There was a story posted a few weeks ago on social media from the website called “Medium” that posted a link to a house that disclosed G Owen Brown, the initial financier of the City of East Cobb (“initial financier” in that he supplied a major portion, if not all, of the $36,000 to pay for the Feasibility Study performed by Georgia State University) had a home in Ponte Vedra, Florida.

Ponte Vedra is located in St. Johns County, Florida. In checking with that county’s property appraiser site, you can plug-in Mr. Brown’s name into the search bar, and come up with this current home owned by him and, presumably, his wife, Cheryl:

https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=960&LayerID=21179&PageTypeID=4&PageID=9059&Q=1413494403&KeyValue=0661600010

There are two ways we know this is G Owen Brown’s home: 1) His name on the record, and 2) if you read down the page to the record of Sale Information, the house was “sold” to them by an entity titled “PONTE VEDRA RESIDENTIAL PARTNERS LLLP.”

That LLLP is registered with the Georgia SOS to have existed at the 35 Johnson Ferry Road address…which is the identical address as RETAIL PLANNING CORPORATION (the company in East Cobb that Mr. Brown has been the CEO of for many years). This is the link to the LLLP record on the Ga SOS Website:

https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/BusinessSearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=269640&businessType=Domestic%20Limited%20Liability%20Limited%20Partnership

This is a link to the Active Status Record of Retail Planning Corp, which shows G Owen Brown to be the CEO….and that “35 Johnson Ferry Road” address:

https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/BusinessSearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=772196&businessType=Domestic%20Profit%20Corporation

This is the legal entity that was formed to build the “Cityhood” organization, where you can dig-down and see that Mr. Brown is the Registered Agent and Sole Incorporator of “Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, (INC.)” with the Georgia Secretary of State-Corporations Division:

https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/BusinessSearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=2602966&businessType=Domestic%20Nonprofit%20Corporation

SO…Mr. Brown does NOT appear to live in Cobb County as a legal resident, does he? After all, this Ponte Vedra house has a $50,000 Homestead Exemption on it, and you cannot claim homestead at more than one location (as that would defeat the purpose of the very legal definition of what “homestead” means).

If he does not legally live in East Cobb, or, even Georgia, why is he interested in the formation of a City of East Cobb? Why is his name on all incorporation documents with the State of Georgia?

He cannot even vote on this incorporation election, as his primary residence is in Florida, which generates several questions:

Why did he contribute money to pay for the Feasibility Study?

Why is he so keen on forming a new city that forces the rest of us who like Unincorporated East Cobb to accept?

One wonders how often Mr. Brown’s Retail Planning Corporation has gotten a local government entity to declare someone else’s property to be waste property under “Eminent Domain” and be able to get it for a song to develop for his clients?

Cityhood is a bad idea, and a big time Real Estate Developer, who does not even legally live here in East Cobb, is likely just the tip of a giant iceberg.

(See Part 2 of this story here)

From: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/21/trump_didnt_call_neo-nazis_fine_people_heres_proof_139815.html?fbclid=IwAR05izUx2eeGsa7JYddM4fwBfRKV–ZMxNqvtyKJXVxNyF_liB8eYNDS22E

“Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group.  But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.  You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did.  You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”

After another question at that press conference, Trump became even more explicit:

“I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.” 

Rumors have it that along with being a POS of a human being that Speaker of the Georgia House David Ralston is, he may actually be demonstrably incompetent in how he conducts his law practice.

PV Provides a Brief Background: In case you have not seen the stories published by the Atlanta Journal & Constitution & broadcasts on WSB-TV about how Ralston has used his legislative position to purposely delay criminal court trials on behalf of his clients (the majority of whom appear to have a penchant for abusing/molesting children under the age of 10, and/or abusing/beating-up women), here is a short list to catch-up on the news:

February 13, 2019 AJC Article

February 26, 2019 WSB-TV Broadcast story

Now, of keen interest to PV was the information contained in the 2/26/2019 WSB online story because it was there that we found a link to PDF-compiled copies of all of the letters David Ralston had sent to judges claiming he could not make a calendar call or show-up for the first day of trial, etc.  That link is to this PDF of 46 pages.

Annnnnd…what is significant enough about some of these documents to warrant this Alert?  Well, pay particular attention to any letters sent by Ralston dated after January of 2018.  In fact, here they shall be listed:

February 6, 2018 to Judge Weaver
March 6, 2018 to Judge Weaver
March 26, 2018 to Judge George
March 30, 2018 to Judge Gunter
June 7, 2018 to Judge Weaver
June 26, 2018 to Judge Gunter
July 16, 2018 to Judge Weaver
August 20, 2018 to Judge Weaver
August 23, 2018 to Judge Weaver
August 31, 2018 to Judge Priest
September 4, 2018 to Judge Weaver
September 18, 2018 to Judge George
October 11, 2018 to Judge George
October 18, 2018 to Judge George
October 23, 2018 to Judge George
November 5, 2018 to Judge Gunter
November 21, 2018 to Judge Priest

Note there are 17 different letters that Attorney David E. Ralston sent to judges that occurredafter January 2018.  What is the significance of January 2018?  Well, according to Ralston’s law partner (seen to the right of Ralston’s name on the letterhead of each of these 17 letters) Clint G. Bearden’s personal website, Clint Bearden was appointed to be a Superior Court Judge on the Northeastern Judicial Circuit in January of 2018.

And yet, Bearden’s name remained/remains ON David Ralston’s letterhead long after Bearden supposedly was sworn-in and took a seat on the bench.  This brings to mind several questions of importance:

1) Is Clint Bearden still practicing law with David Ralston while serving as a Superior Court Judge?

2) Is David Ralston so incompetent of a lawyer that he does not know how to remove Bearden’s name from his letterhead? You know…get new letterhead PRINTED that does not have Bearden’s name on it?

3) Is David Ralston so much of a LAZY POS that he is unable to stop stuffing his face at Bada-Bing’s for a moment to, you know, take care of his law office to file paperwork to change who he is partnered with?

