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Coaches seeking openrecords of school probe
The school system has seta Sept. 8 hearing for the 2 cheerleading coaches.
Page 2
Police capture escapee
A man who escaped fromthe Floyd County Prison lastweek was in the CherokeeCounty, Ala., jail Monday.
Page 3
Braves put up big win in Charleston
Rome wins 13-1 in anoffensive showcaseagainst the RiverDogs.
SPORTS, page 7
‘Ready, Set, Read!’
Students at threeschools are gearingup to read a millionwords in a campaign.
YOUNG ROMANS, inside
CMYK
Two sections � 50¢162nd year � No. 242
Weather: Rain, storms likely during morning. High in the lower 80s. 14 On the Web: www.romenews-tribune.comTUESDAY, August 30, 2005
ROME NEWS-TRIBUNE CLASSIFIEDS WORK � DON’T MISS AN ISSUE. SUBSCRIBE TODAY – 290-5200
30 indicted in gang sweepBy Lauren GregoryRome News-Tribune Staff [email protected] / 290-5267
Five men accused of committing halfthe murders in Floyd and Polk coun-ties in 2003 were among 30 alleged druggang members named in an indictmentunsealed Monday by the U.S. Attorney’soffice.
Josh Smith of Silver Creek, ShaneRosser of Centre, Ala., and Sammy Duqueof Cedartown are implicated in theMarch 2003 shooting deaths of FloydCounty residents Truitt Jerome “T.J.”Agan and Christopher Kane Forten-berry.
According to the indictment, Agan,28, and Fortenberry, 29, owed Duquemoney for methamphetamine.
After Duque ordered Rosser to get themoney, Rosser and Smith allegedlyshot the two to death at their 1425Cunningham Road home on March 27,2003.
Also alleged to be gang members areDaniel Villenas-Reyes and Miguel Goi-cochea Perez, two Cedartown men ac-cused of killing Cesar Juarez Vasquez,17, Arturo Torres Ventura, 30, and an un-identified young woman in a Septem-ber 16, 2003 murder-arson indictdent.
Villenas-Reyes and Perez allegedlybound their victims with duct tapeand shot them in the head before set-ting them on fire at 506 Seventh St. inCedartown, the home of co-defendantFelipe Cormona-Romero. They are alsoaccused of setting fire to Vasquez’1991 Subaru.
Although the two incidents had ini-tially appeared to be separate cases,said Floyd County police Maj. TommyShiflett, authorities in the neighbor-ing counties were able to connect themas their investigations began to dove-tail.
Federal investigators were called in,Shiflett said, and the cases were botheventually lumped into a large-scale,organized operation of violent drugdealing and other criminal activitycracked open by the Northwest Geor-gia Criminal Enterprise Task Force.
� Among the accused are 5already charged in murders in2003 Polk and Floyd counties.
Today’s artwork is by BrittanyDowdy, a second-grader atPepperell Primary School.
This newspaper is printedin part on recycled paperand is recyclable.
© 2005, News Publishing Co.
T O D A Y ’ S Y O U N G A R T I S T
I N D E XBridge 11Classified 12Comics 11Crossword 11Dear Abby 11Editorial 4Lottery 9Movies 10Obituaries 6Sports 7Television 10Weather 14
By Matt TuckRome News-Tribune Staff [email protected] / 290-5263
A teenager was chargedwith vehicular homicide Mon-day in the hit-and-run deathof a 6-year-old girl after theboy’s father turned him into police, authorities said.
Close to 7:30 p.m. Sunday,Taylor Brooke Shirey, of 415E. 20th St., and a friend wereriding bicycles in front ofher aunt’s 356 Turner Roadresidence when she was hitby a Ford Ranger pickuptruck driven by a 16-year-old male, said Floyd Countypolice Sgt. Dallas Battle.The teenager then fled.
Monday morning, the boy’sfather saw the damage tothe truck and confrontedhis son, police said.
“His dad was on his way towork when he heard aboutthe hit-and-run, and wentback and asked the 16-year-old about it,” Battle said.“The kid had a couple ofstories. At first he said hehit a tree, then he said hehit a deer.”
Katrina strikes Northwest Georgia
By Alan Riquelmy Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer [email protected] / 290-5262
ROCKMART — The FloydCounty Commission is goingto wait for the whole storybefore it makes a decisionon supporting the West ThirdStreet development.
Both the Floyd County andRome City commissions dis-cussed theproposeddevelop-ment attheir Mon-day jointmeeting atWinn’sLakeLodge nearRockmart.
