AROUND TOWN: Heartbreaking tales of sex trafficking

When it comes to law and order, Vic Reynolds has approached it from every which way. He’s been a cop, attorney, assistant district attorney, chief magistrate judge, Cobb district attorney and, most recently, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

“I’ve been everything in the courtroom except the defendant,” Reynolds points out.

Next step for the law-and-order whiz is the Superior Court bench. He was appointed to the Cobb County judgeship last month by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Mixing amusing anecdotes with harsh reality, Reynolds told stories recapping his two-and-a-half years with the GBI at a committee meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Monday at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art.

“As excited as I am to come back … I’m going to miss being GBI director. It’s a cool job. Ninety percent of the time it’s as good as it comes. The other 10% you could jump out the window. I told the governor, if I was 10 years younger I’d love to do a second term with him, but I’m not … so it’s time for me to come back and do this.”

Some takeaways from Reynolds talk to the Kiwanians included:

– “Criminal street gangs are everywhere.” He said there’s a perception that gangs are in Atlanta and other larger cities in Georgia. “But I’m telling you, criminal street gangs are everywhere in the state of Georgia … rural areas, suburban areas, metro areas.”

– The governor’s office, first lady Marty Kemp and the bureau are focused on trafficking – both sex and labor – because the two often intersect. Reynolds said gangs fund operations via these trafficking operations. He told of a GBI bust in Roswell just a few months ago where children ages 10 to 12 were going door to door selling candy in upscale neighborhoods.

“They’re dropped off and told to sell this amount of candy today. The children were working 8, 9, 10 hours a day and not paid a penny. All that money taken in was actually funding a criminal street gang.”

He told of another case of a young girl being trafficked in Blue Ridge and how it is often difficult to get the victims to testify.

“A young police officer stops a vehicle on a traffic violation about 2:30 in the morning. The girl is sitting in the front seat, barefoot. That’s very common. They take away their shoes so they can’t run away.”

When the officer questioned the girl about the male driver, she identified him as her fiancé. But once separated from her captor, she told a different story.

“Finally,” Reynolds said, “one of our female agents says ‘Honey, it’s OK. Just tell me who this man is to you.’ This is what her response was: ‘He owns me.’ That’s the mindset … this is what these girls are intimidated, brainwashed into thinking.” Turns out, the man was from Clayton County and trafficking the girl in Blue Ridge.

The question of where traffickers find their victims was asked.

“You know, you think of those seedy bus stations … when kids are running away. That still happens, but most happens on the internet.”

He shared the last trafficking case he handled as Cobb D.A. The victim was 14 or 15 years old and investigators asked her “How did this begin?”

“‘My family had financial issues and we were staying at this motel,’ she said. ‘I was sitting out on the stairs and he came up to me and told me I was pretty …. nobody had ever said that to me before.’”

The longtime lawman will take the oath at 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Capitol. (The governor wanted to hold the ceremony in Marietta, but his “crazy schedule,” according to Reynolds, wouldn’t accommodate.)

The next day, Tuesday, Aug. 16, Reynolds plans to be seated on the bench, hearing cases.

STATE OF THE JONQUIL CITY: The mayor’s got jokes.

During his State of the City address Wednesday evening, Smyrna Mayor Derek Norton recalled the invitation he received to greet Princess Astrid of Belgium during her June 6 visit to the UCB headquarters in the city.

“I gotta tell ya, it was a little nerve-racking,” Norton told the crowd. “I got a bunch of emails telling me what to wear, what not to wear, what to do and what not to do.”

Norton recounted his nervousness in the receiving line, waiting to greet the princess, the only moment of royalty visiting Smyrna he could find in the annals of city history.

“I was really nervous, but she finally got to me, greeted me, we talked, she’d talk about how great the experience in Smyrna’s been and looking forward to the many years to come and finally moved on down the line and I was really glad that that was over,” he said.

Norton then offered a hypothetical: what if the person in that line had been someone else? A mayor that was perhaps a bit rougher around the edges?

“And I thought a little bit more about it and it occurred to me, and a lot of you will appreciate this, what if it was a few years ago and Max (former Mayor Bacon) was in that receiving line?” Norton asked the audience, to which they responded with the loudest laughs of the night.

“I’m pretty sure there'd have been global headlines detailing some kind of spectacular international incident,” Norton said, followed by more laughs.

