Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

He never pulled the trigger, but Christian Brown nearly went to prison after going somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be with a gun in his hand. It happened in December 2018 inside a stranger’s home near Palmetto, Georgia. Brown used the bottom of a handgun to hit the homeowner in the head and walked away with just over $100. “Every time I look back at that, I’m like, that was not worth it at all,” Brown said. “I regret that, too. I regret everything that I did.” Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/04/15/inside-fulton-county-courtroom-giving-young-offenders-second-chance/

Paul Lowe was 93, but the husband and grandfather was still living independently and making plans for the future. He often left notes for his wife to read around the house. “One of the last notes I have [from him] is, ‘Putting this in writing, ‘Do not buy more ice cream,’ said Betty Lowe. “Because he knew, if I brought it home, he would eat it.” Paul Lowe died in May at Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in Snellville, Georgia, while being treated for pneumonia. When he passed away, his family said the hospital initially told them he died from natural causes. But a lawsuit filed in Cobb County on Monday claims the hospital fatally overdosed him with morphine, and then failed to save him, despite knowing about the mistake for hours. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/26/family-claims-georgia-hospital-euthanized-father-through-overdose/

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/04/01/emory-launch-study-after-anf-investigations-into-forever-chemicals/

According to an Atlanta News First investigation, metro school districts have faced teacher shortages in the triple digits. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/04/04/metro-atlanta-schools-facing-teacher-shortages-triple-digits/

AT&T’s recent disclosure about a security breach compromised more than 70 million current and former customers. That means online criminals may have access to your personal information on the dark web, which could give them access to your credit. What does that mean? It means there’s enough information available on the dark web for someone to open a credit card or take out a loan in your name. They run up the charges; your credit takes a hit; and then it’s up to you to prove you are a victim. Identity theft isn’t fun, and if you can’t get it removed from your credit record, the debt will follow you for seven years. If the debt ends up in collections, it could prevent you from getting better rates or taking out a future loan. Most people have heard about freezing their credit, but most don’t realize how easy it is to do. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/04/03/lock-your-credit-doors-now-before-you-fall-victim-fraud/

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/04/09/alleged-home-security-bait-and-switches-popping-up-after-anf-investigations/

A Georgia man detained more than a decade behind bars and never convicted of a crime is now home with his family. Maurice Jimmerson’s pretrial detention is believed to be one of the longest such detentions in American history. His release comes nearly a year after an award-winning Atlanta News First investigation, The Sixth, uncovered him languishing in the Dougherty County, Georgia, jail without a court-appointed attorney or a scheduled court date. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/20/georgia-man-behind-bars-10-years-awaiting-trial-is-finally-free/

According to state repair logs, of the 370 defective guardrails identified in a December 2023 GDOT report, more than a third of the repairs, or 33%, took longer than the required 21-day time frame. Some of the repairs took more than 100 days. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/07/unguarded-gdots-failure-repair-road-safety-barriers-put-lives-risk/

Elfreda Parks said she’s lost sleep over a mountain of private parking violations on her kitchen table. Each violation is $87, and she worries she’ll get more every time she goes to her mailbox. The violations began arriving in September 2023. Parks said she first received a few violations, but it got much worse over the following months. She began receiving large envelopes filled with dozens of citations at a time. “I don’t need this extra stress,” she said. “I’ve got my own stress.” Parks has counted 292 citations totaling $25,404, but many violations were duplicates. According to Parking Revenue Recovery Services (PRRS) and the billing company’s website, Parks’ grand total was $10,764 in fines. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/28/metro-atlanta-woman-mistakenly-receives-10500-parking-violations/

Roseanne and Richard King knew they were in a bad situation when a hospital doctor in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, told them they’d be there for a very long time. The two left their cruise ship on Thanksgiving Day after a ship’s doctor diagnosed Roseanne King with double pneumonia. The hospital in which Roseanne King was admitted charged the couple $5,100 before she even stayed one night. “And if I didn’t give my card, we don’t know what would have happened,” Richard King said. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/20/dominican-hospital-charges-atlanta-couple-7100-refuses-give-itemized-bill/

Alexis Jones’ water bill is astronomical, and she can’t afford to pay it. She rents the house she lives in with her sister and two kids, and they’ve been without water since DeKalb County shut it off in November for nonpayment. Jones and her family didn’t use the water; rather, it was a ghost leak in the front yard that wouldn’t be fixed for nearly two and a half years. DeKalb County records show water usage at 896,000 gallons over a one-month period. The leak was large enough to fill a swimming pool daily, but the county left the water on because it determined it was on private property. The county held Jones responsible because her name was on the bill. “I’m in panic mode,” Jones said. “First off, I don’t have this money. Second, how did it get to this, because again, I’m using my water as normal.”

