The Lawyers & the Tokars Connection

"We believe your husband murdered your son." 

 - Atlanta attorney, Kenneth H. Schatten in the presence of Private Detective, Billy Carter.

Initially the divorce lawyer I had hired was James K. Knight, of the law firm, Childs & Knight of Marietta, Georgia.  My husband's attorney was Michael Broadbear of Atlanta, and years later he hired Attorney Emily Bair for representation regarding my share of a railroad pension that he'd kept.

Being the senior partner, George C. Childs took my case from Jim Knight and handled it and was the attorney during our son's disappearance, reported death and funeral.  Childs & Knight was my attorney firm when I was ordered out of our home based on lies given to police by my husband. After my son's burial, Childs and Knight dropped my case and said I had harassed them via telephone. It was pretty incredible.  They were accusing me of the same thing my husband had me jailed for–– a false accusation that would eventually be dismissed.   I was being jailed, harassed and incarcerated  during a time when I could have identified our son's body.  It was pretty evident that my lawyers weren't on my side. At least that's the way I felt––justifiably so.

When Mr. Childs dropped my case, Jim Knight was upset about it. I drove up to Marietta, Georgia from Warner Robins, where  I'd found a temporary place to live, to pick up my files.  I was presented with a release form which I refused to sign. I explained to Child's secretary that I wouldn't release them as my attorneys until I found another attorney.  Even when I'd been ordered to the state hospital and they would not release me after 72 hours I had called my attorney, George Childs. He was on vacation.

It was during that time that I could have identified our son's body.

I was being jailed and incarcerated when my son's body was supposedly being stored at Mayes Ward Dobbins Funeral Home. WHY would they store a body there AFTER the funeral was held?  WHY would they move a body from Alabama to Georgia if plans had been made to bury it in Virginia?  None of it made sense.

The Marietta funeral had been held Christmas Eve, December 24, 1998.  The body wasn't released in Alabama until December 28, 1998.  I was jailed that night after midnight in Houston County, and moved to Cobb County, Georgia jail.

The body was reportedly in Alabama, released by the judge FOUR DAYS AFTER the Marietta, Georgia funeral.  When I was able to make cash bail and was released from Cobb County jail, the very next day I was again arrested and taken to the Central State Hospital at Milledgeville, court ordered 72 hours. They refused to release me after 72 hours.  I truly believe had I not had the money and wisdom to phone Georgia's Mental Health Advocacy office I may still be incarcerated today.  The incarcerations prevented me from going to the funeral home where my son's body was allegedly held, where later, my children would say their father had actually identified our son.

"We don't identify bodies," said Herbert Frazier of Mayes Ward Dobbins funeral home. I had called them in March 2001 trying to get more information.

Notes taken by me in phone conversations, March 2001

Notes taken by me in phone conversations, March 2001

Since Mayes Ward Dobbins refused to release records to me, at my husband's request, I may never know exactly what these people did.

With regards to my son's disappearance, George Childs spoke with Coweta County police and was dishonest or misleading with them.  I have also wondered why Coweta police, or Cobb police or Baldwin County, Alabama police never contacted me initially.  I learned later even my remaining children believed our son had left to come and visit me.

If that was true, then why didn't they call me and see if he was visiting me?

Attorney George Childs stated to Coweta police that I had said my son was suicidal and had trouble dealing with our separation.  How could I know anything like that? I hadn't seen my son but one time in two months since his father had me ordered out of our home and initiated a temporary protective order, preventing me from being near my children.

The last time I saw our son alive, was shortly after I'd been ordered out of our home. Summonsed to the Cobb County Court room three days after the order, we never even went in to see the judge.  Our three grown children were all dressed up to go in and talk to the judge.  My younger son, little Gerry, walked over to me in the hall and said, "Mom, I don't want to do this!"  He appeared to be  afraid someone was listening and then he quietly said it again, while looking over his shoulder, "I don't want to do this!" He was looking afraid or suspicious as though he was afraid someone was listening.  I told him to go into the court and tell the truth, and with that everything would be okay.  We never went to court, and I never knew why.

