Georgia News Briefly

Woman texts for help in kidanpping case

CANTON (TNS) — A 24-year-old man is awaiting extradition back to Georgia after he allegedly kidnapped his ex-girlfriend from the Cherokee County Fair on Sunday, police said.

Derbi Tito Morales-Reynoso is accused of being under the influence of alcohol as he drove his ex-girlfriend, whose name has not been released, from the fair in Canton to Chattanooga, Canton police said in a statement.

Police were called by the woman’s friend about midnight Sunday. She told officers her friend said her ex had taken her against her will and she needed police help.

When a Canton police supervisor called the abducted woman’s phone, only music could be heard on the open line, but shortly thereafter the woman began texting the Canton supervisor and her family members, police said.

Officers then requested a “ping” that would send the woman’s GPS location from her cellphone.

“As additional information became available, it appeared the victim and suspect were somewhere near Chattanooga, close to Interstate 75, and that the two may be headed to an unknown location in Kentucky,” police said in the statement.

When officers determined the car stopped at a Flying J gas station, Canton police contacted the station and learned two people matching their descriptions were in the parking lot.

Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers arrived and arrested Morales-Reynoso.

Morales-Reynoso faces charges of kidnapping with bodily injury, DUI and driving while suspended by the state of Tennessee.

Decomposing body found behind home

ATLANTA (TNS) — A decomposing body was found Saturday in the same north Cobb County neighborhood where a woman was reported missing two days earlier, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Now, authorities are trying to determine if there’s a link between the missing woman and the suspicious death.

“At this point,” Acworth police Capt. Mark Cheatham said, “these two cases are being investigated independently while awaiting identification of the body.”

Police received the report of the missing woman Thursday. A description of the woman and other details were not released.

About 9 a.m. Saturday, a resident of a home in the 4500 block of Baker Grove Road discovered the decomposing body in the backyard, according to police.

A cause of death has not been determined, Cheatham said. The body was taken to the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office for examination.

Panel to audit mayoral, gubernatorial candidates

ATLANTA (TNS) — Candidates for governor in Georgia are often targets of campaign-report-related ethics complaints from political opponents who don’t want them to win the state’s top job.

But they’d better keep an even closer eye on their campaign books in 2018. Because the state’s ethics watchdog agency is going to be auditing them.

In addition, the agency may audit other races — some after elections this year — such as the filings in the Atlanta mayor’s race.

The decision comes after at least three major candidates faced campaign-related complaints the last time Georgia had an open governor’s race, in 2010. One of those cases is still tied up in court, and many of the questions about the candidate weren’t raised until an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation five years after the election. By then, the statute of limitations on some of the accusations had run out.

Adam, David to perform at Lowery birthday event

ATLANTA (TNS) — Gospel artist Yolanda Adams and “Greenleaf” actor Keith David are set to perform at the 96th birthday celebration of civil rights veteran the Rev. Joseph Lowery on Oct. 4 at the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University.

The event, hosted by the Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights, will begin at 6 p.m. followed by the celebration at 7 p.m. It’s theme is “Grounded in History: Soaring Towards the Future.”

Among those being honored during the birthday fete are “Think Like A Man” producer, Will Packer; pastor and activist, the Rev. William Barber; and attorney Angela Rye.

Lowery is known as one of the deans of the U.S. civil rights movement, a minister and social activist. At 95, Lowery is still keenly interested in the social and political goings-on across the nation, especially rising racial divisiveness. He recently endorsed Stacey Abrams in the race for Georgia governor and also Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell for mayor, both hotly contested elections.

Adams is a five-time gospel Grammy winner and David, an Emmy winner, plays Bishop James Greenleaf on OWN’s popular series, “Greenleaf.”

The musical tribute, produced by Kenneth Green, will highlight milestones in Lowery’s lifelong commitment to the nonviolent fight for voting rights, economic equality and social justice. Nearly 100 of the Lowery Institute’s change agents will take part in the program. Change agents are college students trained at the Lowery Institute then assigned to elementary, middle and high schools to teach the principles of nonviolence coupled with conflict management and social and self-awareness.