These are just a few questions that someone should discover the answers to because, while PV is not an attorney, we seem to recall some prohibitions regarding judges practicing law while sitting on a bench…

………………………………………………………………..

Publication Disclosure

The Political Vine was established on July 24, 2000 by Georgia Republican activist Bill Simon. All material contained herein (unless otherwise noted) is written by a commonsense political thinker whose agenda is to deliver researched facts, analysis, information, humor, and opinions in a satirical/sarcastic environment that is far different from any other news source you will come across.

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PRELUDE

The following story will, at some point, use some or all of the abbreviations below, and I’m not up for repeating their longer titles. These are all State of Georgia-related abbreviations:

AG = Attorney General
AAG = Assistant Attorney General
DOI = Declaration of Intent (to run for office)
GAA = Georgia Aviation Authority
GBI = Georgia Bureau of Investigation
GTA = Georgia Technology Authority
GO = Governor’s Office
LG = Lieutenant Governor of Georgia
OIG = Office of Inspector General
ORR = Open Records Request

INTRODUCTION

A funny thing happened on the way to performing research on Casey Cagle: I not only discovered something that appears to be theft (of greater than $500 in value) by Casey Cagle (not as LG, but as a “private person”) but I also uncovered (quite by accident) something stinking to HIGH heaven at GTA.

I have prepared a bunch of Exhibits that will be referenced in this article, and all those exhibits are located in this Google Drive (feel free to download, view, or, in the case of the audio files, listen on your own computer):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XrzX3TwEzbQC7UofAQmECfKYQn7isx4_

The Exhibits are in the order they are in because for Exhibits A thru K, those were first submitted as a Complaint to the OIG’s office on April 9, 2018 via their online complaint form.

I have since added Exhibits, most of which are in a progression of the order of events, but there are a couple of exhibits (Exhibit R and S) that, time-wise, actually occurred before I obtained Exhibit I.

BACKGROUND STORY

So, in late February 2018, I sent an ORR to the legal counsel for the LG’s office, a woman named Irene Munn (her actual, legal name registered with the State BAR is Irene Munn Jacobsen).

In this ORR (seen as Exhibit C), I requested to see a copy of Cagle’s contract with Mercer University Press for the LG’s book he released in September of 2016 titled “Education Unleashed.” Exhibit A shows the approximate date that Education Unleashed started its promotional tour.

Thru a back-and-forth of emails, it was mutually agreed that Munn would call me on Friday, March 2 to address the issue of the ORR regarding the publishing contract.

You can listen to the recording of that phone call via Exhibit D, an audio file of me talking to Munn. In this conversation, I learned two things in the World According to Munn: 1) Casey Cagle published the book as a “private person” and 2) that the LG’s office is a “Member of the General Assembly.” (Note: OCGA 28-1-1 obliterates Cagle’s claim that he is a member of the General Assembly, but that is an argument for another arena than this PV article.)

I also invited Munn to respond to any future ORR that if she thought the LG was a Member of the General Assembly, she would have to put that in writing (audio evidence is always good…but so is written evidence was what my thinking was).

In the ensuing weeks that followed that March 2 conversation with Munn, I engaged in emailing a series of ORRs to Munn and to Robyn Underwood, who is in charge of Legislative Fiscal Office.

To Underwood, I had sent an ORR, and CCed Munn in it, in which I explained that Munn told me that she wanted to be ‘open and transparent’ as much as possible, and therefore, Underwood should be willing to email me copies of the mobile and landline phone records for both LG Cagle and Bo Butler, who is LG Cagle’s Chief of Staff, a full-time paid employee of the State of Georgia.

Amazingly, Underwood did not respond to that ORR…as if to telepathically communicate to me: “We’re the General Assembly, and regardless of whether the people in the General Assembly are breaking laws by using taxpayer-funded mobile phones and landlines for their political campaigns or for their private liaisons with hookers, I don’t frankly give a damn as this is my duty to help cover that all up because the AG’s office will protect all of our wrongdoing, and you cannot do one damn thing about it, Mr. Simon.”

Now, as to why I was inquiring about phone records, I believe the likelihood is 100% that Bo Butler, while taking-down approximately $100,000 per year in salary from the State of Georgia as Chief of Staff, is engaged in doing stuff directly on behalf of the Casey Cagle campaign for Governor.

How do I know this? Because of Exhibit T (in the Google drive) that shows Mr. Butler receiving reimbursement for a few things in relation to the Cagle Campaign. If he’s receiving reimbursement, that means he’s working for the Cagle campaign.

And, hey, if he’s NOT using government-issued phones for political campaign purposes, then he and Cagle and Munn should be perfectly willing to turn-over the taxpayer-funded mobile phone records for Butler and Cagle, right?

The fact that they don’t turn them over tells me they are using those phones, since sometime after April 10, 2017 (this date being the date Cagle filed his DOI to run for Governor in 2018) for campaign purposes. (BTW: That is illegal, both in Georgia law, as well as the federal Hatch Act, which does apply to state elections, believe it or not.)

But, I had also filed an ORR with Munn, asking for copies of Cagle’s calendar for a few dates after he filed his DOI. Munn ignored that ORR completely. I followed-up with her a week later. She ignored that one as well.

Then, sometime in late March, after I get a bit frustrated with Munn’s silence, I contacted AAG Jennifer Colangelo to see if she could help push the ORR forward from the AG’s side.

What I learned from my interaction with Colangelo is that the AG’s office actually believes its duty is to protect law-breaking state government personnel. We kinda saw this back in 2014 when then-AG Sam Olens and his henchman, AAG Dennis Dunn, withheld evidence in a civil trial that would have exposed the Governor’s henchmen, Chris Riley and Ryan Teague, of interfering with an ethics commission investigation into the Governor’s campaign activities.

I bring this up regarding the AG’s office because some of you may, no doubt, call for the “AG’s office to investigate these allegations against Cagle.”

