Local and area briefs

Web posted February 19, 1998

From Staff and Wire Reports

Shooting suspect arrested, charged

An Augusta man wanted on aggravated assault charges in connection with a Heckle Street shooting was arrested Wednesday morning, police said.

Police were tipped off that Davion Donaldson, 20, was at 604 Moore Avenue, and when police raided the house about 9 a.m., he was taken into custody without incident, said Chief Deputy Ronald Strength.

He is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm in the Tuesday shooting of 20-year-old Sharrett Gardner at his Heckle Street home. Mr. Gardner, who was shot twice in the stomach, was seen running from his home with another man running after him firing shots. Mr. Gardner collapsed in the doorway of Gurley's Supermarket on Walton Way about 2 p.m.

He was in critical condition Wednesday night at Medical College of Georgia Hospital.

High court hears custody case

South Carolina Supreme Court listened Wednesday to attorneys on both sides of an international parental kidnapping case. The state court has been asked to decide what should happen with a family court judge's entrance into the case, even though that has been decided by a federal judge.

Attorneys for Christine Lops obtained a temporary stay Friday from the South Carolina Supreme Court to halt Aiken County Family Court Judge Peter Nuessle's orders in the case.

A Friday ruling in Augusta by U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. temporarily nullified Judge Nuessle's order, including the demand that Ms. Lops move to Aiken County with her daughters by Feb. 16 or relinquish custody. Judge Bowen granted Ms. Lops custody in December after finding that the girls wrongfully had been taken from Germany 2 1/2 years ago by their father, Michael Lops, and grandmother, Anne Harrington. Judge Bowen's stay remains in effect until either he or the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals changes it.

Mr. Lops' and Ms. Harrington's attorneys have appealed Judge Bowen's December decision, contending jurisdiction belonged to the South Carolina family court, not to the federal court. The federal appeals court in Atlanta will hear oral arguments in the case Feb. 26.

Currents halt search for man

Diving teams searching for Claudie ``Bubba'' Johnson, missing since his boat capsized more than a week ago on the Savannah River, suspended their search Wednesday after dangerous currents drove them out of the water.

Emergency Management Director Pam Tucker said 18 divers from the Richmond and Columbia County EMAs searched underwater from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Surface searches by boat will continue for the next few days, and underwater searches will resume when currents weaken, she said.

Wendy's founder to be speaker

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas will be the keynote speaker at the Boys and Girls Club of Augusta's 10th annual steak and burger dinner, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 17 at the Augusta State University Athletic Complex.

Tickets to the event are $100 and will benefit the programs of the Boys and Girls Club of Augusta.

Education foundation gets grant

The Greater Aiken Local Education Foundation has awarded an $8,000 grant to Aiken Elementary School to help initiate a new approach to reading.

First-grade teachers are beginning the process this year by implementing the Cunningham Four Blocks method of reading instruction. It requires special training for teachers and two hours every school day of language-arts instruction for pupils in four 30-minute blocks.

The money will be used to provide each of the eight first-grade classrooms with books for the self-selected reading block. Pupils choose books from a variety of reading levels and meet individually with their teachers to discuss what they have read.

The program also is being implemented at North Aiken and J.D. Lever elementary schools. The foundantion, a nonprofit organization, provides funding to Area 1 schools.

Park to close for renovations

The Augusta Recreation and Parks Department will close Lake Olmstead Park to traffic during construction and improvements to Milledge Road and Broad Street entrances, parking and drainage, boat ramp, landscaping, and lighting.

Julian Smith Casino can be accessed from Broad Street. The project is scheduled to be completed in spring.

Man found not guilty of rape

A Richmond County Superior Court jury found an Augusta man not guilty of rape charges Wednesday after deliberating less than 15 minutes.

Jose Luis Cortes, 25, of the 1900 block of Piedmont Street, was acquitted of rape and aggravated sodomy charges. On Tuesday, he testified through a Spanish-speaking interpreter that he had a consentual encounter with a young woman the night of Sept. 20 but that there was no force involved. The woman accused Mr. Cortes, an acquaintance, of sexually assaulting her.

Mr. Cortes' attorney, Ted Pacheco, said Wednesday that he believed that Mr. Cortes did a good job testifying in his own defense this week and that the woman's delay in reporting the alleged assault weighed heavily in the jury's decision.

Church plans sale for choir tour

St. Paul's Episcopal Church will hold an attic sale at the old Woolworth's Building downtown on March 7 to benefit the St. Paul's Choir 1999 European tour.

The sale, scheduled for 8 a.m. to noon, will have a department store worth of donated items for bargain shoppers to look through at the corner of Eighth and Broad streets.

Donations are tax deductible. Pickup service is available by calling 724-2485, or items can be left at St. Paul's Church at Sixth and Reynolds streets on the riverwalk during business hours. All clothes must be on hangers.

Davidson grad wins scholarship

A 1990 graduate of Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School has been selected to receive a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, which could pay as much as $22,000 in tuition and travel expenses, in a program designed to promote international understanding.

Charis Elizabeth Fliermans, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Carl B. Fliermans of Augusta, will represent Rotary District 6920 while using the scholarship to further her studies of opera in Italy. She is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Augusta.

No amount has been set for her scholarship because she hasn't yet decided which university she will attend.

The scholarship has been awarded to almost 30,000 young people from 100 nations.