SATURDAY

August 4, 2012

Private groups to take control

Law enforcement officers lead Yearby Foston, 33, across the Sixth Street railroad bridge after a 90-minute standoff with police.
EMily RoSE BEnnEtt/Staff

Prayer Breakfasts

Standoff ends peacefully

By Bianca Cain Johnson and Steve Crawford
Staff Writers

Mayor responds to legal threats

By Susan McCord
Staff Writer

A 90-minute standoff on the Sixth Street railroad bridge ended Friday with a Richmond County sheriffs candidate negotiating a robbery suspects surrender. Yearby Foston, 33, was on the railroad trestle about 11 a.m., police said. Police had been searching for him since Thursday, when a woman identified him as the man who attacked, robbed and tried to rape her at a Peach Orchard Road insurance office. The woman told authorities that Foston, a longtime customer of the business, had entered the office and hit her several times with a pistol and possibly a blunt object. He forced her to the ground at gunpoint and told her to take off her pants. After she refused to remove her clothing, police said, the assailant hit her several more times, took a laptop and ran away. Richmond County school Public Safety Lt. Richard Roundtree said he received a call from one of Fostons relatives about 10:30 a.m., which became a three-way call with Foston on the line. Roundtree said Foston wanted to meet with him and told him to come to the Sixth Street railroad trestle. He told me where he was going to be, so I called the sheriffs office, said Roundtree, who is facing Capt. Scott Peebles in the Aug. 21 Democratic runoff for Richmond County sheriff. When Foston walked out onto the bridge, Roundtree followed, along with a couple of sheriffs deputies. By 11 a.m., Foston was standing in the middle of the trestle talking with Roundtree as sheriffs investigators, hostage negotiators, members of the SWAT team, fire rescue officers and North Augusta public safety officers arrived. CSX Railroad was asked to stop trains on

Richmond County sheriffs Capt. Scott Gay talks to family members of Foston, who fled from authorities across the Sixth Street railroad bridge Friday morning. wATCh viDeo and view a slideshow with more photos from fridays standoff at augustachronicle.com.

those tracks. Capt. Scott Gay said negotiators initially believed Foston was armed but later discovered he was not. He does not want to go back to prison, Gay said. He has a long criminal history. Roundtree said the man was agitated by all the commotion and by friends and relatives who continued to call Foston on his cellphone while he stood on the bridge. Foston threatened to harm himself and others, investigators said. The best thing that happened was his cellphone fell into the water, Roundtree said. From that point on, he was only talking to me. Roundtree said Foston attempted to provoke officers into a physical confrontation a couple of times, but they were able to calm him down. He lauded the professionalism

shown by sheriffs deputies and SWAT team members who were keeping their eyes and weapons trained on Foston. We held on the fact that we knew he wanted help, he said. Roundtree said the suspect said he would jump and at one point leaped down to one of the bridge pilings and lay down. After about an hour and a half, Roundtree said, he was able to talk Foston into climbing back up to the bridge, and officers took him into custody. Foston faces charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and criminal attempted rape in connection with the Thursday incident. Lt. Blaise Dresser said Foston will not face charges for Fridays incident. Paramedics were called after one of the suspects relatives become distraught, but they said she recovered quickly.
Reach Bianca Cain Johnson or Steve Crawford at (706) 724-0851.

The city of Augusta is limiting employee involvement in Mayor Deke Copenhavers monthly prayer breakfasts in response to threats of litigation from a Wisconsin-based group that champions the separation of church and state. In a letter Thursday to Rebecca Markert, the attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Augusta general counsel Andrew MacKenzie said Copenhaver has agreed to have private sponsors organize, coordinate and promote the breakfasts. The sponsors will take on duties now performed by Copenhavers executive assistant, Karyn Nixon. The citys response Copenhaver to an earlier open-records request from the Freedom From Religion Foundation revealed that Nixon arranged the breakfasts by telephone and e-mail, sending 128 e-mails since November to arrange the first six breakfasts of this year. The foundation argued that any city time or resources spent on the prayer breakfasts were unconstitutional. MacKenzie cited an East Point, Ga., case in which the mayor used city money to pay for prayer breakfasts and distribute fliers promoting them. The court granted an injunction against using city money but allowed minimal use of city resources, such as personal telephone calls by employees related to the events. MacKenzies letter further states that Copenhaver will continue to attend the monthly breakfasts, that his staff may voluntarily attend them on their own time and that the events will remain on the city Web site, listed as Community Prayer Breakfast.
Reach Susan McCord at (706) 823-3215 or susan.mccord@augustachronicle.com.

