Fugitive Arrested After 27 Years

The FBI says a man who escaped from a Virginia prison in 1982 has been arrested in Georgia. Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, says 56-year-old Richard Boucher was taken into custody Wednesday morning on a fugitive warrant in Murray County, along the Tennessee line, where he has been living for most of the past 27 years. Jones says Boucher, using the alias Eric Coleman, was serving a 10-year robbery sentence at the Virginia Department of Corrections Prison in Chesapeake, Va., when he escaped. Jones says Boucher is also charged by Murray County with possession of a firearm by a felon because a rifle was found at his home in Eton, where he was living with his 53-year-old wife, Debbie. She was charged by local authorities with hindering apprehension of a criminal.

(Associated Press)

Former Jail Guard Arrested for Civil Rights Violations

Federal authorities have charged a former Fulton County jail guard with violating the civil rights of two inmates.

The prisoners were beaten. One of them was mentally ill and died from the incident that happened just over year ago today, March 18, 2008.

Curtis Jerome Brown of Lithonia was arrested yesterday on charges of civil rights violations, making false statements, and obstructing a federal investigation.

(Associated Press)

Columbus Patrol Officer Implicated in Heist

A Columbus patrol officer was placed on administrative leave after the FBI accused her of aiding a bank robbery.

Shatoya Wright was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with making false statements to the FBI.

Agents said a man charged with robbing a Wachovia Bank in Oct. 2007 told them Wright helped him steal $8,000 during the heist. Accused bank robber Odis Christopher Hallstock said Wright also helped him pass counterfeit $100 bills through the bank.

Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren said Wright was hired 3 months after the robbery and passed all background checks.

Wright made her initial court appearance Tuesday and was released on $5,000 bond.

Information from: WTVM-TV, http://www.wtvm.com/

(AP)

Columbus Woman Could Face 20 Yrs. Over Fort Benning Fire

A 30-year-old Columbus woman accused of setting fire to the Judge Advocate General’s office at nearby Fort Benning two weeks ago, has been indicted and linked to the arson by DNA evidence.

If convicted, Shawana Topekia Pierce, a former employee at the JAG office, could face five to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

Officials say Pierce is a suspect in a theft case, and that files about her were in the office, which was totally destroyed, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

Fort Benning: Firefighter walking in front of the inferno which had been JAG headquarters on Feb. 6. (Photo: The Bayonet)

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Ga. Man Accused of Bomb Threats Against FBI

A Georgia man is accused of threatening to blow up FBI buildings nationwide.

Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, said Friday 23-year-old Michael Robert DeJong of Buford was arrested Wednesday morning, one week after the threat was made on the FBI.gov Web site.

DeJong is in custody pending a probable cause and bond hearing on Tuesday.

DeJong was arrested at a friend's home in Auburn, Ga., after agents traced the threat to a publicly available computer in the Auburn library. Examining the computer contents, agents were led to DeJong, who they learned had been convicted of threats against President Bush in 2007.

The threat did not specify which FBI offices would be targeted other than that the bomber would start with Atlanta.

(AP)

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FBI Now Involved in FDA Investigation of Georgia Peanut Plant

Special Agent Gregory Jones says the FBI is now "fully involved" in helping the Food and Drug Administration's inquiry into the Peanut Corporation of America's plant based in Blakely, Georgia.

Federal officials are saying that the company was aware it was shipping salmonella-tainted products. Tests have confirmed the contamination.

Politicians are calling for criminal charges.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened hundreds and may be the cause of eight deaths. It has led to one of the country’s biggest food recalls and a wave of lawsuits.

(AP)

FBI Hiring In Georgia

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a few good men and women in Georgia - not as fugitives, but rather to join the force.

It's the largest FBI recruiting effort since the terror attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

FBI Special Agent Steve Lazarus of the Atlanta Field Office says that while he couldn't provide figures of how may spots were in Georgia, he said the agency employs over 30,000 personnel nationwide, and that 13,000 of them were gun and badge-carrying agents.

The law-enforcement agency's posted openings for over 2,000 positions nationwide; from accountants and auto mechanics, to nurses, linguists and cyberspooks.

Eight hundred and fifty of the spots are for special agents.

Professor John Fuller teaches criminology at the University of West Georgia. He says terror threats and natural attrition are behind the hiring drive:

"I'm finding from my students that are going out there for employment; that even though this is a very, very tough time, that many agencies are experiencing vacancies because there's this new mandate to do something about terrorism, and -- their established workforce -- many of them are reaching the retirement age."

The agency has 56 field offices nationwide.

Lazarus said applicants should apply through the agency's website, and not call the Atlanta office.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the FBI in Georgia.

Hostage Standoff Continues in Madison

Multiple agencies are currently involved this morning in an armed standoff with a kidnapping suspect in Madison. Officials with the FBI, GBI and Morgan County Sheriff’s Department are on the scene trained on a motel room in the east Georgia town just off Interstate-20. The standoff has now extended to about 11 hours.

Authorities say 25-year-old David Dietz is a former South Carolina police officer--he’s accused in a Saturday night abduction of three people in South Carolina, including the man’s estranged wife and a seven-month-old infant.

Authorities in an updated briefing this morning say they are making progress in negotiations with the alleged abductor.

Charges dropped against Berrien County lawyer

Prosecutors decided today to drop charges against a Berrien County lawyer.

George Bessonette agreed to cooperate with officials who are trying to convict his old boss, former Superior Court Judge Brooks Blitch III. Bessonette, who was Blitch's law clerk, was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and lying to a grand jury and the FBI.

Blitch was charged in July with a 19-count indictment. Prosecutors allege Blitch made illegal payments to employees, gave high-paying jobs to friends and fixed cases.


