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Courts get tough on Meadow Glenn crime

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

A trip to Fairburn City Court Wednesday was more than local resident Larry “Marco” Elder bargained for. The 17-year-old Meadow Glenn subdivision resident was sentenced to six months in jail for trespassing and damage to property by Judge Carlton H. Jones and, while still in the courtroom, was arrested and charged with six more offenses stemming from April 16 incidents with other residents in the subdivision located on Ga. Highway 74 near I-85.

Meadow Glenn resident Audrey Jackson testified against Elder after he pled not guilty to charges of trespassing and damage to her property. Jackon said Elder and a group of males had been to her door several times and had, on Jan. 27, broken a screen and threw a brick through a window and later called her bragging about it, she said. During questioning by Judge Jones, Jackson was repeatedly adamant that she specifically recognized Elder as one of the males involved. Jackson forcefully reiterated that she would be neither intimidated and that, though at one point afraid for her life and that of her daughter, she would not be scared into moving from the subdivision.

“They antagonized me but I’m not leaving,” Jackson told Judge Jones. “You guys keep him in jail or find something for him to do.”

At the conclusion of the trial, Jones sentenced Elder to six months in jail. He had been in handcuffs since shortly after entering the courtroom due to charges pressed by another Meadow Glenn resident, Melrose Berry, related to incidents on April 16. Berry and her family moved to Meadow Glenn only a few months earlier. Her experience, and that of her family, with Elder on April 16 led to six new charges Wednesday, including obscene behavior, damage to property, trespassing and three charges of disorderly conduct.

Speaking after the trial, Berry said she became aware of Elder in April after he and several others males began terrorizing her niece, saying “ugly things” to the 15 year-old. The girl told her brother, who later approached the men. Two of the men subsequently apologized, Berry said. The next day, she said, she saw a group of five males and one female following her daughter and nephew as the two were walking home after visiting a local store. Berry said she called her daughter and nephew over to her vehicle, where the two got in her car. Berry decided to approach the group to find out from them if there was a problem and to offer a resolution. During the conversation, Elder said had no problem with her daughter or nephew, though he kept sneering at them through the car window, Berry said.

“Look, I moved from the city out to the suburbs so that we would not have to deal with all of this kind of nonsense,” she said, explaining what she had said to Elder and the others. “I didn’t move out here to deal with it out here, so let’s just nip it in the bud. When I said that, they turned around and walked away. I asked my niece and nephew what was going on and that’s when I found out what had happened the day before.”

Berry later went to the home one of the males, also a resident of the Meadow Glenn subdivision, to speak with his parents about the language he had used toward her niece. She spoke briefly with the mother and left. Later, after running an errand, Berry said she returned home to find bricks broken in her yard. Her nephew, niece and daughter told her that several males had come to the house. Deciding to get an answer, Berry had her nephew and daughter help locate the group. Once located, Berry asked why they had come to her home and told them not to enter her property. It was during the conversation that an altercation began, she said.

“We were trying to get to the car and they (Elder and others) were reaching around me, hitting around me at my nephew, hitting my nephew in the head and chest. all this while I got on the phone calling 911. They were running all around us and hitting him. We were able to get back in the car and get home. The police arrived and told me I should file charges, Berry said.

A few hours later, when Berry and a friend were working on her carpet, a group of 10-13 males approached her house, a few carrying bats or sticks.

“Larry Elder, Marco, he had an aluminum bat and another guy had a stick in his hand. They busted out all the windows in my friend’s car except for the windshield. One of them saw me at the top of the steps with a cell phone and yelled to the others. Then they started scattering. Berry subsequently filed additional charges with Fairburn Police.

Berry said being terrorized will not deter her from standing her ground, it will not scare her away from the home she worked so hard to obtain.

“It’s been very restless around here. I felt like I was under siege. I was absolutely terrified for the life of my kids and my grandchild. I didn’t know if they were going to storm the house or if they had weapons and were going to start shooting out windows. We got hardly no sleep that night.

“But I’m not running away because these are punks that are nothing without each other. I bought this property because I want to the here and I worked too hard to be here and they’re not going to move me.”

Speaking after city court Wednesday night, Chief Charles Long praised the willingness of Jackson and Berry to take a stand against the crimes inflicted on their families and their property. The safety of residents, he said, will be upheld. This is a serious matter that will not go unanswered, he added.

“We’ve been watching the situation over in Meadow Glenn for the last six months. We seem to have the same players in almost every event that happens there as far as causing discomfort for the residents and everyone else that’s involved, said Long. “We, along with some of the residents and the city, have decided that enough is enough. There is zero tolerance for any criminal behavior that’s wreaking havoc with the quality of life for the residents of Meadow Glenn. And we’re going to do the best, in partnership with the community and whoever it takes, to return the quality of life that those people thought they were getting when they moved there. But we can’t do it without their help. So I’m hoping that this turn of events with this prosecution of Larry Elder will let the public know that we mean business, as we always have. But we’re going to pick up the pace on this until all the problems go before a judge and are gone. We mean business.”