Across Georgia

Georgia swine flu vaccinations to start Tuesday

ATLANTA - Swine flu vaccinations are expected to start in Georgia on Tuesday.

Georgia is initially receiving about 55,000 doses of a nasal spray version of the vaccine. State officials say healthy children ages 2 through 4 are being prioritized for the first doses.

The state expects about 2,700 doctor's offices and other health-care providers will be offering the vaccine by the time full supplies arrive. But state officials did not release information Monday about which providers will be offering the vaccine this week.

Ga. Supreme Court hears fraud case arguments

ATLANTA - A Floyd County man arguing his own appeal in a fraud case has told the Georgia Supreme Court he believes he broke no laws.

At issue is an electrician's attempt to collect $3,394.73 from Dwight Spencer for installing generators.

Prosecutors say Spencer wrote a check with insufficient funds, and that electrician Gene Wallace eventually took out a warrant for deposit account fraud. A jury convicted Spencer of that charge earlier this year.

Spencer told the court on Monday he thought he had reached a deal to pay a lesser amount, but that the deal had fallen through. He also said he had been denied a public defender.

Prosecutor Harold Goldin Jr. said Spencer could have paid for a private attorney. Spencer said private lawyers had turned him down.

Court won't hear Ga. school funds scandal case

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of a man's conviction for helping GOP gubernatorial candidate and state schools superintendent Linda Schrenko steal more than $600,000 in Georgia public education funds.

The high court on Monday turned away an appeal from computer firm owner A. Stephan Botes. Botes was found guilty of conspiracy, theft of federal funds and wire fraud charges.

Botes helped Schrenko steal more than $600,000 in federal education money geared toward programs for honors students and two schools for the deaf. Prosecutors said half the money went to Schrenko's failed GOP gubernatorial campaign in 2002 and another $9,300 went toward a facelift. The rest went to Botes's computer consulting business, officials said.

Botes appealed, saying the prosecutor should have stepped aside from the case after he was given an appointment as a federal magistrate judge. The prosecutor was scheduled to begin work as a magistrate several months later.

The case is Botes v. United States, 08-1205.

Schrenko was sentenced to eight years in federal prison in 2006 after she struck a plea bargain in the middle of her trial in exchange for testifying against her co-defendants.

Botes' chief financial officer, Peter Steyn, was found innocent of all charges.

Police investigate after woman stabbed in Ga. apt

ATLANTA - DeKalb police continue to investigate the stabbing death of a 21-year-old woman who was found in her apartment bedroom.

Police said there were no suspects in the apparent murder of Tekelia Blackshear.

Investigators searched the grounds of the Oak Creek Apartment complex in Avondale Estates Monday evening, at one point even lowering one officer with rubber rain boots into a storm drain.

Police spokesman Officer Jason Gagnon would only say that police were following up on leads.

He said Blackshear was found around 8 a.m. Sunday. A neighbor said he heard a woman screaming and another neighbor called 9-1-1 after finding the body.

Florida man convicted of defrauding Ga. Medicaid

ATLANTA - A federal jury has convicted a Florida man with defrauding the Georgia Medicaid program in a scheme that cost taxpayers $1.1 million.

The jury returned the guilty verdict against 36-year-old Varian Scott of Miami, Fla., on Monday.

Scott was involved in a health care fraud scheme that used forged doctors' prescriptions for high-dollar cancer and HIV medications and caused the cost of those medications to be billed to Georgia's program.

The scheme took place between September 2005 and April 2006. Scott and his cousin bought blank doctors' prescription pads from insiders at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute and two doctor's offices in Atlanta and Florida.

They bought information of Medicaid patients, used that to forge prescriptions and then sold the illegally obtained medications to a connection in south Florida.

Body of missing Ga. woman found, husband charged

COLUMBUS, Ga. - A pregnant 26-year-old woman who was missing for two days has been found dead and her husband is charged with murder.

Jilani Platt went missing early Saturday and her body was found in a pond Monday.

Her husband, 31-year-old Zyderrious Platt, was already jailed on a weapons charge and the murder charge was added Monday.

Jilani Platt had gone to eat at TGI Friday's with a friend around 10 p.m. Friday. Zyderrious Platt told officers he and his wife had been texting each other, arguing about the rent that evening.

Police reports show she returned home around midnight and they continued arguing.

Jilani Platt's cell phone and keys were missing but her car was still in the parking lot. Police determined her disappearance may be suspicious after interviewing the woman's family and friends.