(Associated Press)

Former Atlanta mayor goes free

Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell is a free man. Campbell has spent more than two years in prison and a halfway house for tax evasion. The FBI says the man who served eight years as Atlanta's mayor was released from a Salvation Army halfway house in West Palm Beach, Fla., just before lunch today. Campbell was convicted in 2006 of evading taxes on more than $160,000 in income.

(Associated Press)

Senate moves to fund unsolved murders

A push to prioritize solving unsolved civil rights murders has passed through the U.S. Senate. The bill would give the Justice Department more money to investigate the cold cases. It authorizes $10 million annually over 10 years to help the FBI and other agencies take a fresh look at dozens of cold cases, mostly in the South. The bill is named after Emmett Till, a black teenager murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman. His killers were never convicted.

(Associated Press)

Public Works director indicted

An east Georgia Public Works director faces a federal indictment for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act. The Augusta Chronicle reports a Savannah Grand Jury indicted Harlem Public Works director Daniel Webster Cason on 11 counts. The FBI and Environmental Protection Agency say in 2004 Cason's department pumped a pollutant into the Euchee Creek and then falsified records. The Mayor of Harlem calls Cason a good employee who didn't mean for the incident to happen.

South Georgia Sheriff acquitted

A federal jury in Valdosta has acquitted Clinch County Sheriff Winston Peterson of perjury and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors accused Peterson of tipping off then-Superior Court Judge Brooks E. Blitch III to the identity of an FBI informant. The sheriff also was accused of lying to a grand jury about conversations he'd had with Blitch about the federal investigation. Blitch has since resigned from the bench and was indicted in July on federal corruption charges. Peterson has remained on the job since a grand jury indicted him last year.

(Associated Press)

"Most Wanted" suspect caught

A Columbus murder suspect on the run for more than a year is in custody. Authorities say they caught Michael Jason Registe on the Caribbean island of St. Martin. Registe has been on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list with a reward of $100,000. He is charged with shooting Randy Newton Jr. and Bryan Kilgore in the parking lot of Cross Creek Apartments last July.

FBI: Columbus murder suspect on top 10 list

Registe (FBI)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday placed Columbus resident Michael Jason Registe, 25, on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Registe is a suspect in the murders of two Columbus high school grads in an apartment parking lot last July.

The FBI will announce details of the step at a press conference Monday morning, according to a statement released Saturday.

The Bureau also upped the reward on information leading to Registe’s arrest from $20,000 to $100,000.

More details are available at the FBI website: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/registe_mj.htm:

"MICHAEL JASON REGISTE IS WANTED FOR HIS ALLEGED PARTICIPATION IN A DOUBLE HOMICIDE IN COLUMBUS, GEORGIA. ON JULY 20, 2007, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS RESPONDED TO A SHOOTING INCIDENT IN WHICH TWO MALES SITTING INSIDE A TRUCK HAD SUFFERED EXECUTION-STYLE GUNSHOT WOUNDS TO THE BACK OF THEIR HEADS. ONE OF THE VICTIMS DIED AT THE SCENE AND THE OTHER DIED SHORTLY AFTERWARD.

"CONSIDERED ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

"IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE."

FBI's Georgia bureau turns 100

The FBI has been in Georgia for 100 years. Today the Atlanta FBI celebrated the bureau's anniversary. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was started on July 26, 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the second term of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Website to help identify bank robbers

The FBI has launched a new website to help identify bank robbers in Georgia. GeorgiaBankRobbery.com is designed to enable the public to assist law enforcement. Made in conjunction with the Georgia Association of Bank Security, the site features images of people who may be involved in criminal activity or wanted for questioning. The public can click on an image to send comments or contact law enforcement.

Officials up reward for alleged killer to $20,000

Michael Jason Registe. (FBI)

A renewed effort is under way to capture a man wanted in a nearly 1-year-old double homicide case in Columbus.

The FBI and Columbus Police announced Wednesday that the reward for information leading to the capture of Michael Jason Registe was increased from $5,000 to $20,000.

Police said Registe is wanted in the shooting deaths of 21-year-old Randy Newton Jr., and 20-year-old Bryan Kilgore. Both men were gunned down on July 20th, 2007 in the parking lot of Cross Creek Apartments.

FBI Senior Agent Donnie Green said he believes someone know Registe's whereabouts, but won't come forward.

The FBI website page on Registe warns that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

(With The Associated Press)

Georgia 6th in the nation for fraudulent mortgages

Officials say Georgia has dropped from tops in the country in mortgage fraud to number six but remains a hotbed for fraudulent housing loans.

The U.S. attorney and head of the FBI division in Atlanta discussed the trends at a news conference Thursday as officials announced a nationwide crackdown in which 406 people have been charged since March 1, including seven in Atlanta on Wednesday.

The FBI estimates $1 billion in losses due to fraud related to the crackdown labeled "Operation Malicious Mortgage."

Greg Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, said the bureau has arrested 60 people in Georgia over the past four years, involving millions of dollars in losses to lenders.

GBI, FBI tackle cyber-crime

The Federal and Georgia Bureaus of Investigation are taking aim at cyber-crime at a new training center.

Officials say the recently established FBI and GBI facility will be used to investigate child pornography, fraud, identity theft and other computer-related crimes.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan says the training is specialized and the gear is high tech:

"We're talking about equipment that allows the investigator to interface with the service provider; software which allows the investigator to capture electronic images and to download data, so that it is held as evidence and can be presented in court."

The facility is located at FBI headquarters in Atlanta, and has held several training classes since it began operations two months ago. 70 police and sheriff's departments statewide are taking part in the program.

Keenan added that the facility will reduce training costs, since local law-enforcement officials will not have to travel to FBI headquarters in Washington.

The FBI officials say cyber-crime fraud costs the US $4 billion dollars annually.