Cicatello lawyer denies horse head and dead fish deliveries

KNOXVILLE - The lawyer for Crawford County Manager Don Cicatello accused the district attorney's office of bringing a simple battery charge against Cicatello "in bad faith for the sole purpose of harassing Cicatello."

Macon attorney Mike Cranford also accused Sheriff Kerry Dunaway of hassling Cicatello's bodyguard "about a few machine guns" during the Feb. 21 County Commission meeting, in which a confrontation between Cicatello and Faye Rutherford occurred.

The charges against Cicatello stem from that incident and the presence of a severed horse's head in Rutherford's bed the next morning and a dead fish found on Dunaway's doorstep.

"Rutherford struck my client so hard that his jowls are swollen. My client knows nothing about the horse head found in Rutherford's bed---maybe she's a sloppy housekeeper---and my client has nothing to do with the dead fish Sheriff Dunaway found on his doorstep. Maybe a cat left it there," Cranford said.

"Did the cat wrap the fish in newspaper?" asked Superior Court Judge Vito Vizzi.

"Your honor, even cats dislike the Macon Telegraph. And that's why we need to move the trial out of the Telegraph's circulation area. I'd like to suggest Las Vegas, Nevada," Cranford said.

Motions will be argued in a hearing scheduled for next week.

Cleland demands Balkans exit strategy to free troops for Georgia flag fight

Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., said that the United States needs to formulate a strategy to exit the Balkans. "We need to quit balking on the exit," Cleland said.

"We handled the military requirement in Kosovo. It's now a police function, and the NATO countries can do that without us. Besides, we're going to need our troops back in Georgia when they resume the fight over the State flag. There's some serious ethnic and cultural cleansing going on where they're trying to wipe out all traces of southern culture by declaring everything Confederate as evil. We need to educate some people about the War for Southern Independence and what it was all about," Cleland said. "So I strongly support deploying a special division of history teachers in Georgia."

With media saturation covering the custody battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, polls indicate that central Georgians, for the most part, support a Gonzalez.

Some support Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his effort to regain custody of his son, Elian. Some support Elian Gonzalez and his inevitable future desire to be a free American citizen. Others support Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle of Elian, who, among other relatives, wants to secure US citizenship for Elian and to retain custody of the boy in Miami---under the presumption that freedom is preferable to a reunion with his father in Cuba and preferable to complying with US law.

Then there's a sizable contingent who strongly support Speedy Gonzalez, the agile mouse in the famous Warner Brothers cartoons. Others prefer the Mexican dish known as Speedy Gonzalez, which includes a taco, an enchilada and a side of rice or refried beans. Many of the Mexican restaurants in Macon serve this Gonzalez favorite. Polls indicate that around lunchtime or dinnertime, Speedy is preferred over all the above Gonzalez runners-up.

Tucker Road project delayed to consider skateboard ramps & pogo-stick trails

Tucker Road improvements were put on hold until members of the city-county roads program's technical committee can review petitions for improvements beyond proposed sidewalk and bikeway additions.

The Macon-Bibb County Road Improvement Program already calls for intersection improvements and updating the road from a rural to urban structure, including adding curbs and gutters. Sidewalks and bikeways were not included. Skateboard ramps and pogo-stick trails were not even imagined.

But during a public hearing at Wesleyan College on March 9, several residents said they'd support a sidewalk on one side of the street but would prefer a pogo-stick trail. Now that discussion has included a bike route and other improvements along Tucker, TAC chairman and county engineer Bob Fountain said the committee is expecting neighborhood petitions that support sidewalks, pogo-stick trails and skateboard ramps. The cost will almost quadruple the price of the project, however, to $3.2 million. Original expectations were less than $800,000.

"We need space for our pogo sticks that's safely away from those crazy bikers," said Zaine Bouncer, a Tucker Road resident. Tommie Cozzy expressed a different concern for skateboard ramps. "We love flirting with death by weaving in between bikers rolling at high speeds. It's a rush. All we want are some ramps so we can jump over bikers and practice our stunts."

Gov. Roy Barnes chose the pediatrics unit of The Medical Center of Central Georgia as the site for the ceremonial signing into law of three measures designed to reduce domestic violence and child abuse.

The governor also signed into law a bill that makes it illegal for insurance companies to cancel the coverage of domestic violence victims.

"Most abused children end up at a hospital like this one when their injuries require acute care," Barnes said. "Child abuse is bad. Here there are plenty of crayons for kids and pens for adults."

Abused children, the governor said, find a welcome sanctuary in nice hospitals like this.

"In addition, it's nice to know that hospitals always have pens to write with and you can stop by and borrow one if you need to," Barnes said. "My limo was cruising up I-75 as I was on my way to the Masters after a quick stop at the NuWay. And I had these bills I'm supposed to sign today. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have a pen nor did any of my so-called aides. Heads will get knocked about this, let me tell you. But anyway, it's always nice to stop and visit a hospital. Thanks, again, for letting me borrow a pen," Barnes said.

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