Across Georgia

Lightning, shock are blamed in two deaths

TIFTON - Lightning is being blamed for one death and accidental electrocution for another in south Georgia.

William Maxwell "Max" Hancock, 31, of Mystic, was struck by lightning Sunday night after storms forced him, his wife and their three children from their home, according to Investigator Allen Morgan of the Irwin County Sheriff's Office.

In an unrelated accident on a job site, Jessica Rae Ellis Hosmer, 46, of Tifton, was electrocuted early Saturday in Metcalf. Ms. Hosmer worked for a Nashville logging company, said Thomas County Coroner Sam Brown.

She was apparently standing on the ground when a log-loading boom struck a high-power Thomasville Utilities wire, sending current through the boom and trailer to the ground. The current entered Ms. Hosmer's body through her feet.

Man was high when his vehicle hit inmate

JEFFERSON - An Arcade man admitted he was high on methamphetamine last year when he struck and killed a state prisoner picking up trash along U.S. Highway 129 in Jackson County.

Christopher Allen Kubiak, 21, pleaded guilty last week to charges of possession of methamphetamine, failure to maintain lane, driving under the influence and vehicular homicide in the death of an inmate at I.W. Davis Detention Center in Jefferson.

Jackson County Superior Court Judge David Motes sentenced Mr. Kubiak to 15 years; of that, he will serve five years in prison and the rest on probation, according to court records.

Arts center names new president, CEO

ATLANTA - The Woodruff Arts Center has named a prominent Atlanta attorney and longtime arts and civic leader as its new president and chief executive officer.

Joseph R. Bankoff, who starts his new job in September, will lead the largest arts center in the Southeast and one of the three largest in the nation.

Mr. Bankoff is a senior partner at the King & Spalding law firm. He will succeed Shelton G. Stanfill, who is expected to retire in June.

New suits expected on illegal body tissue

ATHENS - Four more Athens-area residents plan to file lawsuits over illegally harvested body tissues surgically implanted in their bodies, including a Hartwell woman who will undergo surgery to replace skin she had implanted during a breast reconstruction, according to an Athens lawyer handling the cases.

Three women already have filed suit, said attorney Andrew Hill. The four additional lawsuits likely will be filed within 30 to 90 days, he said.

About 30 Athens-area residents have had tissue illegally harvested from corpses from New York-area funeral homes transplanted into their bodies, according to authorities.

The defendants include Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., the company accused of harvesting the tissues; its owner, Michael Mastromarino; and Joseph Nicelli, a Brooklyn undertaker.

- Edited from wire reports