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Dade Superior Spring Term Winds Down With No Resolution For Some


The April jury term in Dade Superior Court wound down this week in the usual judicial anticlimax, with little courtroom drama and in fact no resolution at all for the higher-profile cases.

Gustavo Pagan Rodriguez, who has been incarcerated in Dade since his big rig crossed the median of I-59 in November, killing another tractor-trailer driver headed in the opposite direction, was facing charges of vehicular

homicide in the death, but a toxicology report seemed to have cleared him of the DUI charges originally leveled against him when it came back clean in February, showing him unaffected by either drugs or alcohol.

Now, however, prosecutor Chris Arnt of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit has asked for further testing of the blood sample submitted by Rodriguez after the November accident, so it looks as if the driver's trial will have to wait until next fall. His attorney, public defender Jennifer Hartline, has filed a motion for reduction of the $125,000 bond that has so far kept Rodriguez behind bars. A hearing on that matter is set for April 20.

Amanda Pardue, the Dade substitute teacher accused of improper electronic contact with underage boys, will also not go before the judge just yet. She has been ordered to undergo an "Abel Assessment" at a Marietta, Ga., behavioral modification institute at her own expense. The Abel Assessment is a test designed to measure sexual interest in various subjects, especially a tendency toward pedophilia.

Brandon Vitier, whose splashy case disappeared abruptly into a Georgia Bureau of Investigation file in September after he was shot by Georgia State Trooper Joe Geddie, at whom he had reportedly aimed a gun during a traffic stop, was sentenced to 15 years, five to be served before he is eligible for parole. He had negotiated guilty pleas to aggravated assault, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and reckless driving.

Margarett Johnson and Austin Grimes were to have stood trial together on statutory rape and child molestation charges. Instead, Grimes negotiated a guilty plea to one of three counts of statutory rape as well as possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, while the child molestation charges were dropped. He was sentenced to 10 years' probation and a $550 fine. The more serious charges against Ms. Johnson were also dropped and she entered a guilty plea to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Judge Brian House sentenced her to one year behind bars of a total 10-year sentence, the rest to be served on probation. She was, however, given credit for time served since Aug. 18.

The second scheduled week of jury trials for this term has been canceled. So were all the civil trials originally scheduled for spring term.

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