From:
The Florida Times-Union
August 2, 2007A prosecutor claims the jailed doctor is using a county-owned computer to chat.
By Paul Pinkham, The Times-Union
WOODBINE - A St. Marys physician jailed on murder and drug charges has access to a Camden County Sheriff's Office computer and could be using it to post Internet messages about his case, court documents show. -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------
On one online forum, participants have hotly debated in recent days whether one particular poster is Noel Chua, the doctor charged in the drug overdose death of his roommate.
On another, a poster identifying himself as Chua, discusses evidence in his case and accuses the prosecutor of misleading the grand jury that indicted him.
"Thanks for fighting for my cause," he wrote the forum host. "I am tempted to fax to you what I consider as one of my strongest pieces of evidence."
Chua's use of a county-owned computer is mentioned in a petition filed by Assistant District Attorney Jackie Johnson asking that a California Internet company that hosts a Chua forum be required to provide evidence in his criminal case. In addition to Chua's potential postings, Johnson's petition says the TOPIX site contains information about the crime that hasn't been provided to law enforcement. That information came from witnesses whose identities have been concealed, the petition says.
The doctor was arrested on murder and drug charges in September, nine months after he found James B. Carter III dead inside his Osprey Cove home. A grand jury charged that Carter, 20, died from drugs prescribed by Chua and that none of the drugs were for a legitimate medical purpose.
On Monday, Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams filed a declaration that TOPIX is a material witness and asked a California judge to compel the company to provide evidence in Chua's case.
A TOPIX lawyer said Wednesday the company normally responds to such legal requests, which he said aren't unusual. TOPIX maintains about 400,000 forums related to local news stories around the country, said attorney Charles Daugherty. He said the company won't be able to identify forum participants but could provide Internet protocol addresses.
Chua's lawyer didn't respond to interview requests, but his secretary said he is aware of Williams' ruling. The district attorney's office declined comment, citing a gag order.
A Sheriff's Office spokesman requested a faxed copy of Johnson's petition before commenting, then didn't return phone calls after it was sent.
The allegation about Chua's computer use comes on the heels of a motion last week to remove Chua from the Camden County Jail and remove Sheriff Bill Smith. That motion cites special treatment Smith has given Chua, including advocating for bail and allowing him to leave the jail confines.
Longtime St. Marys defense attorney Jim Stein said Chua's computer use is further evidence of privileges he has received based on his friendship with the sheriff.
"I've been here 33 years ... and I have not had a client that has been given the run of the jail," Stein said. "My clients aren't even given access to a phone except for rare occasions."
But Chua and his online supporters see it differently. With screen names like Free Dr Chua and DA Errors, they say he is the victim of everything from overzealous prosecution to Southern racism.
On a Filipino-American forum, a writer identifying himself as Chua complains about prosecutors seizing his bank accounts and having him jailed initially in neighboring Glynn County "to be mistreated there." He compares the district attorney to former North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong, disbarred for prosecutor misconduct in a rape case against Duke University lacrosse players.
"I don't know if it would be legal for us to get a statement from any of the grand jury members to find out how they were misled and what sort of evidences were withheld from them, similar to what Nifong did," he wrote.
Tuesday, a participant on the TOPIX forum responded to one enthusiastic pro-Chua posting with a cryptic: "Nice to see the Sheriff allowed you back on the computer."
That drew a rebuke from "Dr Chua Supporter."
"Let's not go there ... again," the poster wrote. "Dr. Chua is not on this forum. When I visited him last week I asked him if he even knew about this site, and he didn't."
paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4107 Go online To see the TOPIX Chua forum, visit Jacksonville.com, keyword: Chua forum.
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080207/geo_188478425.shtml.
TRSP Review: I broke this story weeks ago. That is my statement in RED. To see the post go to: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/kingsland-ga/TL88A49I2AJO80J7K/p27
"The people of this County do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created." ***The views expressed on this blog are the opinions of the individual that wrote them.
14 comments:
In reference to todays GTU article I cannot figure out nor understand why Governor Sonny Perdue has not gotten involved in all of this. Isn’t he the one that is suppose to implement punishments to Sheriffs. How much more do the people of Camden County have to endure. If the Governor is not the watchdog, can someone share with me who is responsible!! Sheriff Smith is spiraling out of control to the detriment of the Camden County taxpayers.
