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STAFF REPORT ::: The Spalding County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s assistance in locating 30-year-old Christine L. Ruschmeier, also known as Christine Green. Ruschmeier is a white female standing 4 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds. She has blue eyes and blonde hair, but she changes her hair color to red, blue and […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: The GRIP has confirmed that the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 30 requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) conduct a criminal investigation to identify a confidential source who has provided information to this publication. Following the receipt of information from a confidential source, The GRIP has since Sept. 30 […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: Upon receipt of information from a confidential source pertaining to a November 2012 operation conducted by the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit, The GRIP began compiling information utilizing public records available through Georgia’s Open Records Act. In response to The GRIP’s initial Open Records request seeking information on this […]
STAFF REPORT ::: According to Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam, the Special Operations Unit on Thursday, Dec. 3, arrested two women – a mother and daughter – on charges of trafficking illegal drugs. The two suspects were identified as 55-year-old Sarah Ponce, of 88 Sims Cemetery Road, Franklin, and 36-year-old Carrie A. Ornelas, of 7735 […]
STAFF REPORTS ::: Recently Sheila A. Mathews published an article in the GRIP which indicated members of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office engaged in an illegal narcotics investigation in 2012. This incident is not involved in a current litigation process; therefore I am at liberty to respond to Sheila A. Mathew’s article. In November 2012, […]
The GRIP received information from a confidential source alleging the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit in 2012 conducted an illegal operation involving the placement of a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker on a vehicle without court ordered authorization. The GRIP conducted an investigation based on that allegation and the following is the first […]
STAFF REPORTS ::: According to Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam, a 13-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection to three recent commercial burglaries. Deputies on Sunday, Oct. 18, arrested the juvenile as he was allegedly in the act of burglarizing a local business, Pings and Dings, located at 2930 North Expressway. As a result of […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: The Spalding County Board of Commissioners on Monday approved by a 4-0 vote a motion to request an investigation by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office to determine whether the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office violated Georgia’s Open Records Act following its administrative Internal Affairs investigation of David Gibson, the former captain of […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: A fifth employee of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office has served anti-litem notice she intends to sue Sheriff Wendell Beam and David Gibson, formerly the captain of the SCSO Uniform Patrol Division. Melanie Bowen joins four additional female SCSO employees – Jessica Kelley, Kimberley Barnett, Karen Law and Misty Piper in […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has confirmed it is conducting a second investigation involving the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office. According to Special Agent in Charge Fred Wimberly, of the GBI Region 2 office in Columbus, Sheriff Wendell Beam requested the investigation Aug. 6. “We have been requested to take a […]
STAFF REPORT ::: Christopher Robert Parnell, age 39, of 121 South Honey Bear Drive, and Ronda Swartz, age 45, of 2175 Old Atlanta Road, have each been charged with eight counts of residential burglary. Parnell was also charged with three counts of theft by deception and Parnell faces one count of that charge. According to […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: “The General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of open government; that open government is essential to a free, open and democratic society; and that public access to public records should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that the […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: Spalding County Commissioner Gwen Flowers-Taylor on Thursday addressed her fellow commissioners and other county officials, expressing her concerns about the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office’s responses to Open Records requests in the David Gibson investigation. Flowers-Taylor acknowledged that as a constitutional officer, Sheriff Wendell Beam has the authority to hire and fire […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: David Gibson, formerly the captain of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Uniform Patrol Division, appeared before Judge Robert M. Crawford in Spalding County Superior Court Monday for a bond hearing on ten charges brought last week by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Gibson, who is charged with aggravated assault, two counts […]
SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: The arrest warrants obtained by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation against David Gibson, formerly the captain of the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Uniform Patrol Division, allege criminal wrongdoing dating back as early as 2008. Gibson was arrested by the GBI Sept. 10, when he turned himself in to the Spalding County […]
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