Never in his life had my son ever even mentioned the word, "suicide."  I have no idea where George Childs got those words.  I also have no idea where Childs got the story about a nervous breakdown.  The only other incidence I saw of that in any reports came from the older, married woman, Mary Badinovac Rose,  a mid 30's-year-old married mother of four or five, who, according to Cobb County police reports, had been sleeping with my son.  Before I was ordered out of the house and for years I had never heard the names of Mary Rose nor D.J. Call.  Then, they became key witnesses in my son's disappearance and were called and interviewed by Cobb county police, with their testimony considered more valuable than his mother's, brother's or sister's. They never interviewed either sibling and late in the investigation they contacted me.

It was interesting after-the-fact, I was told "We thought he was coming to see you." And, it's odd they never called me to check to see if he was there. They never let me know he was missing at all.  Why not?

Mary Rose came to the burial in Virginia.  Why? She hadn't been sleeping with him but for about a month or so.  What did she hope to find in Virginia?  Why did she feel she needed to be at his funeral?  Did her husband and children know she was attending a funeral of a young man–– @15 years her junior–– she had been sleeping with while married?

Several years later, our older son admitted he was afraid of the entire situation, said I should leave the situation with his brother alone, and said Mary Rose had said her father "kills people and covers it up."  He had met Mary Rose at Michael's Arts and Crafts where they both worked at one time.  This is how our younger son met her.

Attorney George Child's story about the Jamaican mafia was partially true because an African American man named Fred erick Grant had gained my eldest son's sympathy and moved in to his house to help him with his flooring business. Fred complained that he had to pay child support and had no job.  After he had moved in then he brought a massive amount of cocaine into the rented house and both of our sons overdosed on the cocaine.  One was hospitalized and the younger was having trouble sleeping.  Fred had told him some things that had made him paranoid and suspecting the government.

I told my husband we needed to report Fred to police because he'd done a number on the boys and my husband had refused saying, "I took care of Fred, myself."  I always wondered how my husband did that.  The boys had said they were afraid of Fred, and that he had Jamaican mafia connections.  I told George Childs that story.

Childs did convey the fact to my estranged husband that my son's body would NOT be cremated.

My father-in-law, devoutly Catholic, had supposedly died in January of the same year after calling and announcing he "didn't want to live anymore" and telling my husband to, "take care of your mother."  There was no body at his N.C. funeral and the ashes were never buried. Something was suspicious about that, and when my son's disappearance came so soon after, I suspected they were all lying. The only way I'd ever have a chance at proving it was to have the body exhumed, and they were planning cremation to destroy any chances of proving they were criminals.  So I demanded a burial.  Apparently my husband realized a mother's wishes for her son's burial was one issue he couldn't dispute, so he arranged the burial in Virginia.  He would not, however, release any of the records for the funeral or burial.

Mayes Ward Dobbins Funeral Home was key because they were the agency who handled everything else, dealing with Mack Funeral Home in Alabama and with Oakeys North Chapel in Roanoke, Virginia. They had all of the records and would absolutely not release them to me even though I was still married to the boy's father at the time and no assets had been divided.

Georgia law allows an instant divorce for those found "incurably insane," and I believe this was possibly part of the plan.  My husband and his attorney had apparently spoken of appointing a guardian for my assets after the divorce.  I was blessed to have escaped from their mental hospital scheme.

The good thing that came from the Coweta county police involvement is that it was that point that Cobb County police finally decided to contact me. I doubt they ever would have known I had existed, otherwise.

After my son's body was in the ground, and they had pulled off the death story, George C. Childs dropped my case saying I had harassed him via telephone, which helped to strengthen my husband's past accusations and justify his false arrests.  Knowing for sure at that point he was no longer on my side and probably had worked against me the entire time, I still refused to release Childs as my attorney until I found another lawyer.

"With attorneys like George Childs, who needs enemies?" I thought to myself.

With the false accusations, the Georgia state court eventually after a year! dismissed the harassing phone call charges after I requested a jury trial and was prepared to fight.  The new attorney, Kenneth Schatten, listened to the tape recording and said, "You didn't harass anybody, because I listened to the tapes."  He went on to say I hadn't reacted any differently than any other mother who was distraught and estranged from her family suffering the tragedy of a child's disappearance and death.

I found attorney Kenneth Schatten to take my case in April of 1999, and it wasn't long before he asked me to come to his office on a Saturday, impromptu on an hour's notice.  The drive from Warner Robins was long, and on meeting with Schatten I was introduced to Private Detective, Mr. Billy Carter, and told Mr. Carter was a famous P.I. who had been involved with an undercover operation and featured in the book, "Praying for Sheetrock," by Melissa Faye Green.

