1
1
GRUBBS
09/29/2016 08:30AM
ARRAIGNMENT
NOTICE PRINTED
2
1
GRUBBS
11/03/2016 01:30PM
MOTIONS
3
1
GRUBBS
11/10/2016 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
4
1
GRUBBS
11/14/2016 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
5
1
GRUBBS
12/01/2016 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
6
1
GRUBBS
12/02/2016 01:30PM
MOTIONS
7
1
GRUBBS
12/05/2016 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
8
1
CHILDS
01/04/2017 01:30PM
MOTIONS
9
1
CHILDS
01/05/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
10
1
CHILDS
01/09/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
11
1
CHILDS
01/25/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
12
1
CHILDS
01/26/2017 09:00AM
MOTIONS
13
1
CHILDS
02/06/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
14
1
CHILDS
02/13/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
15
1
CHILDS
02/27/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
16
1
CHILDS
03/06/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
17
1
CHILDS
03/13/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
18
1
CHILDS
04/13/2017 09:00AM
MOTIONS
19
1
CHILDS
05/08/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
20
1
CHILDS
03/30/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
21
1
CHILDS
04/17/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
22
1
CHILDS
05/01/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
23
1
CHILDS
05/15/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
24
1
CHILDS
03/03/2017 09:00AM
MOTIONS
25
1
CHILDS
06/16/2017 09:00AM
MOTIONS
26
1
CHILDS
06/05/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
NOTICE PRINTED
27
1
CHILDS
06/12/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
28
1
CHILDS
06/19/2017 09:00AM
JURY
NOTICE PRINTED
29
1
CHILDS
06/28/2017 09:00AM
JURY TRIAL CALL
Former Cobb GOP chair Joe Dendy returning to court today
Jon Gargis MDJ 6/16/17
Editor’s Note: It is the policy of the Marietta Daily Journal to protect the identities of victims of sexual abuse. The MDJ will not report certain information shared in open court that could reveal the victims’ identities.
The attorney for former Cobb County Republican Party chairman Joe Dendy, who faces charges that he molested two children, is set to argue today that most of the charges against his client be dropped. Cobb prosecutors, however, are seeking to introduce evidence that Dendy committed a number of similar acts against six other alleged victims, potentially over the span of nearly seven decades.
Dendy faces charges in Cobb that he allegedly molested two young boys in separate incidents as far back as late 2004. Arrested at his west Cobb home in May 2016, the 72-year-old was indicted in August on 13 charges: four counts of child molestation, three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, four counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and one count each of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation.
Dendy’s attorney, Brian Steel of the Atlanta-based Steel Law Firm, is seeking for 10 of the 13 charges, all of which involve the older of the two boys, to be tossed. Those charges allege that the earliest incident occurred sometime in late 2004 to late 2006 and saw Dendy take the older boy into a Cobb department store in order to commit a sexual act.
Other incidents of alleged child molestation related to the charges in question occurred sometime between December 2007 and December 2009 at Dendy’s west Cobb home and inside a closet at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs, where Dendy and his wife, Billie Dendy, have been members since 1974, according to Billie Dendy’s testimony at her husband’s bond hearing last year. The boy was around 13 years old at the time of those incidents, according to the warrant filed regarding the incident.
Steel is seeking to quash the charges, or have them declared invalid, during today’s motions hearing in front of Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs.
“If you look at the indictment for those counts, there’s a tremendous date range. An indictment is supposed to be specific,” Steel said.
Steel’s motion, if approved, would still leave in place the charges that accuse Dendy of molesting a 4-year-old boy in late December 2011, with the older boy named witnessing the incident, according to a warrant in the case.
But the Cobb District Attorney’s office is set to argue a separate motion that if approved would allow prosecutors to introduce evidence they say shows that Dendy committed acts of child molestation and similar criminal acts against six other children, two of whom were allegedly victimized between 1958 and 1960. That would potentially put the earliest incident back when Dendy was 12 or 13 years old.
The incidents involving those two children are alleged to have taken place in Laurens, South Carolina, as were alleged crimes against a third child between 1975 and 1980 and a fourth in early June of 2015. Prosecutors also accuse Dendy of victimizing two other children in Cobb County, one sometime between 1975 and 1980 and the other between late 2014 to mid-2016.
Today’s hearing, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Childs’ courtroom, is expected to last most of the day, according to Kim Isaza, spokesperson for the Cobb district attorney’s office.
She added that prosecutors are unable to comment on the pending case.
Barring any delays ordered by the court, Dendy’s trial is set to begin July 10.