CountyCommis-sioner Gar-ry Fricks,the countyrepresen-tative onthe WestThird De-velopment Committee, said he’ll waituntil the numbers are final-ized before he brings the is-sue to his board.
“It’s allchanging,”Fricks saidat his com-mission’sretreatearlierMonday.“Once it’sall done,we’ll plugin how itaffects usand make ajudgmentoff of that.”
Local de-velopersproposerelocating Barron Stadium from WestThird Street to State MutualStadium and the Rome-Floyd Tennis Center fromWest Third Street to River-side Parkway.
West Third Street wouldbe turned into a multi-usearea with retail, residencesand greenspace.
� Floyd County officialsmust adopt a resolutionof support and commitfunds for the project tomove forward.
Tornado sweeps PolkRyan Smith / Rome News-Tribune
Owner Jerry Parris surveys the damage at his Westside Mini Warehouse on Pine Pitch Road in Cedartown on Monday. Stormsfrom Hurricane Katrina left thousands in Northwest Georgia without power, but only 29 in Floyd County.
By Matt TuckRome News-Tribune Staff [email protected] / 290-5263
Storms spawned from Hurricane Ka-trina blew through Northwest GeorgiaMonday, with a tornado causing dam-age in Cedartown while Floyd Countyescaped relatively unscathed.
Close to 5:30 p.m., the tornado wasspotted in the Antioch community —just south of Cedartown — touchedground and downed trees, said Polk911 Director Thomas Wilson. “I expect-ed some calls for sightings, but I didnot expect anything like this.”
About 15 minutes later, it rolled to-ward U.S. 27 near Cherokee Road,knocking over a canopy at Dawson’sStore, 1999 Rockmart Highway, andcausing more damage along the way,Wilson said. “It knocked a billboarddown on Cherokee Road and knockeddown some trees on Denton Road.”
For the most part, though, Wilson said,Polk County escaped serious damagebut not power outages.
The tornado popped up again in FloydCounty, over Lindale close to 6:30 p.m.,but did not touch down, said ScottyHancock, Floyd County EmergencyManagement director.
A downed tree knocked out a powerline on Lyons Bridge Road — the worst ofthe damage in Floyd County, Hancocksaid. “Overall, we did pretty good here.”
Curtis Hart, Northwest Region Ex-ternal Manager for Georgia Power,said about 3,000 people were withoutpower at the height of the storm, while
only 29 residents lost power in FloydCounty. Monday night, the Floyd Coun-ty residents still had no electricity, andall but 255 people were waiting fortheir power to be restored in Cedar-town, he said. Hart expected all powerto be restored by early this morning.
Polk residents were still cringing fromthe tornado Monday evening as theyprepared to sort through the damage.
Cedartown’s Brittney McKelvey saidshe was glad her dad used to be a BoyScout when she and her father, Tim,were in their Denton Road garage andthe air pressure changed drastically.
“It got really calm, really quiet andall of a sudden the wind started blow-ing fast. He felt the pressure changeand he told us to get in the house, getin the closet,” McKelvey said.
INSIDETODAY
� Katrina packs punch 5� Katrina, oil prices put hurt on airlines 6 � Storm limits long-distance, cell service 6� Katrina disrupts energy output, markets 6� Berry volleyball cancels match 7� Football takes backseat to Katrina 8
VISIT USON THE WEB
Go to www.romenewstribune.com to see photos from across the South of damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.Also check back periodically for updatedweather reports and what impact the storm willhave on Northwest Georgia.
ON THE WEBVisit www.romenews-tribune.com for acomplete list of those listed in theindictment unsealed Monday.
William T. Martin / Rome News-Tribune
Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson, joined by U.S.Attorney David Nahmias (left), speaks at the Federal Courthousein Rome on Monday.
Policechargeteen indeath� The teen’s fatherlinked his son to thehit-and-run death of a 6-year-old girl.
Please see NAMES 2
� Residents hit by the stormare expected to have powerreturned by this morning.
William T. Martin / Rome News-Tribune
Polk County firefighters eye a billboard on U.S. 27 near Wal-Mart that was knockeddown by high winds Monday that swept through the area.
CountyseeksW. 3rdclarity
Please see COUNTY 2
Please see TEEN 2
Garry Fricks,Floyd Countycommissioner,is still awaitingthe informationnecessary tomake a decisionon the projects.
ChuckHufstetler,commissionchairman, saidthere’s still muchto find out aboutthe project.
Please see TORNADO 5