In actuality, the AG’s office will interpret these allegations to be an attack on who they wrongly consider to be their client, and respond by advising Munn, Cagle, Underwood, Butler, et al. to, likely, destroy any and all evidence they can (much like the AG’s office advised Kennesaw State University to wipe a server clean that contained voter records after the State was sued over voting results from 2017).

So, back to current-day activities…Exhibit R shows 3 emails: The first one is at the bottom, which is an email from me to AAG Colangelo, asking for the 2nd or 3rd time for her to get involved…and then her response to me is the middle email…and then the email at the top is actually my response to her email (yeah, you have to read these emails in reverse order of presentation to understand things).

Note in Colangelo’s email to me where she says the following: “Our office cannot divulge the content of those discussion with the Lieutenant Governor’s office, and our office’s mediation program cannot actually oversee mediation with state officials and agencies because of our office’s constitutional and statutory obligations and duties.”

That is AG-legal-speak for “We believe the Constitution of Georgia authorizes us to use your taxpayer dollars to protect, defend, and help cover-up criminal and/or other wrongdoing by any State agency, department, office, or what-have-you, and you can go pound sand because we like being corrupt attorneys at the AG’s office with our corrupt clients. And, let’s face it, Mr. Simon, it’s damn fun being paid to be corrupt and getting away with it, wouldn’t you agree?”

See, it appears to me that lawyers in the AG’s office have absolutely ZERO concept of what State Bar Rule “1.13 ORGANIZATION AS CLIENT” means, and how it is to be applied in situations like this.

Munn is NOT a client of the AG’s office. Neither is Casey Cagle. The “client” is the legal entity called the “State of Georgia,” which is an organization, consisting of the Offices/Agencies/branches of the State of Georgia. Individual people working in these agencies are not immune from prosecution for violating the law. (But, yet, in the over 6 some-odd years that I have followed cases where the AG is representing State entities, I’ve seen their written motions that sought to cover-up criminal wrongdoing by people who work in agencies of the State…one example being people that work at the Board of Regents).

Any human being-person discovered to be in violation of the law is to be prosecuted as such, not protected by the AG’s office. That is how one would correctly interpret and apply Rule 1.13…if, that is, one is an ethically-minded lawyer. (Hint: The AG’s office/Department of Law has no such an animal working there who matches that kind of mind.)

But, whatever AAG Colangelo interpreted from my comments back to her, somehow she was able to convince Munn that it would be a good idea for Munn to relent to answering my ORR. (Could be the fact that I pointed-out how Munn must have directly lied to Colangelo, and Colangelo wasn’t going to be able to defend Munn on the lie?)

Which is why I believe I received Exhibit S…an email from Irene Munn to me on March 29th, telling me she would get the info I asked for regarding Cagle’s calendar days. AND, do note Munn’s statement, in writing, that she is of the belief that the LG’s office is not subject to the Open Records Act. (Yay! Written evidence Munn is a flaming moron.)

What Munn delivered to me that next week via email provided what I believe to be probable-cause proof of Cagle using government resources to enrich himself personally, and engaging in felony theft of government resources to do so.

That proof is all part of the Complaint I filed online with the OIG on the evening of April 9, 2018. A copy of the full OIG Complaint can be found by reading Exhibit L (in the Google Drive), and you are free to read that.

That OIG Complaint describes Exhibits A thru K, and their relevance in support of my allegation.

It is what happened after I filed that OIG Complaint that things got really weird, which I think you will find quite fascinating (if not quite troubling).

THE OIG COMPLAINT

I filed the complaint online after-hours on a Monday. I called the OIG main number the next day to let them know that I had about 10 exhibits that their system did not allow me to upload, and I wanted to know how I could transmit them.

The number I called was answered by someone at 1-800-GEORGIA, a catch-all help desk for the State of Georgia. The lady told me to wait 48-72 hours and someone would contact me, likely via email since I had filed it and put my contact email address on the Complaint.

72 hours passed…no contact from the OIG’s office. I call their main number on Friday, April 13th, and, again, that number is forwarded to the Ga help-desk main number (because they answered “1-800-GEORGIA”), and again, I go thru an explanation with the lady, who then offers to take my name and phone number. Now, during that call on that day, the connection was really bad, and I could barely hear her, and she could barely hear me. At some point I just offered to email the OIG directly, and she said that would be fine.

I went to my copy of the complaint that the OIG system had emailed to me. I hit the FWD button, and proceeded to write an email to the OIG email address, and happened to notice what was in the header information of the email I was forwarding, and I stopped cold in writing my email to OIG.

If you look at the very top of Exhibit L, you will see what I saw. While the line that is marked as “From:” says “Office of the Inspector General”, in actuality, it shows a very different email address. One that says “creative@gta.ga.gov”.

What does that mean? Well, to me it means that someone at the Georgia Technology Authority is monitoring EVERY single complaint filed online with the OIG. (Also, use of the word “creative” demonstrates the mind of an idiot at GTA who thought it’d be cute to create such an email address in which to “creatively” forward copies of all complaints filed online.)

Now, just to let you know, the purpose of the OIG was set-up, originally, to investigate complaints about people in the Executive Branch engaging in corruption. GTA is NOT an investigatory agency, so WTF is anyone there doing reading/monitoring complaints filed against employees and members of the Executive Branch of Georgia Government?

However, the plot thickens even more. On Monday, I called the OIG phone number again, again reached the Ga help desk, and this time the call was clear, and I left my name and number for someone with the OIG to call me back.

That afternoon I did receive a call. From someone named Joe Gray. In the ensuing phone conversation, I learn that Joe Gray is the “intake person” for the OIG. Further questioning of him revealed that he works for GTA, NOT the OIG.

We end that call with him repeating to me that he will find out the status of my complaint and what OIG investigator has been assigned to it, and HE WILL CONTACT ME BACK. (You can hear this conversation via Exhibit M.)