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6/9/17
Trial is set for July 10, 2017. This motion is to get evidentiary items taken care of:
4/14/17
FILED MARCH 30, 2017
Consent Order to Continue Due Date for Filing Motions
Additional documents are on hand from out of state Police* which the State wants to include in the 'other act' portion of the case.
Dendy is known to have pedophile problems in South Carolina and Michigan that go back many years. Hopefully the trial will take place as scheduled this July.
* Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan, as well as the Laurens Police Department in South Carolina on additional sexual abuse allegations.
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2/27/17
1/28/17
Prosecutors: Dendy’s wife sent money to Cobb jail inmate
Jon Gargis MDJ 1/28/17
MARIETTA — Though it was her husband seeking to be granted bond, it was Billie Dendy’s decision to send money to another prisoner in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center that landed her in the hot seat across from prosecutors Thursday.
(Photo: Joe Dendy's wife)
Joe Dendy, 71, was arrested at his west Cobb home in May on charges that he molested two boys in separate incidents. Though he was denied bond in June, his current attorney, Brian Steel of the Atlanta-based Steel Law Firm, had sought to have Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs reconsider the previous denial. Childs ultimately denied the motion after a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday that ended just about 7:15 p.m.
Steel had officially signed onto Dendy’s case on Dec. 20, more than two months after the county’s circuit defender office assigned Marietta attorney Reid Thompson to Dendy’s case; William McKenney of Atlanta-based McKenney & Froelich had represented Dendy at his June bond hearing but was not retained following that court proceeding.
But Billie Dendy was questioned over two payments she made to one of her husband’s fellow inmates at the Cobb jail, with at least one being sent days after Steel was retained in the case. It was revealed in the hearing that she had sent through an internet deposit system a total of $165 via two payments to Victor Keith Seldon.
Seldon has been in Cobb’s jail for nearly 100 days to serve as a witness, according to jail records, though Georgia Department of Corrections records show he had been serving time at Wilcox State Prison in south Georgia on theft by deception charges out of DeKalb and Douglas counties. He had also previously served time on bad check charges out of Cobb.
Billie Dendy said one of the payments had been requested by her husband for Seldon to help decide “who to retain as a lawyer.”
“Mr. Seldon told my husband that he could write him motions to be presented to the court,” Billie Dendy said in her testimony. “My husband passed that onto me, and told me he wanted to do that and what the cost would be.”
Assistant District Attorney Susan Treadaway pressed on the wife as to why she would pay an inmate for a legal service after retaining an actual attorney.
“(Joe) just wanted (Seldon) to write a motion. He did not retain him as an attorney,” she replied. “Yes, it was paid, but it was not a legal service. He wrote a motion, but the motion was given to me. It was not presented to the court in any way.”
Cobb Superior Court records do not indicate that Seldon had prepared any filings in Dendy’s case. Steel and his law firm have made all filings in the case since taking it over last month.
ATTORNEYS IMPLY ONE ACCUSER WAS TOUCHED AT GOP FUNCTION
Attorneys in their questioning of Billie Dendy and three character witnesses who spoke on Joe Dendy’s behalf asked those on the stand about an alleged victim at a Republican Party function.
That individual is one of seven Treadaway said has accused Dendy of inappropriate contact; Dendy currently faces charges in Cobb regarding two of them.
His indictment alleges that the earliest incident occurred sometime in late 2004 to late 2006 and saw Dendy take one of the boys into a Cobb department store in order to commit a sexual act. Another alleged incident of child molestation involved the same boy at Dendy’s Creekview Court home sometime between December 2007 and December 2009. The boy was around 13 years old at the time, according to the warrant filed regarding the incident.
The boy was the focus of another child molestation charge involving an alleged sexual incident that occurred inside a closet at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs, where Dendy and his wife have been members since 1974, according to Billie Dendy’s testimony at her husband’s bond hearing in June.
The second boy named in the indictment was 4 years old when he was allegedly molested in late December 2011, with the other boy named in the indictment witnessing the incident, according to a warrant in the case.
Dendy has also been charged in South Carolina with criminal sexual conduct with an 11-year-old girl in the first degree over an alleged June 2015 incident, according to a police report out of Laurens, South Carolina.
Several other allegations against Dendy have come out in court, though have not sparked additional criminal charges. At Dendy’s June bond hearing, a 65-year-old man, also from South Carolina, took the stand and said he had been molested by Dendy when he was between 8 and 10 years old — sometime in 1959 or 1960.