Mr. Schatten went on to speak in the presence of Billy Carter, saying, "We believe your husband murdered your son." I told them I didn't believe he murdered him, but that he removed him from the situation because of the pending divorce trial.  With that I did not hire Carter, not having the money and a couple months later received a letter:

.

I had eagerly purchased the book, Praying for Sheetrock, and had hopes that eventually I would get the truth regarding Carter and was excited that I had an honorable person on my side, particularly one who had tackled political corruption.  

I finally hired Billy Carter in 2006 after finding his website.  I mailed him a check for $2500.00.  And later he said he needed $3000.00 more, and asked me to drive to Buckhead and meet him at Starbucks restaurant.  When I met him in person he showed me a monitor he had in his pocket that told him where certain people were that he was tracking.  He wanted to know if it was true that I was "crazy."  I asked him how many women he knew who could drive a quad-cab Dodge Diesel stick-shift from Kentucky to Buckhead in 5 o'clock traffic and find Starbucks having never been to the area but once or twice in her life - and arrive on time.  He had no answer.  

"No Mr. Carter, I'm not crazy.  I might act crazy sometimes, but it's all about survival in this horror story I'm living."  It was funny to me that anyone would suspect insanity in my case.  Anyone who believed I was crazy might be examined themselves.  A truly crazy person could not have survived all they had put me through, managed to purchase and maintain a home, vehicle and care for everything else while enduring horror after horror, arrests, death of a child, with dead dogs, stolen animals, slashed tires, and bad news.

But, the state of Georgia's state hospital physician had ruled me insane with a court ordered incarceration there, therefore a paper that said it justified the public's suspicions.  It was an awful mess and I was sure this had been done to many people (victims) before.  The whole arrangement to have me put away had gone too smoothly for my visit to have been unique.  Surely this trick has been pulled many times.  A woman there told me her husband had her incarcerated in their divorce fourteen years earlier. Her stories of Central State Hospital made me shiver fearful I may not be able to get my release.

Carter was a very quiet spoken man.  Before he rode up on his bicycle with the bright yellow trimmed gear, a couple people came in, quietly sat down seemingly to sit and watch. I was wondering if he had a secret entourage of body guards or if I was just imagining he was more important than he really was.

A copy of his website can be found below.

Mr. Carter never delivered more information to me than the comment about the two shells being discharged from the gun.  But with that I knew Carter knew far more than I had known or recalled from the brief reading of the police reports.  If he had done nothing else he'd looked at the reports from Alabama, or else he got the information some other way.

Nearly ten years after the 1999 meeting with Schatten and Carter in the year 2010, Mr. Schatten got word of my blog and when I called him on an alimony payment issue, he said I should remove my blog from the internet. I was "making people angry."  He said, "Think of it this way," and he went on to say 'they' had my son somewhere and had told him if he tries to contact me or his siblings we will be killed.  

I took it as a threat sent through my attorney.  Mr. Schatten didn't tell me who "they" were.  But he told me the money against me would prevent my ever getting the truth about my son.  I told him I refused to live in fear and refused to remove my blog from the internet.

I said, "My ex doesn't have enough money to pay off all of these people. Eventually he'll go broke."

Schatten said, "Are you kidding? Do you know how much money is out there?"

At that point I had no idea who I was up against, except every person involved in the conspiracy and coverup must be tossing money into the pot.

He asked me if I'd heard from Carter.  Since I finally hired Carter in 2006, paid him $5,500.00 and he did nothing, I replied to Schatten that Carter owed me money because he delivered nothing. I had no idea how he could get in touch with him.

Schatten had said Carter went to Brazil often doing work for the government and it's how he makes most of his money.  "I even went there with him, once," Schatten said.

Brazil kept showing up in the story and I had to wonder, years later, why.  I had been approached several times in internet programs by Brazilians, and years later after so many people, even government of Paulding County, Georgia had sought to acquire my show dogs, either by my stressed situation or by confiscation,  a ginger colored Wire Fox Terrier won the top show–– in Brazil.   "I want those dogs" one of my stalkers had said.  I figured there must have been a hefty price on them–– in the underworld where I had been forced to survive.

Carter had left the one clue about the shotgun shells that told me he was, at least, familiar with the case. Carter also knew in Schatten's office in 1999 that I was scared.  He said he had another case of a woman in Alpharetta that was similar.