RECOGNITION: During his Wednesday town hall, Marietta Councilman Carlyle Kent honored Jeanie Carter for her contributions to the city and the education of Marietta’s youth. Mrs. Carter began teaching at the segregated Lemon Street Elementary in 1957 at age 23. Carter transferred to Hickory Hills Elementary as its first Black teacher in 1967. She retired from Marietta Middle School in 1991 and went on to serve 16 years on the Marietta Board of Education. Mrs. Carter, along with her late husband Kenneth “Coach” Carter, amassed more than 100 years of service to Marietta City Schools. Coach died in 2019 at the age of 84. At the time of his passing, former Marietta Superintendent Emily Lembeck lauded the couple’s contributions to the youth of the city by saying, “He taught, he coached, he mentored. He and Mrs. Carter were a team in helping to educate our children, the community’s children. He really made a lasting impact, a generational impact.”

Kent bestowed a bouquet of flowers to Mrs. Carter.

IF THE INTENT was for Kent to find out what was on the minds of his Ward 5 constituents, his town hall would be deemed a success. He got a basketful of their thoughts: street racing, litter, sidewalks, red-light cameras, noise, trash, silent railroad crossings, the new Kennestone hospital tower, city electric rates — even skateboarders on Marietta Square.

Kent didn’t fly solo; he had support from city reps who also addressed the audience and fielded questions at Custer Park Sports and Fitness Center: Public Works Director Mark Rice, city parks chief Rich Buss, Marietta Police Lt. Gretchen Ingram, Deputy Chief Christi Malec from the city fire and City Manager Bill Bruton. Amy Reed, director of the Marietta History Center, updated the 50 or so in the audience on the museum’s efforts to designate notable homes with plaques in historically Black neighborhoods in Marietta.

But how traffic – car and foot – gets around Marietta dominated the evening. Much of the discussion centered on discrepancies in how and where road and sidewalk renovation dollars are spent.

“Lawrence Street is 18 feet wide. According to the American Disabilities Act, it should be 22 feet wide,” said attendee and former councilman Reggie Copeland, who then mentioned the 4-foot sidewalks abut the streets, while in other areas of the city walkways are wider and separated from the road by a buffer. “How is it that we can find money for other areas of the town, but can’t find money for Lawrence Street?” he asked.

The issue is not lost on Councilman Kent, who ousted Copeland from office in last year's election.

“I consider Lawrence Street as a gateway to downtown. It’s a historical street and we need to make sure that we make that street as nice as it can be.”

He has a slide presentation he calls “Kennesaw Avenue vs. Lawrence Street” that shows wider and fresher roads and sidewalks along Kennesaw Avenue and points out how narrow – and dangerous – Lawrence Street is. Kent has a plan to widen the street and walkways on both Lawrence and Washington streets, but issues of right-of-way and funding have yet to be resolved.

“We’re going to have to find the funds … we’re not going to give up on that,” Kent said.

Also, attending the town hall were fellow elected officials, state Sen. Michael Rhett, D-Marietta, and Marietta council members Andre Sims and Joseph Goldstein.

SQUARE DEALS: A couple more news nuggets came from Kent’s town hall. City Manager Bruton mentioned the empty Kish Restaurant spot on North Park Square has a new tenant. Around Town checked with property owner Philip Goldstein who confirmed GG and Salem Rose, owners of L on North restaurant on the Square, have leased the space and are mulling concepts for a new restaurant. While L on North and the Kish location are separated by Sarah Jean’s Ice Cream shop, the properties form a “U,” connecting in the back to provide access from one to the other.

The space left vacant by the 2018 move of the Gone with the Wind museum has been leased, Bruton said. Plans are to renovate it for an events facility.

A LITTLE BIT OF HERSTORY: Past presidents of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta are often called to the podium to give a history lesson on the club, specifically happenings during their year as president. Lynn Rainey, whose reign occurred 35 years ago, talked of many acts of charity and goodwill during his 1986-87 term, but also mentioned that at that time, Kiwanis was a male-exclusive club. It was a spiffy illustration of how times – and attitudes – have changed.

Rainey read from an Associated Press story covering the annual International Kiwanis convention in Houston in 1986 when delegates voted “no” on the issue of allowing women to join. A delegate explained the vote to the AP reporter: “The majority felt by allowing women into the club, some of the men would feel displaced and threatened with a possible takeover (by women) …”

Later in the story, the AP reporter quoted the wife of a delegate: “Women have their clubs. Let men have their clubs,” she said.

The good news at the 1987 convention in Washington, Rainey said, was that Kiwanians had a change of heart and opened the clubhouse door to female members. That same year the Marietta Kiwanians inducted their first female member, Drucy Beck.

For the record, Rainey said he voted “aye” for lady membership at both conventions.