What a ignorant letter by Proctor!! I hope Steve Berry eats his lunch in his response. Why did’nt he address the real issues in his letter. Who ate the STEAKS, Who ate the FISH, Who ate the KEY LIME CHEESECAKE, Who ate the petite QUICHES and where did the inmates use the TIKI TORCHES? Why are the drug dealers (inmates) receiving a salary from the taxpayers? Why are your prisoners being escorted to Cumberland Island? Why are you using inmate labor on private property? Why are your inmates allowed to use County computers?
Mr. Proctor should answer the above questions or not answer any questions at all!! If he can’t answer these questions then why do we need him to say anything. He is just as bad as the Sheriff.
Why is Bill Smith retrieving drug dealers and bringing them back to Camden County? What has he done about the employee that used the County credit card to purchase Chiristmas gifts? Why did he allow Charlene Sears to order food via the jail for her campaign dinner? Why is he purchasing LEXUS and other fine vehicles for his employees with taxpayers money?
Oh and by the way is Bill Smith, Richard Daly (son is a officer), Deputy Roger Dyals and Ray Dyals still part owners of AAA Bail Bonding Agency? The Governor has a whole lot of reasons why he should have someone to investigate the Sheriffs Dept. I believe this is the only agency you can use to bail someone out of the Camden County Sheriff office.
When you guys find out that all of these post on the forum was not Dr.Chua but a middle aged women, Will you publish and apology or will we just move on to the next none story...I'd be ashamed with as much real news to report that you wasted your time on this..
I will say I am sorry if it is some old women. But I know differently.
He may not be Free Chua, But he has been on a computer. The group that was supposed to help him in Atlanta may have just hurt him. They said that Dr. Chua could not be reached by telephone so they did an email interview. Either from the Jail or from Smith House. Oh maybe they should look at Smith's home computer. I had reports that Chua was not spending nights in jail.
Makes you wonder, But yes I will apoligize if I am wrong, unlike some people in this county.
How do you dispute that?
Why should Chua get internet and nobody else?
I will say I am sorry if it is some old women. But I know differently.
He may not be Free Chua, But he has been on a computer. The group that was supposed to help him in Atlanta may have just hurt him. They said that Dr. Chua could not be reached by telephone so they did an email interview. Either from the Jail or from Smith House. Oh maybe they should look at Smith's home computer. I had reports that Chua was not spending nights in jail.
Makes you wonder, But yes I will apoligize if I am wrong, unlike some people in this county.
How do you dispute that?
Why should Chua get internet and nobody else?
I didn't say I was an old women, I said middle aged women..You can't even read your post correctly..
You cant even admit your wrong without slinging mud, Like I have said many times before I couldn't care less about politics, my interest only lie in Dr.Chua not being your pawn or anyone else's..He is a good man who is caught up in something way bigger than him, He is innocent of the charges against him, and in time that will be proven..
To the middle aged woman; It was not a woman that I observed with my very own eyes on a computer in an office at the Sheriff's Department, with an employee named Kelly just last week. It was in fact Dr.Chua himself.
The only way he can use a computer is by inside help. ie.Sheriffs employee had to let him use a computer, and the computers are in areas that are off limits to inmates, somebody had to use their password to get him own,and password him again to use the Internet. So internal affairs should be able to solve that real easy, main frames and hard drives don't lie. Willie should use his at will policy, and that person would be history working for the sheriff.
The only way to terminate the responsible party would be for Smith to resign.
Bail Bonds damn sure seems like a conflic of interest, how about ones that put there $20,000.00 property's up for $75,000 dollars worth of bonds, and these folks aren't even certified bondsmen by the state of Georgia. thats another system thats gone so far bad, it needs over hauling
Huddle house reporter, you got that one right
Sorry middle age woman.
Hey does anyone know this Kelly in the jail?
Sheriff Smith can not own or be part owner of AAA bonding or any other bonding company by Georgia State Law.
§ 15-16-4.1. Actions in violation of oath
Without limiting the generality of the oath set out in Code Section 15-16-4, it shall be a violation of a sheriff's oath of office for any sheriff to engage either directly or indirectly in a private security, private investigation, bail bonding, or wrecker towing business in the county in which the sheriff has jurisdiction. As used in this Code section, "engaging indirectly" in such a business shall include the engagement in a prohibited business by the spouse or an unemancipated child of a sheriff.
