Public Safety

An Athens man was killed Wednesday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. 129 near Potter House Road in Jackson County.
According to a news release from the Georgia State Patrol Athens Post, Christian W. Duran Fernandez, 25, was traveling southbound shortly before 5 p.m. when he lost control of his Nissan Sentra and ran off the roadway.
The driver’s side of the vehicle struck a tree and utility pole. Fernandez was pronounced dead at the scene.
Duran was wearing a seatbelt, but a witness described his driving as fast and aggressive prior to the crash.

A Jefferson man was arrested Sept. 4 after making repeated false reports that his mother was being held hostage.
According to a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office incident report, deputies responded to an apartment at 272 Lawrenceville Street, where they found Alfonso Lee Damons, 29, standing partially outside his front door.
Damons refused to step outside and talk with the deputies or tell them why he called. He also kept walking back inside to reach for something and putting his hands in his pockets. After refusing to show his hands, he laughed and went back inside.
See the full story in the Sept. 14 issue of The Jackson Herald.

A Talmo woman died Thursday after a car she was attempting to push off the roadway rolled over her.
According to a Georgia State Patrol accident report, Julene M. Nix, 64, was the passenger in a 1998 Mercury Tracer traveling north on U.S. 129/Ga. 11 in Jackson County near the Hall County line around noon. The car began to stall out, and the driver, 51-year-old Tracy Cooper of Bethlehem, tried to coast the vehicle off the highway onto Sosbee Road.
The vehicle was not completely out of the roadway, and Nix got out to assist. When Cooper put the vehicle into neutral and let off the brake, the vehicle rolled backward over Nix.
A passerby stopped and helped move the vehicle off Nix. She was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where she died from her injuries.
No charges have been filed, but the accident remains under investigation, according to the report.
The Georgia State Patrol Athens Post worked the accident.

Two Commerce area women complained to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office about their landlord, who regularly offers them the opportunity to pay their rent by having sex with him.
One of the women said the landlord came to collect the rent and asked her what color panties she had on. She told him “none,” at which time he allegedly stripped naked, got on top of her and tried to have sex with her.
See the full story in the Aug. 31 issue of The Jackson Herald.

A Jefferson man accused of having sex with his dog was among 43 people indicted last week by a grand jury in Jackson County.
Craig Alexander Ingram, 36, 137 Carruth Road, was arrested in April by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on four counts of bestiality stemming from an investigation that revealed videos of him committing the acts.
See more indictments in the Aug. 24 issue of The Jackson Herald.

A man was killed in an accident on I-85 this morning.
Units from Plainview and Jefferson Fire/Rescue along with Jackson County EMS responded to Interstate 85 Southbound at the Dry Pond exit in Jefferson on a reported vehicle accident with injuries on Monday morning around 2:30 a.m. Two vehicles were involved in the accident with injuries in both.
A van was struck by a tractor trailer. Two people in the van were transported to the hospital. One was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville in serious condition and the other was transported to Northridge Medical Center in Commerce with moderate injuries.
The tractor trailer came to rest on top of trees in between the expressway and Bill Wright Road. The driver of the vehicle was partially ejected and still on top of the unit.
After an extensive extrication process the driver was freed and transported to NGMC in critical condition. The man later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
No other injuries were reported. Traffic was slowed for several hours due to the incident. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the accident.

A Jackson Foothills Charter High School student was arrested last week after threatening to murder everyone at the school and “paint the walls with blood.”
See the full story in the Aug. 17 issue of The Jackson Herald.