“What you have here is an individual who has, over the last 56 years, has had seven people come, since late 2015, come forward and say during that period of time, the last 56 years, has had inappropriate contact with them physically, and has reported that to law enforcement,” Treadaway said.
Treadaway’s mention of seven accusers was not enough to sway Pam and George Matthews, longtime friends and former coworkers of the Dendys.
“It doesn’t have any bearing at all. I know Joe Dendy, and he’s a man of good character,” Pam Matthews said. “His word has always meant a lot.”
Her husband confirmed to Treadaway that his friendship with Dendy also includes interactions through the Republican Party of Cobb County, but he told the prosecutor that he was not aware that one of the individuals who had come forward to law enforcement was a teenage boy who alleged that Dendy initiated inappropriate contact at a political event. But the man said neither that nor the total number of accusers would sway his opinion, saying that “without any hesitation” he would be willing to risk his wealth in order for Dendy to be granted bond.
The individual who had come in contact with Dendy was seemingly later referenced as Steel questioned Billie Dendy, implying that the incident occurred in 2015.
“That child went to the mother, and the mother said, ‘Just tell them it was no allegation of touching private parts — it was touching, rubbing on a thigh and shoulder?” asked Steel.
Billie Dendy responded, “Actually, I think he was poked on his thigh.”
Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds told the MDJ on Friday that prosecutors would likely seek to use that accuser’s testimony in their upcoming case, but did not go into detail on the alleged victim.
“As we stated in open court, we anticipate filing a motion to introduce what’s called ‘other acts’ evidence. Those, on occasion, may be acts that are not singled out in an indictment, but acts we believe are relevant to the particular charges,” Reynolds said.
It was not made apparent in court whether the alleged incident had occurred at a Cobb County Republican Party function or during the time Joe Dendy led the local party 2011 to 2015. In November, an effort was made within the Cobb County Republican Committee to oust the former party leader, who sits on the committee by virtue of being past chairman, but the move was voted down. His wife also has party ties, as she serves as treasurer of the Georgia Federation of Republican Women, according to that organization’s website.
Also testifying on Dendy’s behalf was Roger Hines, a retired high school English teacher and state legislator. Hines had also testified at Dendy’s June bond hearing, saying he had known Dendy for 21 years, first meeting him at Burnt Hickory Baptist but later interacted with him at political meetings. Dendy went on to serve as Hines’ campaign manager in two races.
In a response to Treadaway, Hines said he was not aware that one of the incidents was alleged to have occurred at the church. Treadaway said Dendy had private access to the facility after hours due to his position in the church.
But Hines said neither that accusation nor any of the charges changed his opinion of the man.
“I know him too well, I’ve known him for too long,” he said.
Steel asked those in the courtroom gallery who would have testified in favor of Dendy being granted bond to stand. About 12 in attendance did so, including the Matthewses and Hines, with some of those who stood later referred to as some of Dendy’s family.
But the testimony and the nonverbal message from others did not factor into Childs’ decision, as her ruling effectively left in place her predecessor’s early June decision to not grant Dendy bond. Childs took over the case this month after Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs retired in December.
Childs will continue to preside over the case, which on Thursday was given a scheduled trial start of Monday, May 8, with that week and the next full week of court reserved to allow for enough time for the case to be heard.
A motions hearing was also set for 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 13.
=====================================
Former Cobb GOP chair denied bond again
MDJ 1/27/17 Jon Gargis
Joe Dendy looks back toward the court gallery after walking into Cobb Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs’ courtroom for a motions hearing Thursday afternoon. Attorney Brian Steel, left, argued Dendy’s bond should be reconsidered, but Childs left the bond denial in place.
MARIETTA — Despite an effort to have his bond denial reconsidered, the former Cobb County Republican Party chairman facing charges that he molested children will remain in jail until his scheduled court date this May.
Joe Dendy faces charges that he allegedly molested two young boys in separate incidents potentially spanning as far back as late
2004. Arrested at his west Cobb home in May, the 71-year-old was indicted in August on 13 charges: four counts of child molestation, three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, four counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and one count each of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation.
Last month, his attorney, Brian Steel of the Atlanta-based Steel Law Firm, filed a motion to have Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs reconsider the previous denial of a pretrial bond. Childs denied the motion after a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday that ended just about 7:15 p.m.
Though Dendy had been in a wheelchair at his September arraignment, he walked into the courtroom under his own power Thursday afternoon. Steel said his client had been “languishing and rotting in the Cobb County Jail” since his arrest on May 20 of last year and was suffering from glaucoma, high blood pressure and in need of a knee replacement.
