Free Republic

Here’s an excerpt from an administrative decision I just read, DeMay v. Richmond County Dep’t of Social Servs., 2014 WL 4206296 (N.C. Office of Admin. Hearings); it was filed July 2, 2014, but just posted on Westlaw on Wednesday. The petitioner was demoted because of a statement she made at a meeting, and the administrative decision upheld the demotion: 3. The [Department of Social Services’] Policy Concerning Unlawful Workplace Harassment provides in pertinent part: The policy of [DSS] is that no employee may engage in conduct that falls under the definition of unlawful workplace harassment. All employees are guaranteed the...

Took the jury just under two hours to reach a guilty verdict. Most of that time was probably spent electing a foreman and deciding what to have for lunch.

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A defense attorney for a man accused of fatally shooting a baby in a stroller said the investigation was flawed and police ignored other leads and suspects, while the prosecution said witnesses may have had shifting stories but video and other evidence doesn't lie. The closing arguments Friday in the trial of De'Marquise Elkins gave dramatically different portrayals of the investigation and presented opposing theories of what happened. Elkins, 18, is charged with murder and other crimes in the March 21 killing of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago in Brunswick, along Georgia's coast. He's also accused of shooting...

Earlier, the man who tipped Brunswick police to 18-year-old De’Marquise “Marky” Elkins and co-defendant Dominique Lang, 15, as suspects, testified that his conscience led him to act, not the reward. “I didn’t do this for the reward money. Can I say this? Whoever had the guns to shoot a baby... I’m doing this for my conscience,” Argie Brooks said. ...A psychology professor from Georgia State University testified about how witnesses are often mistaken while identifying attackers because of stress and police suggestions. “When you go to retrieve that memory, it’s been updated and influenced by all these things,” said Dr....

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — It was a tiny bullet that took the short life of Antonio Santiago. He had learned to walk, but not yet talk, when he was killed March 21, six weeks after his first birthday. He was strapped in his stroller, out for a walk with his mother a few blocks from their apartment near the Georgia coast, when someone shot the boy between the eyes with a .22-caliber bullet the size of a garden pea. The teenager charged as the shooter is scheduled to stand trial next week in a courthouse far from the scene of...

The Marietta Daily Journal’s news sections, as well as the op-ed pages seldom miss having at least one entry concerning the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman tragedy as well as the subsequent trial and its verdict. Indeed, one can hardly read a newspaper or magazine, watch TV or surf the internet without reading, hearing or seeing something about it. The case has, with a lot of outside help, split the nation, so to speak. I had hoped that the people of Cobb County were above the racially divisive finger pointing, name calling and sheer idiocy overtaking a large part of the nation....

  Hello. Don’t recognize me? That’s OK; I understand.   My name was Antonio West. I was the 13-month old child who was shot in the face at point blank range by two black teens, who were attempting to rob my mother, who was also shot.   I think my murder and my mommy’s wounding made the news for maybe a day, and then disappeared.   A Grand Jury of my mommy's peers from Brunswick, Georgia ruled the black teens who murdered me will not face the death penalty... too bad it was me who got the death sentence from...

Police combed a coastal neighborhood of Georgia in search of two suspects from 10 to 15 years, accused of killing a baby and wounding her mother in a robbery attempt. And on the afternoon of Friday reported the arrest of two suspects aged 14 and 17 years for the vicious crime.