Feds stop Cumberland project for disabled
Permission to build on island disputed
By Ken Foskett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/03/07
Wading into a thicket of local intrigue and controversy, the National Park Service on Thursday halted work on an apartment building for paraplegics on Cumberland Island, a federally protected national seashore off Georgia's coast.
The Shepherd Center of Atlanta, one of the nation's premier hospitals for catastrophic spinal cord injuries and other conditions, is building the two-bedroom structure on federal parkland occupied by Dr. Ben Jenkins, 85, and governed by an agreement negotiated when Cumberland became a national seashore in 1972.
The Park Service concluded that Jenkins, who enlisted Shepherd's backing more than a year ago, had "no legal authority" to initiate construction, said Patricia Hooks, the southeast regional director in Atlanta.
As the Park Service investigates whether officials followed proper procedures, it has temporarily reassigned Cumberland's superintendent, Jerre Brumbelow, to Atlanta.
Hooks said the stop-work order will remain in effect until the park service can decide the fate of the 2,110-square-foot building, which sits next to Jenkins' existing house and is already more than halfway complete.
"As stewards of this property for the American public, we have a responsibility to make sure that the activities and construction are in accordance with the bargain that was struck on behalf of the American people," Hooks said.
Shepherd officials said they envisioned a place where patients with disabilities might enjoy Cumberland's legendary natural beauty. But they now find themselves embroiled in a controversy that has become a major embarrassment to the Park Service.
All parties agree that neither Jenkins nor Shepherd officials obtained Park Service permission before they began work, and the island superintendent wound up approving the project months after it had begun.
Reached on the island, Jenkins said he was surprised to receive the Park Service's letter ordering the work stoppage because Brumbelow had given him permission to proceed on May 23.
"That's the kind of stupidity one runs up against with the U.S. government," said Jenkins. "I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, but I'm going to do something."
Details of the construction project, first reported by the Georgia Times-Union in June, have ignited a storm of controversy in Camden County and among conservationists who monitor the island.
Separate from the Park Service probe, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into the Camden County Sheriff's Office and allegations that Sheriff William E. Smith improperly detailed jail inmates to help with the construction.
Smith, whose adult son was treated at the Shepherd Center for a paralyzing injury after a horrific car accident four years ago, said he believes Shepherd's project was an appropriate use of inmate labor.
Camden County officials were also upset to learn that Jenkins and Shepherd did not seek a county building permit before they started work six months ago.
The county issued its own stop-work order two weeks ago.
County officials have since learned that the Shepherd apartment building was built over the existing drain field serving Jenkins' septic system —- and that the new drain field does not meet code.
Conservationists, meanwhile, are angry with park officials for allowing new construction on parkland that soon will come under park service control.
The park service is scheduled to take control of Jenkins' house and any buildings on the land on Oct. 8, 2010, the termination date of the 40-year agreement that the original property owner, Andrew Carnegie III, entered into with the National Park Foundation in 1970.
Jenkins, a former member of the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners, acquired Carnegie's interest in the property in 1978 under a sublease agreement and began living on the island full-time about 18 years ago. Several years ago, he began contributing money to the Shepherd Center Foundation and began talking to Shepherd officials about building a handicap accessible apartment next to his home.
James Shepherd Jr., son of Shepherd's founders and a Shepherd trustee, said the Shepherd Center embraced the idea as a way to provide rehabilitative therapy to Shepherd patients who use wheelchairs.
As part of the deal, Shepherd not only agreed to pay for the building, estimated to cost $75,000, but took over the sublease Jenkins acquired in 1978.
Terms of the agreement permit Jenkins to remain in his home until his death.
Shepherd said the hospital was fully aware that the new building and all others on the property would revert to the Park Service under the terms of the 1970 agreement.
But Shepherd said he hoped the Park Service would consider keeping the building and maintaining it for handicapped visitors.
That goal may now in doubt. In issuing the stop work order, Hooks said continued construction of the apartments may "further endanger resources and adversely affect the property's fitness to become part of the Seashore."
SHANNON PEAVY / Staff Locator map pinpoints Shepherd Center building site. Inset map outlines area of detail in relation to Atlanta.
Since when does the sherriff care about the oath's of his office? If it conflicts with something he wants...to heck with it!!
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