration status for financial gain, said Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general of Civil Rights, at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
"They exploited her by not paying her and preying upon her fears of deportation," said King.
According to Nahmias and the information presented in court: Beginning in February 2003 and continuing through June 2005, Malika and Russell Garrett, knowing that the the victim, a female Indian national, had entered the United States under false pretenses, thereafter harbored her from detection, and attempted to do so, all for the purpose of their own private financial gain.
At their plea hearing, the Garretts admitted that they caused the victim to work as a nanny, for which the victim was initially underpaid, and then later not paid at all. The Garretts acknowledged that they told the victim that, if she left their home, she would be deported and jailed for an extended period of time – a condition that the defendants understood would cause great shame to the victim, a Muslim woman.
Ultimately the woman was able to escape from the Garrett's home with the assistance of a neighbor. At that point Malika Garrett threatened to, and did, both malign the victim to her family, and submit false allegations concerning the victim to Department of Homeland Security officials. Malika Garrett also admitted that she lied, when questioned by special agents of the FBI and ICE, by denying that the defendants ever employed the victim as a nanny. Relating to the case, Russell Garrett was relieved by his department of his duties as a deputy on July 24, 2008.
Sentencing for the Garretts is scheduled for April 22 at 3 p.m., before Judge Evans. Malika Garrett faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison on the alien harboring and false statement charges. Russell Garrett faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison on the alien harboring charge.
This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI and ICE.
It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Susan Coppedge and Richard S. Moultrie, Jr. and Trial Attorney Kathleen J. Monaghan of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
More local news available at www.northfulton.com.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
PHOTO GALLERY: Milton councilman Alan Tart at President Obama's Inaugural Ball
Milton councilman and FDA Regional Retail Food Specialist Alan Tart was part of a special FDA team that traveled to Washington D.C. for President Barack Obama's historic inauguration Jan. 20. These are photos from two of the balls he attended, one commemorating Vice President Joe Biden Jan. 19 and The Eastern States Ball Jan. 20. “One word sums up this experience,” said Tart. “Wow.”
Click here to view the rest of the gallery.
Johns Creek State of the City scheduled for Jan. 28
JOHNS CREEK - Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker will deliver his second State of the City address at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the Atlanta Athletic Club. The Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce and the AAC are hosting the event. The cost for the luncheon is $20. Visit www.gnfcc.com to register.
Bodker will also be giving the State of the City address to other community groups in the next few weeks. The city will record the event and post it along with the text and presentation on the city's Web site, www.johnscreekga.gov.
- www.northfulton.com
Roswell police make arrest in home invasion
Roswell police have arrested one suspect in the Jan. 8 home invasion at Horseshoe Bend subdivision in which an upscale pawn shop owner and his family were beaten, tied up and robbed.
The suspect, Joseph J. Marino, 25, of Atlanta, was arrested Jan. 15 at the Waffle House on Holcomb Bridge Road near its intersection with Ga. 400 for possession of marijuana and possession of a schedule IV drug, said Lt. James McGee, a spokesman for the Roswell Police Department.
McGee would not say what lead police to Marino.
"We had a lot of good information on this guy," he said. "A lot of investigation went into this."
A second suspect, described as a black man in his mid-20s, is still at large. McGee said Marino is not cooperating with investigators to give them his name and location.
"He's lawyered up and isn't talking," said McGee. "But we have a very good idea of who [the second suspect] is. It's just a matter of time.
"It would be best for him to just give himself up."
Marino and the second suspect are accused of waiting for the owner of Sandy Springs' Happy Hawker Pawn Shop outside his Steeple Chase Pointe home. When the man went outside to walk his dogs at 10 p.m., they allegedly pistol whipped him, then tied up him, his wife, 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in the home.
"They were all roughed up, especially the husband," said McGee at the time of the incident.
The men took an undisclosed mount of money - which police say was the motive of the crime - and escaped on foot while the family managed to call 911.
The family was taken to North Fulton Regional Hospital that night, where they were checked out and released.
Roswell police released a sketch of the they believed was Marino Jan. 9. He was booked into Fulton County Jail Jan. 17 on 15 charges, including two counts of armed robbery, four counts of false imprisonment, three counts of battery, and more.
McGee said homeowners in Horseshoe Bend were integral to the capture of Marino.
"The residents called and said they'd seen two guys matching who we were looking for earlier in the day," said McGee.
- www.northfulton.com
Former Falcon found dead in Duluth home
Carlton "Shane" Dronett, a former Falcons defensive tackle, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Duluth home Jan. 21, said Gwinnett County Police.
Cpl. David Schiralli, a spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police, said officers were called to Dronett's Bagley Passage home at 7:30 a.m. Dronett's wife said the 38-year-old had just committed suicide, he said.
Police found Dronett's body in the home and turned it over to the Medical Examiner's office, who will make the ultimate determination on the cause and manner of death, said Schiralli.
Dronett played college football for the Texas Longhorns and was picked up in the second round of the 1992 draft by the Denver Broncos. He joined the Falcons in 1996 when coach Dan Reeves came from Denver and played for five years, starting every game in the 1998 season that saw the team make their first Super Bowl appearance.
Dronett worked in real estate after being released by the Falcons in 2002.
- www.northfulton.com