He did not contact me back. What did happen is that the next day, Tuesday, April 17, I received an email appearing to come from OIG. See Exhibit N for the contents of that email.

What Exhibit N did not have in it was a signature of…ANYONE. Now, For several months, I had been emailing various state government offices with ORR. Every response I had ever received had the signature of the person sending me the email. Not so this supposed email from the OIG.

So, I sent back a response. See Exhibit O. I simply asked who am I talking to in that email. To this day, I have received NOTHING back. No response at all. Kinda baffling, eh?

What this kinda tells me, Folks, is the following:

1) Either the OIG is not in operation, though there are names of investigators listed on their site…or
2) They are in operation, but they only receive what the entity(ies) at GTA (and, potentially, the Governor’s Office…because this kind of email eavesdropping smacks of exactly something Chris Riley would do, just as he and Ryan Teague tried to influence the ethics investigation into his boss back in 2011-2012) decide to let pass on thru as complaints that don’t hurt anyone they are concerned with.

I also think Casey Cagle or Bo Butler (or, perhaps even Irene Munn) have long received a copy of my Complaint that I filed back on April 9 via OIG’s online complaint system. Because, it is for certain that my complaint has not reached the keen eye of someone honest at OIG (assuming anyone at OIG is, really, honest…).

You see, GTA can (and does, as evidenced by that “creative@gta.ga.gov” email address) monitor who they supply email server service to. I only have proof of the one for OIG, but, it’s a piece of cake to monitor e-transmissions of communications if you are hired to supply email service to any entity. It’s a bit like an application of the concept of George Orwell’s Big Brother. Who needs the NSA when Georgia has the GTA?

And, funny thing: You actually don’t need to set-up and expose an email address like GTA did in order to monitor email traffic. It is easy enough to set-up a programmed routine to take whatever comes into Email Box A, and secretly send a copy of any email that Box A gets to Email Box B.

[Side Note: A variation of this technique was actually uncovered at the Georgia Republican Party HQ back in the 2011-2012 timeframe. Some little sh*tbird had set-up such a thing on then-Chair Sue Everhart’s email box. (I won’t reveal the name of the sh*tbird, but, coincidentally, he’s pals with Calvin Rhodes, Executive Director of GTA…) ]

And, I researched a little further into who the clients are of GTA that GTA supplies e-mail service to. With an ORR to GTA, I discovered all of the state agencies that GTA supplies email service to. These can be seen in Exhibit P, and below is the list from GTA:

Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities
Department of Public Health
Dept of Administrative Services
Dept of Community Health
Dept of Corrections
Dept of Drivers Services
Dept of Human Services
Dept of Juvenile Justice
Dept of Natural Resources
Dept of Revenue
Georgia Aviation Authority
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency
Georgia Technology Authority
Georgia Technology Authority ENT
Office of Governor
Office of Highway Safety
Office of Planning and Budget
Office of State Inspector General
Office of the State Treasurer
State Accounting Office
State Dept of Veterans Service

Note that one of them is actually the GBI. Gee, I wonder if there is a creative@gta.ga.gov (or similar blind email address) that secretly gets copied on all GBI emails, for someone at GTA to snoop into the GBI’s business, and monitor what’s going on?

It’d be the perfect way to ensure a Governor, such as Nathan Deal, always knows when someone is squealing on any crooked activities of his office, or any other office in the state, and seek to squash that person daring to blow the whistle on corruption.

IN CONCLUSION

The title of this article is “Total Corruption of The State of Georgia.” While the main portion of it is about the corrupt use of government resources by Casey Cagle to enrich himself personally via the use of GAA airplanes to fly to St. Simon’s to promote book sales of a book primarily written by his government-paid staff, when you combine Cagle’s crap with a) the revelation that the OIG is a facade of an independent operation charged with rooting-out executive branch corruption, and b) that the GTA monitors who is having allegations thrown against them, and, c) that the AG’s office THINKS their role it to take taxpayer money and protect corrupt government personnel…we have, in this state, a condition of corruption unmatched by anything anyone has ever seen in this state. Or, perhaps, any state.

P.S. I am in the market for a good lawyer to take-on a pro-bono case to file in Fulton County Superior Court for a declaratory judgement against Munn and Casey Cagle that the LG’s Office is NOT a “Member of the General Assembly.” And, all you need is OCGA 28-1-1 to argue to the Court. When you win, you’ll get attorney’s fees, and the self-gratifying feeling of winning. Contact me at

Rumors have it that Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, by promising/threatening Delta Airlines that their desired tax-exemption bill would not pass the Georgia Senate unless Delta reverses course on their snub of the NRA, may have opened himself up to be personally indicted for committing an act of “Theft by extortion” under Georgia law by a Fulton County grand jury.

PV Provides The Background Info: On Monday, February 26, 2018, this online article in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution was published.  In this article, it is reported that (paraphrasing, based on the words in the AJC article): Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle threatened Delta Airlines that their hoped-for tax break would not pass the State Senate because of Delta’s snub of the NRA regarding group flying rate discounts.  And, that Delta must reverse their course in order to get their desired tax-break passed (again, PV is paraphrasing any words Cagle may have said because we were not witness to his actual statements).

So, based on the information contained in the AJC article (and other publications) is there potentially a specific state criminal statute that applies here?  You betcha!  According to OCGA 16-8-16(a)(4) & (b), this spells-out in clear detail:

“16-8-16. Theft by extortion

(a)  A person commits the offense of theft by extortion when he unlawfully obtains property of or from another person by threatening to:
(1)  Inflict bodily injury on anyone or commit any other criminal offense;
(2)  Accuse anyone of a criminal offense;
(3)  Disseminate any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule or to impair his credit or business repute;
(4)  Take or withhold action as a public official or cause an official to take or withhold action;
(5)  Bring about or continue a strike, boycott, or other collective unofficial action if the property is not demanded or received for the benefit of the group in whose interest the actor purports to act; or
(6)  Testify or provide information or withhold testimony or information with respect to another’s legal claim or defense.

