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DeKalb County CEO
BurrellEllis
issued a pre-termination let-ter to DeKalb Police Chief 
TerrellBolton
Feb. 20, giving Bolton achance answer to charges broughtagainst him. Despite a 19-pageresponse from Bolton’s attorney,
William McKenney,
Ellis issued astatement Feb. 23 saying that as of Feb. 24, Bolton would no longer beemployed by DeKalb County.In his response, McKenneyaccused the CEO of developinga pattern of obstruction that pre-vented Bolton from performing his job. McKenney also cited in theresponse letter that Bolton’s secre-tary was interrogated for six hoursby sheriffs’ deputies.Ellis claimed that Bolton wasinsubordinate by interfering with
the ring of an employee under 
Bolton’s supervision
.
McKenneyquestioned Ellis’ authority to bypassthe police chain of command andremove a person McKenney saidwas “an essential staff person.”Ellis told reporters on Feb. 20that he conducted the investigationwith the help of DeKalb police, the
DeKalb sheriff’s ofce and other 
DeKalb County personnel. The in-vestigation, according to Ellis, re-vealed that Bolton had seven coun-ty vehicles. Five were set aside forhis use and two other vehicles, aMercedes and Range Rover, wereseized drug vehicles that Boltonkept in his garage, according to El-lis’ investigation.McKenney defended Bolton’suse of the automobiles as normalprocedure in the department. Healso said that Bolton’s taking thetwo luxury vehicles home waspart of an informal practice in thepolice department that allowed
ofcers working as investigators
to take cars home from the seized
eet and use them as unmarked
vehicles.The attorney stated this practicewas not a secret and that the ve-hicles could be used by Bolton forhis own surveillance. He suggestedthat former DeKalb County CEO
Vernon Jones
knew the where-abouts of the Mercedes and theRange Rover.McKenney noted in his letterto Ellis that the CEO was “herebyplaced on notice” that Bolton wason medical leave and protected bythe Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. At press time, McKenneycould not be reached for comment.Bolton was hired as DeKalbCounty chief of police in Decem-ber 2006 soon after being dis-missed as chief of police in Dallas,Texas, for alleged scandals and in-creased crime rates. Bolton left theDallas job promising to sue. Thelawsuit was dismissed after a judgeruled that Bolton served at the willof the city manager and was notentitled to civil service protections.Six different people haveheaded the DeKalb County Police
Department in the past ve years.
Six months before Bolton wasnamed police chief by Jones, theCEO named
Nick Marinelli
as in-terim chief. Maninelli served untilBolton was hired. In August 2004
Louis Graham
was appointed tothe position by Jones after formerchief 
Eddie Moody
abruptly an-nounced his pending retirement.Moody had replaced long termChief 
Bobby Burgess
. AssistantChief 
Karen A. Anderson
briey
held the position of acting chief while Bolton was on sick leave.The current acting chief and sixthperson to occupy the chair during
the ve-year period is
WilliamO’Brien
.
Business
.........................18
Around DeKalb
..............12
Education
..................16-17
Health
..............................19
Local
.....................1-3, 7-13
Life
..................................15
Opinion
......................... 5-6
Sports
........................22-23
A PUBLICATION OF ACE III COMMUNICATIONS • AVAILABLE ONLINE 24/7 AT WWW.CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER.COM •
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009 • VOL. 11, NO. 48 •FREE
 www.championnewspaper.com
2008 and 2007 Free Press back issues are available online.
Never miss an issue!
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P
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Ellis claimed that Bolton wasinsubordinate by interferingwith the firing of anemployee under Bolton’ssupervision. McKenneyquestioned Ellis’ authorityto bypass the police chainof command and remove aperson McKenney said was‘an essential staff person.’
Bolton dismissedas DeKalb chiefof police
 