A metro Atlanta mother who was seemingly targeted in a drug case as part of an effort to be denied custody of her daughter has now been granted full temporary custody. On Friday, a Spalding County Superior Court granted an emergency motion for full custody filed by Macy Jones, who was the target of an anonymous tip that led to the investigation. Judge Ben Coker granted Jones “sole custody on a temporary basis” of Jones’ and Tyler Andrews’ now-four-year-old daughter. Andrews will have “approximately one hour” of “supervised visitation” every other Sunday. Previously, the couple had joint legal custody. Jones filed an emergency motion for full custody within hours after Atlanta News First Investigates told her about the case and sent her a copy of the internal investigation. Because it’s a public record, we offered to share the investigative file with both Jones and Andrews when separately asking them for interviews about its contents. Andrews, as originally reported by Atlanta News First Investigates and Chief Investigative Reporter Brendan Keefe, gave an anonymous tip to Kris Voyles who was, at that time, commander of a Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit. Innocent mom wants to thank police who turned in their own commander The sheriff’s internal investigation determined that Voyles assigned his drug agents to set up surveillance on Jones’ griffin home to help his friend, Andrews, in a custody case. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/26/drug-unit-commander-fired-after-anonymous-tip-traced-father-targets-child/

Atlanta News First Investigates reviewed reports for people taking Ozempic, Wegovy or compounded semaglutide. There were 262 self-reported cases mentioning suicide attempts, ideation, threats, behavior, treatment; or depression. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/11/fda-evaluating-miracle-weight-loss-drugs-like-ozempic-suicide-risk/

A joint investigation by Atlanta News First and Grist uncovered dozens of people who worked at a metroAtlanta warehouse who claimed in a lawsuit their former employer exposed them to a cancer-causing toxin for years. Many of the former workers now suffer from severe illness. At least four have died. The warehouse is located in Lithia Springs, Georgia. It’s owned by the ConMed Corporation, which stores medical devices sterilized with ethylene oxide, a hazardous, colorless gas. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says prolonged exposure to the toxin causes cancer and tumors. According to a Cobb County lawsuit, the process starts at a sterilization facility owned by Sterigenics located near Smyrna, Georgia. According to the company’s website, it sterilized “more than 300 million critical medical products and devices” with the gas at its facility since April 2020. The sterilized products are then trucked 12 miles away to ConMed’s nearly 300,000-square-foot warehouse, a facility the size of five football fields. While there, the remaining ethylene oxide seeps off the boxes of medical equipment that have been treated with the chemical, allegedly exposing workers. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/29/cancer-stricken-workers-claim-company-exposed-them-toxic-gas/

Although he’s retired, Robert Elder feels like he’s taken on a new job: fighting for his home in which he’s invested more than 50 years of equity. In a lawsuit, Elder, 85, claims his southwest Atlanta home has been stolen from him by a stepson from his first marriage, Torrey Elder. Last year a new deed was filed on Robert Elder’s house; not once but, according to records, three times. The first was filed in July; the second, in August and labelled “corrective deed;” and a third in September. All the deeds transferred Robert Elder’s home from his ownership to former stepson Torrey. However, none of the signatures match the way Robert signs his name, according to other official documents. Torrey claims his dad did transfer the home over to him. Adding, the 85-year-old is “lying.” A series of Atlanta News First investigations have shown that under current Georgia law, no identification is required to file property paperwork in the clerk’s office. No one has to prove they own the property. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/04/85-year-olds-home-stolen-name-allegedly-forged-multiple-deeds/

Guardrails are intended to keep drivers safe in case of an accident and to prevent vehicles from oncoming traffic or hitting something. But when the barriers are damaged or defective, they can’t protect drivers. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/07/unguarded-gdots-failure-repair-road-safety-barriers-put-lives-risk/

How could a safety requirement end up killing more children than it would save? The answer to that question has allowed parents to carry babies and toddlers on their laps at 35,000 feet and more than 500 miles per hour for decades. There is also no airfare cost for a lap baby. Since 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration has relied on multiple studies showing a safety-restraint requirement for children under two on commercial aircraft would lead to many more highway deaths if parents choose to drive instead of fly. In the meantime, the FAA strongly recommends parents buy a ticket for their babies. “The safest place for your child under the age of two on a U.S. airplane is in approved child restraint system…not in your lap,” it said. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/12/lap-babies-still-allowed-planes-after-door-plug-blowout/

New details have surfaced involving a case about a Georgia woman accused of marrying a man after he was found mentally incompetent. Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/21/starved-man-returned-family-wake-marriage-fraud-claims/

A metro Atlanta mother is now seeking full custody after Atlanta News First Investigates tells her of an attempt to have her arrested a year earlier. But where did the anonymous tip come from? Here is the full audio of a police major interviewing his lieutenant about the anonymous tip's source.

Brenda Booth was still mourning the loss of her beloved sister, Claudia Marie, when she found out her sister had transferred her home’s deed to a private company on April 26, 2022. “Uh, she can’t sign a deed three months after she died,” Booth recalled. Families such as Booth’s say metro Atlanta law police are not criminally pursuing cases of stolen homes, which is all part of a troubling trend of deed theft in Georgia. Claudia Marie died in 2022 after a long period of declining health. While Booth was preparing for her sister’s demise, she could not anticipate what happened afterward. Booth sought the help of probate court attorney Daniel Kalamaro to handle her late sister’s assets. Among those assets was a Clayton County home in the unincorporated community of Rex. “It’s usually a fairly routine process: gather the assets, gather the debts, identify the creditors and make your disbursements and away you go,” Kalamaro explained. “That did not happen here.” “It’s been a doozie.” Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/12/if-your-home-gets-stolen-will-police-investigate-this-family-says-no/