(b)  In a prosecution under this Code section, the crime shall be considered as having been committed in the county in which the threat was made or received or in the county in which the property was unlawfully obtained.

(c)  It is an affirmative defense to prosecution based on paragraph (2), (3), (4), or (6) of subsection (a) of this Code section that the property obtained by threat of accusation, exposure, legal action, or other invocation of official action was honestly claimed as restitution or indemnification for harm done in the circumstance to which such accusation, exposure, legal action, or other official action relates or as compensation for property or lawful services.

(d)  A person convicted of the offense of theft by extortion shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years.”

And, the definition of what constitutes a “person,” in several locations in Georgia law, includes a corporation/company like Delta Airlines being victimized via a threat of extortion by a public official like Casey Cagle via the alleged threat he issued.

This alleged threat was made in the geographical political subdivision known as Fulton County, and that is the county of jurisdiction of this matter as per Sub-paragraph (b)  above.  NOT the “Ethics Commission”…but this matter would belong squarely in the District Attorney’s Office of Paul Howard.

Separate from any potential action by the Fulton DA’s office, it may also be that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office also has a) jurisdiction and b) probable cause to seek an arrest warrant for Casey Cagle’s alleged publicly-issued extortion threat of the legal person of “Delta Airlines.”

Now, PV predicts that the LG will, if faced with an arrest warrant, declare himself to be a “Member of the Georgia General Assembly” and therefore be a “privileged member” of that entity under Ga Constitution, Article III, Section IV, Paragraph IX. That Section states as follows:

“Privilege of members: The members of both houses shall be free from arrest during sessions of the General Assembly, or committee meetings thereof, and in going thereto or returning therefrom, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. No member shall be liable to answer in any other place for anything spoken in either house or in any committee meeting of either house.”

Except this section of the Ga Constitution specifically excludes “felonies.”  So, even if Cagle successfully argues that he is a “Member of the Georgia General Assembly,” there is a felony exception to any privilege from being arrested.

Who is a “Member” of the Georgia General Assembly?  Well, lucky for us, some previous Legislature wrote and passed a law to tell us this:

“OCGA § 28-1-1. Membership and apportionment of General Assembly:

(a) There shall be 180 members of the House of Representatives, and such membership shall be apportioned among the representative districts provided for in Chapter 2 of this title.

(b) There shall be 56 members of the Senate, and such membership shall be apportioned among the senatorial districts provided for in Chapter 2 of this title.”

The LG is neither a State Senator nor is he a State Representative.  Being “President of The Senate” does not make Cagle a “Member” of the State Senate.  Nowhere in the Georgia Constitution is such a thing stated explicitly, implied, or inferred.

And, if the Ga Gen Assembly intended for the LG to be a “Member” of the body of Georgia General Assembly, then why would the Legislature have not amended this OCGA section to include a ‘Sub-Paragraph (c)’ in OCGA 28-1-1 to specifically designate anyone holding the Office of Lieutenant Governor to be a “Member of the General Assembly?”

They didn’t because the LG is a full-time, 365-days of each year of his term, member of only of the Executive Branch of Georgia Government, not a “Member” of the Legislative Branch in any way, shape, or form.  And, one cannot be a member of two or more branches of state government at the same time (See Georgia Constitution).

Finally, regardless of the fact that the LG office’s finances are handled by the Legislative House Fiscal Office, and regardless of the fact that he receives a daily stipend equal to the amount of money any State Representative or State Senator receives, neither those financial management services, nor the daily stipend payments he receives during Session, make him a “Member” of the Georgia General Assembly.

As such, he is not afforded any protection from being investigated for, or, potentially charged with, a felony while carrying out his duties as Lieutenant Governor during this current session of the Legislature.

Prelude

On August 23, 2014, a publicly advertised GOP Rally was held on Burt’s Pumpkin Farm in Dawsonville, Georgia, a city located in Dawson County.

At that event, an arrest occurred by a sheriff’s deputy who was working ‘security’ at the private event. This arrest, and all stories about it (including several on the PoliticalVine.com website) have occupied the minds of many people in the media for the last 3 years and three months.

The criminal trial for the accused “trespasser,” as well as person accused of obstructing a police officer (two charges, actually, one a misdemeanor, and one a felony) named Nydia Tisdale, commenced on November 27, 2017 in Dawson County Superior Court, and concluded in the early evening of December 4, 2017. This story was issued after the verdict.

Introduction

In case you were unaware of the verdicts in the case of the State of Georgia vs. Nydia Tisdale, closing arguments were made on Monday, December 4, and the jury deliberated for approximately 4.5 hours on the 3 charges against Nydia, and this was their unanimous decisions:

Felony Obstruction of a Police Officer: NOT GUILTY
Criminal Trespass: NOT GUILTY
Misdemeanor Obstruction of a Police Officer: GUILTY

Now, the truly odd thing about this decision by the jury is that if she did not “criminally trespass,” then, by what right or authority did then-Captain Wooten have to assault her and drag her out of the August 23, 2014 GOP Rally at Burt’s Pumpkin Farm to start with?

Is it the belief of the State of Georgia that if you are not in violation of a law (such as ‘criminal trespassing’), then a Georgia law enforcement officer (“LEO”) has the perfect right to do WHATEVER he/she wants to do to you, and you are to submit to that LEO’s desires at that moment without any kind of protest, resistance, or a right to simply ask why you are being told to do something?

Because an answer of “YES, WE [State of Georgia] CAN!” is what the only logical conclusion is to take from this jury decision.

According to this jury decision, Nydia Tisdale, on August 23rd, 2014, was sitting quietly in a chair on the front row of a political rally that was occurring on private property, holding her video camera, taping political speeches. And when people connected with the event approached her and told her to stop filming, she did not stop…And then she was approached by an event security guard who claimed under oath that he told her “Stop filming or you’re going to have to leave,” she, again, did not stop taping…and that is when she was grabbed by the security officer (with the help, by the way, of event organizer Clint Bearden, who perjured himself under oath so many times, I lost count)…BUT, she was found NOT GUILTY of criminal trespass, so, how did a jury find her guilty of misdemeanor obstruction of a LEO?