What Mr. Schatten failed to tell me and I discovered a year later is that Mr. Carter had also been involved in the infamous Fred Tokars case, had stood trial in the federal case, had been Mr. Tokar's P.I. and was also his friend.

Mr. Schatten had wanted me to hire Billy Carter to go to Alabama and get information and said Carter had already talked with officers, but since the divorce wasn't solved, Mr. Schatten knew I had no money.  Later he wrote a letter to me saying that I should not contact the GBI, and this was a personal matter.  Even then he knew I did not have the money and the case lingered on unsettled.

In the Tokars case, Sara had been killed with a shotgun blast to the head much like the details of my son's "suicide."  While Mr. Schatten had lead me to believe Billy Carter was a trustworthy detective and undercover police officer it was years before I discovered Billy Carter had been charged in Federal Court, lost his job with the GBI, and abused a woman physically.

With that discovery in 2011, appeared that my entire situation and ex-husband was involved with the same Atlanta legal and criminal crowds involved in Sara Tokar's murder, money laundering and drugs. With that discovery I was better able to understand how my arrests had been arranged and how the law enforcement agencies had been used and manipulated.

Two lawyers had conveyed the same message.  Atlanta Lawyer Kenneth Schatten and Kentucky attorney Gatewood Galbraith both said,

 "There's too much money against you."

It was 2006 when Tommy Schlette died, his badly decomposed body found in the woods behind his landlord's home.  He had encouraged me to hire a famous Florida attorney, Willie Gary for the false arrests I had endured. Gary was a champion for the "little people."  I had contacted Willie Gary and sent him a package of documents and proof of my arrests and he refused to take my case.  Several years later, Gary was charged in a paternity suit in Atlanta where he had fathered twin daughters. I was surprised to see Kenneth Schatten was his attorney and more surprised as to how very small the world is. When I asked Schatten how Gary had ever heard of him, Schatten said, "I got that case on my own."   

Really?

I had fled the state of Georgia in fear for my life and safety.  I knew if I had stayed in Georgia nothing good would happen to me.  Powers there didn't want me to live to see the finality of my divorce. I  had been harassed and arrested by police, falsely accused, and might be set up, in fact I had asked Judge Lee in Peach County as they were taking mug shots and finger prints whether they would plant my finger prints somewhere and say I committed a felony to get me put away forever.  There were rumors there of planting cocaine on people and taking them to jail.  It became clear the plan was to put me away forever. It was extremely frightening and I was a soccer mom who had no idea how evil the world really could be.  This was a cram course, and after I landed in Kentucky one person befriended me and said, "They brought a woman up here and they turned her into trailer trash."

So Georgia and Kentucky somehow were in cahoots, I thought.  From then on it was my mission to do two things: to stay alive, and to get to the bottom of it.

I thought back to the letter my husband's attorney,  Michael Broadbear of Atlanta, had written about me.  "If Kentucky turns women and mothers into trailer trash," I thought, "they got their educations in Georgia - maybe even from Georgia lawyers." There are very strong organizations and networks there for males and male victory in domestic cases.   One woman recently was murdered even after pleading with the judge for protection.  Others live in fear of court systems that seem to take the male or more powerful side.   Married or not, it isn't a good place for a woman to live if she doesn't have a family or support system. What they are doing to win in family court is destroying their children, destroying lives, and inevitably the hate-filled, vicious tactics they're using will be the downfall of the family, destruction of youth, goodness, respectability and eventually the entire country will collapse beneath the hate ridden court system driven by unethical, greedy, compulsive intentions to WIN at all costs.

___________

County Attorney Dorothy Bishop was brought into my case by Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Bill Byrne.  Byrne had been contacted by Senator Paul Coverdell to investigate my arrests. Soon Coverdell was dead. The handling of the situation by Cobb County was incredible and filled with ridicule.   I had no money to fight any of these false charges they were slapping me with.  They wouldn't settle the divorce. I was in a catch-22 situation and they knew well how to play the game they were playing.

When I applied for indigent status, the man who collected my information even appraised jewelry I was wearing. I wondered how Georgia could afford to hire jewelry appraisers as intake officers. It was absolutely the biggest, most incredibly corrupt situation I could dream to imagine in my life.

I have never owned $10,000 in jewelry in my entire life, so I have no idea where this officer got the number.

To be continued....