THE CHAMPION FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009, PAGE 2A
News
Greenforest - McCalep Christian Academic Center
Plan A Future of Excellence For Your Child
Southern Associationof College and Schools(SACS)Accreditation3250 Rainbow DriveDecatur, GA 30034
Office: (404) 486-6737Fax: (404) 486-1127
www.greenforest.org
Early Learning Center
Six (6) Weeks to 4 Years
Academy
(Grades K - 12)
OPEN HOUSE
Friday, March 6, 2009 • 9:30 a.m. - 12 Noon
OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, March 7, 2009 • 10 a.m. - 12 Noon
Computertized “Be Smart Kids” Program
ABeka Curriculum & Foreign Language
Computers in Classrooms
Professionally-Trained Teaching Staff 
Computerized Entry System for Added Security
Largest Childcare Facility in the Southeast
Chorus; Ballet; Age Appropriate Playground
Fully Accredited by Association of Christian Schools International(ACSI) and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
ACSI/State Certified Teachers
ABeka Curriculum & Advanced Placement Classes
Athletics (GA High School Assoc. - Class A) Basketball, Baseball,Soccer, Volleyball, Track & Field
State-of-the-Art Science & Computer Laboratories
Before and After School Programs
Summer Enrichment Programs
For more information please visit our television broadcast:Monday - AIB - 5:30 a.m. and Thursday - AIB - 8:30 p.m.
“Academic Excellence - God’s Way”“A Ministry of Greenforest Community Baptist Church”
by Margie Fishman
margieshman@hotmail.co
m
CeCe Garrison
knows rsthand how a troubled econ
-
omy can derail a labor of love. Forced to put her master of theology degree on hold after her funding dried up, shenow divides her time among bookkeeping, pet sitting andorganizing spiritual retreats for women.“The worse things get, the longer I stay at my prayer and meditation,” she said. “Now, it’s up to 1 ½ hours.”Shy when it comes to networking, Garrison needed aneasy way to break the ice. She found it at her neighbor 
-
hood Pine Lake Local, a collective of self-employed peo
-
 ple who have established a referral and resource network within their community.The group is the brainchild of local residents
KrisCasariego
, a marketing professional, and
Melanie Ham-met
, a performance artist, writer and city council member,who wanted a gathering place for Pine Lake’s independent businesspeople to exchange ideas and business cards.“Each meeting is led and organized by someone else,”said Casariego, adding that monthly speakers address top
-
ics of particular interest to the self-employed, such as howto obtain health coverage or navigate the tax maze.After a strong start in October, the 20-member group is busy working on a print business directory and Web site sothat residents and the larger community can easily locate
Networkingin Pine Lake
See Pine Lake on Page 8APine Lake Local members Paula Clancy, left, and Ellen Mintzmyer review materials passed out by KimDavis Mitchell, right.
 
THE CHAMPION FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009 Page A
 by Brian Egeston be@brianwrites.comOn President’s Daywhile some where enjoyinga day off, more than 200employees from OrangeBusiness Services were run
-
ning around a schoolyard, painting by numbers and playing in the dirt.It was more work thanthey had anticipated. Em
-
 ployees from across NorthAmerica, including manyfrom the company’s Atlantaheadquarters, volunteeredtheir time to help upgradefacilities at the InternationalCommunity School in De
-
catur. Projects includedreengineering the computer lab, painting classrooms, building bookcases, paint
-
ing murals and creating alearning garden and minisoccer eld.The combined studentand faculty population of the International Communi
-
ty School comes from morethan 35 countries, represent
-
ing 20 different languagegroups, with nearly half of the students hailing fromcountries such as Bosnia,
 
Myanmar Burundi, Iraq andCuba. The school serveskindergarten through sixthgrade students.Orange Business Ser 
-
vices is the key brand of France Telecom, a telecom
-
munications operator thatserves ve continents.Orange Business Ser 
-
vices has a history of em
-
 bracing philanthropy andhas largely focused on threeglobal themes: disability,education and culture. Onespecic area the companysupports is the education of children from developingcountries.“With privilege comesresponsibility, and we areindeed privileged,” said
Diana Leonard
, senior vice president, Americas,Orange Business Services,who has worked on variousinitiatives related to Africa,including a hospital in Cam
-
eroon and an AIDS/HIVtreatment center in Kenya.“During lean economictimes, it’s more importantthan ever to give back to thecommunity. We were eager to help, not only becausethis project will enhancethe educational experienceof the students, but becausethe diverse spirit of theInternational CommunitySchool echoes the globalnature of our company: onethat encourages a respectfulenvironment and global per 
-
spective.”“One way to ensure thatour students thrive is to place them in an environ
-
ment that promotes creativ
-
ity and camaraderie,” saidDr.
Laurent Ditmann
,the principal of Interna
-
tional Community School.“With this in mind, we’rethrilled to welcome OrangeBusiness Services as theytake time out of their busyschedule to help us improvesome of the facilities at theInternational CommunitySchool.”The International Com
-
munity School is a charter school located on Coving
-
ton Highway in DeKalb andwas strategically designedto bring together refugee,immigrant and native-bornchildren in an academicallychallenging and nurturingenvironment.In the last 10 years,thousands of refugee chil
-
dren have come to DeKalbCounty, home to the high
-
est percentage of refugeesin the southeastern UnitedStates.The school began opera
-
tion during the 2002-2003school year and has grownto and an enrolment of ap
-
 proximately 400 students.
International school
gets corporate beneft
of 00

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