Well, the answer to that question can be found in evidence to be presented here, now, in this article. Some of this evidence was presented at trial, and some of it wasn’t.

And, though the evidence that wasn’t presented at trial isn’t eligible to be used for an appeal of this court’s decision…I think it is crucial that you (whether you are of the crowd who wrongly despises Nydia Tisdale, or you support Nydia Tisdale, or you remain neutral on her) are now made aware of this evidence.

Because Nydia is fighting two battles right now: 1) In actual judicial court, and 2) in the court of public opinion.

BDU Khakis, Black Polo Shirt, Badge on Left Side

It was testified to by many of the State’s witnesses that on that day in August 2014, Tony Wooten was dressed-in “khaki pants, a black polo shirt that had a Dawson County Sheriff’s Department (“DCSO”) badge stamped/embroidered on the left-side of his shirt.” They also stated that he wore a gun and there was a badge clipped to his belt.

During trial, on November 30, 2017, State’s witness Morris “Pepper” Petitt’s testimony is reflected in the following tweet made by Chris Joyner of the AJC, who was a reporter in the courtroom:

“Pettit: ‘She was saying ‘who are you?’ and that stuck in my head because you can tell he was a police officer.” Defense objects and asks judge to advise jury to ignore the comment. Judge Christian obliges, but they heard it.

I did not witness Wooten’s testimony during the trial last week, but I did review his testimony in the pre-trial hearing in the Fall of 2016. In that testimony, Wooten testified that he was wearing “BDU-khaki pants, black polo shirt with sheriff’s badge printed on shirt, carrying a gun and radio.”

SO, according to many of the state’s witnesses, it was, essentially, “patently obvious” that Wooten was an officer of that law that day, and Tisdale should have known. And, in my reading of the report of the Internal Affairs investigation that was started back on August 25, 2014 by DCSO, I read that people like Clint Bearden had this interchange with Major Goodie:

“Major Goodie asked Clint if Captain Wooten identified himself, and Clint advised that Tisdale had plenty of opportunities to see that Captain Wooten was in fact a law enforcement officer.”

“Plenty of Opportunities”

Read the rest of this entry »

Almost Three Years & Three Months Later to the Day…

On August 23, 2014, an…incident occurred at Burt’s Pumpkin Farm in Dawson County, Georgia. There was a Republican Rally taking place for the General Election. A lot of the Republican bigwigs were there (i.e., elected officeholders and people running as a Republican for elected government offices, not political party offices).

At that rally, a conservative, freelance video-journalist named Nydia Tisdale was recording the political speeches that all the candidates were making. She was charging no money for her time for this activity, as she had done several times previously for many GOP candidates and GOP-related functions for a couple of years.

Her sole purpose in attending and recording was to simply video-record the speeches and, later on, upload the recordings of the speeches so others could watch and listen. In her recordings, she did not offer the viewer any kind of political analysis or commentary on the speeches. All she was doing was acting as a recorder of an event, and she would provide access to the recordings to the public via an online video viewing platform (YouTube). And, she intended to promote the speeches via the Web for anyone who missed the rally (as she had done before at other campaign events), but who may have been interested in seeing the speeches to get a feel for the candidates running for public office on the ballot that upcoming November.

Well, that was all her intentions were…but, someone else at that rally had a pre-conceived notion of who Tisdale was, and he instigated a series of events that resulted in Nydia Tisdale getting charged with criminal trespassing and charged with assaulting a police officer.

If you wish to get the full story on all that transpired on that day, here is a link to a bevy of stories written by the Political Vine, with links to the AJC’s articles, etc. These stories have become what PV has coined to be “Pumpkin Gate.”

The purpose of THIS edition of the Political Vine is to inform our reading audience that the trial for Nydia is set to officially begin this Monday, Nov. 27th, at 9:00 AM, in front of Judge Martha Christian, Courtroom C on the 4th floor of Dawson County Superior Courthouse at this address:

Dawson County Government Center
25 Justice Way, 4th Floor, Courtroom C
Dawsonville, GA 30534

The trial is scheduled for Monday, November 27 thru December 1.

Nydia has many supporters who have been following this case since August 2014, and if you are a supporter who can find the time to attend the trial, it would help her greatly in moral support for you to be in the courtroom.

As it has been reported in the AP, Nydia is being represented by criminal defense attorney Bruce Harvey on a pro bono basis for his time.

However, her defense has not been without hard-dollar costs expended by her and her husband. Court transcripts cost a lot of money ($5000 or so), as well as money to pay for legal researchers, etc. to help in her defense preparation, and this has been a huge financial drain on Nydia and her husband personally as it takes money away from normal life to devote to defending herself.

She is ineligible to set-up any kind of GoFundMe page because GoFundMe does not allow for funds to be collected for criminal defense.

SO, if the thought of a bunch of crooked good ‘ole boys (and girls) conspiring to lie to destroy someone’s life, take away her liberty, and imprison her, turns your stomach, please consider a financial donation to her personally at this link: https://www.paypal.me/NydiaTisdale. She is, literally, in the fight of her life.

*** STORY UPDATE 11/22/2017 ****

Due to a tweet that is out there in the Twitter-sphere, and that fact that on an intermittent basis, PV receives calls from people who encounter the slimy…crooked…moron named Cecil Staton in their random life, we are updating this article because the GrassrootsFrenzy.com website referenced originally on this post from 2011 was taken offline a few years back.