SRS examines security after Tennessee breach

By Rob Pavey
Staff Writer

GreenBrier hiGh school

ReAD PAST SToRieS ABoUT Savannah River Site at its topic page at augustachronicle.com/topics.

4 plead not guilty in case of glued locks

By valerie Rowell
Columbia County Bureau

Savannah River Site and other nuclear weapons facilities are re-examining security procedures after three protesters in Tennessee, including an 82-year-old nun, managed to get past guards to vandalize a high-security uranium facility. The incident occurred last weekend at the National Nuclear Security Administrations Y-12 complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a major hub of the U.S. nuclear weapons program whose long history includes enriching uranium for the bomb dropped in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The protesters used bolt cutters to open fences and made their way to the plants most secure area, where warheads are serviced and where the nations bombgrade uranium is stored, according to The Associated Press. The intruders attached banners to the building, splashed it with human blood and spray-painted slogans before they were

arrested. An investigation revealed unspecified security flaws that led to a temporary standdown Wednesday to allow for refresher training and instruction. Savannah River Site has no plans to halt any of its operations, but it is reviewing its procedures to make sure a similar breach could not occur there, said Bill Taylor, a U.S. Department of Energy spokesman. The Savannah River Site reviews security procedures whenever an event occurs at another site, Taylor said. The site will also participate in any lessons-learned activities with other DOE sites. SRS and Y-12 use the same security contractor, WSI formerly Wackenhut Services Inc. whose parent company is now called G4S Government Solutions.
Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.

across the area

Allen puts $250,000 into his campaign
Augusta businessman Rick Allen is giving $250,000 more of his own money to his campaign for U.S. House a sign he is confident hell advance to the Republican runoff Aug. 21. Allen reported putting the money into his campaign fund Thursday, two days after results from the four-way GOP primary showed Allen and Augusta lawyer Wright McLeod running neck-and-neck for second place. Unofficial returns showed Allen leading by just 570 votes. McLeod could be eligible for a reAllen count after official results are certified next week. Allens latest cash infusion brings his total personal investment in the race to $540,000. If he makes the runoff, he will face Republican state Rep. Lee Anderson, of Grovetown. The winner of the Republican runoff takes on Democratic Rep. John Barrow in Novembers general election. Associated Press ReAD MoRe ABoUT the race for the 12th Congressional District at augustachronicle.com.

Four teenage girls accused of gluing locks at Green brier High School in May pleaded not guilty Friday. Greenbrier seniors Brooklyn Leigh Bella, Dynisha Antionette Clemons, Elizabeth Sutton Metz and Kristin Arey Tannehill were indicted in July on charges of second-degree criminal trespass in what was described as a senior prank. They pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing in Evans. They were arrested May 14 after three people squirted glue into exterior locks May 11 and caused more than $4,000 in damage, according to Columbia County sheriffs Capt. Steve Morris. Greenbrier staffers arriving to school found that the lock cylinders on 43 exterior doors including those on portable classrooms had been disabled with glue. A 15-year-old male student, whose name has not been released because of his age, was arrested May 17 in the incident. His case is still pending in Columbia County Juvenile Court, Judge Doug Flanagan said. School officials barred the girls from attending their graduation ceremony and demanded they pay to fix

One of the four accused Greenbrier students hides her face as she leaves the Columbia County Courthouse. ReAD MoRe ABoUT the Greenbrier case at augustachronicle.com.

JiM BlayloCK/Staff

the locks before giving them their diplomas or releasing their second-semester grades. Metz is the only one of the four who has not paid her portion of the restitution, according to school Superintendent Charles Nagle. When six Lakeside High School seniors committed a similar prank in June 1993, they were charged with second-degree criminal dam-

age to property, suspended from school and barred from taking part in graduation ceremonies. Those students also had to pay restitution before receiving their diplomas. In January 2006, seven Burke County High School students were arrested after they squirted glue into the locks of 33 doors and two gates, causing about $3,000 in damage, according to a report from The True Citizen in Waynesboro, Ga.
Reach Valerie Rowell at (706) 868-1222 or valerie.rowell@augustachronicle.com.