Since there is still, apparently, interest in Cecil Staton, PV feels there is still a history that needs to be preserved about scalawags like Cecil Staton, and the following links are both live links, and, eventually, PDF-versions of the old GrassrootsFrenzy website will be provided (sourced from the Internet Archive website are available for your viewing/reviewing pleasure):

Home page of GrassrootsFrenzy.com: https://web.archive.org/web/20140517084627/http://grassrootsfrenzy.com/

How Beth Merkelson was Unmasked: https://web.archive.org/web/20141014111406/http://grassrootsfrenzy.com:80/report.php

Beth Merkelson’s Emails: https://web.archive.org/web/20141013221848/http://grassrootsfrenzy.com/beth-emails.php

FAQ: https://web.archive.org/web/20141013141833/http://grassrootsfrenzy.com/faq.php

Press Coverage: https://web.archive.org/web/20141012193334/http://grassrootsfrenzy.com/press-coverage.php

*******************************************************
[Below is the Previous Post made in 2011]

There is a new Website up that continues the saga of Beth Merkelson & Cecil Staton:

Grassroots Frenzy

Rumors have it that one of the scumbags involved in the 2014 Pumpkin Gate saga is scheduled to appear this Wednesday in front of the Judicial Nominating Commission (“JNC”) to apply for a Superior Court Judge vacancy.

Since there were several scumbags at that event in August 2014, you might wonder which scumbag it is? Why none other than Clint Bearden (who, coincidentally, works with a scumbag of an entirely different breed named David Ralston).

Bearden is an attorney who also works as a part-time magistrate judge now. But, he believes, apparently, that he has kissed enough royal ass in the political world to gain an easy-peasy appointment to the Superior Court.

PV Provides An Executive Summary Refresher: Back during the 2014 General Election, there was a GOP election rally public event held on Burt’s Pumpkin Farm in Dawson County. The event was promoted to the public via several ways to get them to attend.

Nydia Tisdale, a conservative, freelance videographer (of the Website AboutForsyth.net) saw the public notice on Facebook, and packed-up her camera to attend and film the speeches.

When one of the attendees to the event (another scumbag named Pepper Pettit) saw Tisdale sitting in the front row filming the show, he quickly conferred with Bearden and essentially told him something to the effect of: “We gotta kick her out of here as quickly as we can. She’s the gal who exposed all the corruption with my friends in Forsyth County, and with the Governor here today, she might film something that exposes all of our secrets here in Dawson!”

So, a plan was quickly hatched between Bearden and Pettit, and Johnny Burt, the owner of the farm, was consulted on the plan, and the plan was put into action that eventually ended-up with Tisdale…a 90 lb. waif of a woman…getting physically assaulted by a 165 lb burly “security guard” (who was an off-duty cop named Tony Wooten, who was at the farm on that day, and was not legally authorized to engage in what he engaged in), and who also enjoyed frotting himself while he had Tisdale roughly pinned against a counter.

If you have 18 minutes, 43 seconds, to watch this video, you can witness this event. This was videotaped by Tisdale as she was dragged around (the camera was strapped to her hand and she could not let it go), and at one point at around the 15:25 mark, you see the scumbag Clint Bearden observing the assault as if witnessing the mauling of women was an every day event in his life. (And, hey, with a mentor-lawyer like David Ralston, it likely is an everyday event in his life.)

Now, lots of folks in this video are lying (thus why PV refers to them as ‘scumbags’), and none of them were Tisdale. She was the victim of a callous bunch of political scumbags, one of whom is Clint Bearden, who is now thinking he should be allowed to sit on a Superior Court bench…so he can be put in charge of deciding how and when to violate other people’s rights, just like he helped his breathren do in Dawson County when it comes to sacrificing women for political expediency.

With any luck, there is a majority of people on the JNC who would prefer someone with character and integrity in the real world to recommend to the Governor to sit on the bench.

Sources for this story include:

Snapshot of law resume from Clint Bearden’s Website

Pumpkin Gate & Related Documentation from PoliticalVine.com

Rules & Procedures of the JNC (Paragraph 6 is why PV is providing this information to the JNC)

November 15, 2017 JNC Agenda

List of Members of the JNC (as captured tonight from the JNC Website)

Rumors have it that the Georgia State Attorney General’s Office is too incompetent to act as State Defense Counsel for Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Kennesaw State University in the civil lawsuit that challenged the results of the 6th District Congressional Race earlier in 2017.

Within four days of that lawsuit being filed, the voter records server holding that info was “wiped clean” and the AG’s office claimed information on it was all gone.

This is the headline and lede from a late-breaking story from today’s Fulton County Daily Report: “Georgia Attorney General Quits Defense in Server Wiping Case…Secretary of State Brian Kemp released a statement Wednesday saying the law firm of former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes will represent Kemp and other state election officials.”

PV is Astounded: Wow…our State AG’s office must be the most incompetent public law firm in the country. That, or, it was the AG’s office who advised Kennesaw State University personnel to wipe the server clean after the lawsuit because, hey, why not? After all, all communication between the State AG’s office and the Secretary of State/Kennesaw State University is held in confidence under “attorney-client privilege.”

Yes, “privilege” to lie, cheat, and steal, all under the auspice of being a sovereign entity that spends whatever money it wants to defend criminal behavior (Hey, Georgia State Supreme Court? Thanks so much for making our state the most corrupt in the US by allowing our state agencies to engage in criminal behavior, but declare they are exempt from prosecution due to “sovereign immunity,” you bunch of dumbasses).

PV wonders if it was Chris Carr himself who advised the deletion of the server information…? If so, the Georgia State AG is both incompetent AND corrupt.

Or, Carr and every lawyer in the Department of Law is just garden-variety incompetent because now the State of Georgia has to hire an ex-Governor’s law firm to handle the defense??? Pardon PV, but WHAT-THE-F*CK???

BY THE WAY, IF Democrat Ken Hodges wants to run for AG in 2018, PV will back him because all the “Republican Attorney Generals” (i.e., Sam Olens and Chris Carr) have demonstrated themselves to be COMPLETELY incompetent in the job!!!

PV P.S.: Say, Goobernor Nathan Deal? STELLAR job you did there in appointing someone who had ZERO competence in actually practicing law.

I have started blogging on the website AllOnGeorgia.com, and here is my debut article analyzing the June 30 campaign disclosures of the 7 candidates vying for the 2018 Primary and General Election slots:

http://allonpolitics.allongeorgia.com/2018-georgia-governors-race-fundraising-analysis/

I will still keep blogging and issuing Special Alerts via my PV e-mailed newsletter as that is still needed for the “No Sugar Added” type of political subject matter. So if you are not subscribed to that, you can do that here: https://politicalvine.com/pv-signup/

Beware of the Scorpion That Cannot Change Its Natural Instinct

Are you familiar with the fable known as The Frog and The Scorpion? Here is a short version of the story:

“A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”

The frog is satisfied, and they set out. But in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”

Replies the scorpion: “It’s my nature…” “

Now, NOT to include every lobbyist/government relations person out in the world to be a scorpion (because, yes, I have a few friends who are honorable lobbyists), but in the case of the one running to be the next Georgia GOP Chair, the only way to describe John Watson is to refer to him as the Scorpion in our saga…and all of his naive, gullible followers and supporters are the Frogs who are too blind or too ignorant to understand what kind of creepy-crawler they have agreed to support.

AND…here is why in point-by-point reasoning:

1) The real job of people like John Watson involves being, essentially, the lead marketing and sales rep for any number of businesses who provide services and products to government entities. So, John Watson does not merely “lobby” the State Legislature while they are in session; what his primary job as a government relations person is develop friendly, business relationships with city council members, county commissioners, mayors, municipal purchasing managers, city managers, county managers, etc. That is, both decision-makers, as well as people who influence decision-makers for purchasing services and products from Watson’s clients.

2) A LOT of the major county and city municipalities in the Atlanta-metro area are run by Democrats. REAL Democrats. And, a lot of the legislators who are Democrats have a LOT of influence on the various elected people and employees who work in the municipalities. So much so that people like Watson rely on developing relationships with the Democrat legislators, not to be a nice guy to the ‘minority party’, but to get them to a point where they can influence these other Democrats in municipalities who hold the key to allowing Watson’s clients to become a qualified bidder for any kind of suitable RFP (Request For Proposal) the municipality needs to issue.

3) John Watson is married with kids. His paramount job is to provide for his family with their needs via earning a living. Which means, when it comes to politics, Watson will always seek to maintain relationships over playing hardball in politics.

4) Watson’s business partner is Lewis Massey. Lewis Massey is a Democrat. He’s a nice enough guy, but he’s a Democrat. Not to say that all Democrats are bad, but doing business with one while you are playing yourself off as a tough GOP party chair is a tough sell to rely on. Massey is to Watson like Carville is to Matalin (though, Massey and Watson’s relationship has lasted far longer).

5) See, Massey WANTS Watson to win because he knows it’ll be terrific FREE ADVERTISING for the new company of Massey Watson and Hembree, LLC. Every time John Watson’s name will be mentioned in the newspaper, it will say “Ga GOP Chair John Watson…blah, blah, blah…Watson is also a partner in the lobbying firm of Massey Watson Hembree, LLC.”

6) A few years back, Watson and his business partners were embroiled in the DeKalb County corruption probe as per this story here: http://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt–politics/vendors-dekalb-government-probe-earned-millions/ptETu66oENsrKGVViU7mHM/

7) Though they were cleared of any wrongdoing in that DeKalb case, it won’t look good for the GAGOP to see that bullsh*t again when something similar blows-up in the City of Atlanta, or some other Dem-controlled municipality, where Massey Watson Hembree will be named, again, and if Watson is serving as GA GOP chair, that will muddy the GA GOP brand quite a bit, all on its own.

8) But, more to the point, next year, when it comes to having to play hardball with the Democrats in this state, Watson will wuss-out because he MUST maintain relationships with ALL the Democrats in office because, as mentioned before, his livelihood relies 100% on maintaining those relationships on good terms with all Democrats.

9) AND…just to demonstrate exactly what we’re talking about here, here is a list of Democratic entities that John Watson and his former firm of Massey Bowers Watson Hembree contributed money to WHILE the 2016 Presidential race was ongoing between Trump and Clinton:

http://politicalvine.com/casinos/MasseyBowers-Fall-DemCont.jpg

10) The first three $250 contributions were to keep three very good Democrat influencers in Watson’s pocket so as to help his business clients: Valencia Seay, Horacena Tate, Stacey Evans.

11) The last contribution shown of $250 was to hedge a bet with the Democratic Party of Georgia in case Trump lost. That was the purpose of that contribution.

12) John Watson may vote Republican…but, as the practicing lobbyist that he is, in the world of the government relations business that he is in, he must maintain good relations with people on both sides of the aisle. And maintain those relationships is of paramount importance to him.

So, when it comes time next year to, say, beat-up the Democratic nominee for Governor, whether it be Stacy Abrams or Stacey Evans, on behalf of, say, our Republican nominee Hunter Hill, how hard of a hit is Watson going to be willing to allow the Ga GOP to hit Abrams or Evans with?

Answer: The Scorpion will sting the froggy Republicans over pissing-off his fellow Scorpions in the Dem Party, and he will nullify the GA GOP’s efforts in ways like making sure the direct mail program from the GA GOP resembles a Powder-Puff football game rather than full-impact football.

After all, this Scorpion still has to make a living, regardless of who is elected to a Constitutional office. And, if the Dems regain power, the Scorpion’s business pal, Lewis Massey, will be able to introduce Watson to even MORE people in Democrat positions of power to help build Watson’s bank account.

Hope all you Frogs who support this Scorpion wake-up. Because at least with Alex Johnson, Michael McNeely, or Mike Welsh, NONE of their livelihoods rely on maintaining good relationships with the opposition party. None of them are scorpions.

If any of you frogs continue to support John Watson after reading this Vine and seeing the contributions he made to the Democratic Party of Georgia last Fall to maintain ‘good relations’ with the DPOG, you are morons. Freaking…MORONS.