“We just want him out so he can properly eat, properly sleep as best he can, and be ready, focused, because we are having a trial before this honorable court,” Steel said, requesting that a bond be set and suggested bond restrictions such as having Dendy placed under house arrest, wear an ankle monitor and have no contact with witnesses in the case or any minors.
When Childs asked how the court would find out whether a child or minor visits Dendy’s home, Steel responded that the judge could issue an order to be followed by the public, or barring such an action, set up a video surveillance system outside the home to show anyone walking in or out, claiming that such a system would be “very cheap to put in.”
“Is somebody going to smuggle a child in, like, a bag, a duffel bag? No child’s coming in. That’s what you do,” Steel said. “You could have neighbors, alert the neighbors, that they can’t have any children there.”
Steel argued that Dendy was not a flight risk, putting Dendy’s wife of 44 years, Billie, and three character witnesses on the stand who testified they believe he would abide by any and all restrictions placed by the court.
But Assistant District Attorney Susan Treadaway said the potential punishment of just one of the charges against Dendy would be enough to push him, or any defendant, toward an escape attempt.
“The severity of the charges in this case — two life sentences plus 250 years — and at the age of 71 or 72 years, regardless of whether or not this defendant is convicted on all of those crimes, one of those crimes or even a lesser included charge, it is a death sentence for this defendant,” Treadaway said. “And I can think of no greater reason why a person would not want to answer for those charges when they know it is a guarantee that if they are convicted of a single count of this indictment, that they will die in prison.”
Childs ultimately rejected Steel’s proposed bond conditions, adding she believed Dendy remained a flight risk for several reasons, including the possible financial resources at his disposal.
“The bond conditions would essentially have me make Mr. Dendy’s home an annex of the jail, because to have control over all of those conditions, that’s essentially what happens at the jail,” Childs said. “The conditions you have offered, I don’t think are anything that would be reasonable to do in this situation.”
Childs’ denial essentially left in place Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs’ early June decision to not grant Dendy bond. Barring any unforeseen changes, he could face a jury this spring — nearly one year to the day he was arrested.
Attorneys on both sides of the case estimated that Dendy’s case would take no less than seven days of court time, and agreed with Childs on a scheduled trial start of Monday, May 8, with that week and the next full week of court reserved to allow for enough time for the case to be heard.
A motions hearing ahead of the trial’s start was also set for 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 13.
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1/19/17
Dendy trial is now set for Feb. 6, 2017. No guarantee that this will be the date as it may be continued again, and again, and again.
1/5/17
Additional Documents in this case:
Hearing on former Cobb GOP Chairman Joe Dendy case pushed to Jan. 26
Jon Gargis MDJ 1/5/17
MARIETTA — A Cobb judge on Wednesday delayed the trial of former Cobb County Republican Party Chairman Joe Dendy, who faces charges that he allegedly molested two young boys in separate incidents potentially spanning as far back as late 2004.
His attorney, Brian Steel of the Atlanta-based Steel Law Firm, had filed several motions last month after officially signing onto the case Dec. 20, including one that sought to have Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs reconsider the previous denial of a pretrial bond.
In his motion, Steel argued that a bond could be fashioned to permit Dendy, alleged to be in ill health, from not being punished ahead of his trial but to meet all objectives of the pretrial bond that had been set.
The 72-year-old Dendy was in a wheelchair for his September arraignment in front of Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs, who previously presided over the case but retired at the end of last year. Grubbs in June denied Dendy bond, saying she believed he was at “significant risk of committing another felony” and could potentially intimidate witnesses in the case.
Though the case had been scheduled to start next week, Childs continued the case until Jan. 26. The motions hearing to be held at 1:30 p.m. that day could see attorneys argue the motion to reconsider bond, as well as several other motions filed on behalf of Dendy, such as requests to have prosecutors reveal any agreements with witnesses in return for their testimony in the case and to extend the time to file additional motions in the case, among other requests.
Neither Steel nor the prosecutor heading the case, Assistant District Attorney Susan Treadaway, were present for Wednesday’s motions hearing, though Dendy’s previous lawyer, Marietta attorney Reid Thompson, was there to inform Childs that he had been replaced by Steel.
Dendy also was not present at Wednesday’s hearing. He remains in the Cobb jail after being denied bond by Grubbs back in June.
Arrested at his west Cobb home in May, he was indicted in August on 13 charges: four counts of child molestation, three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, four counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and one count each of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation.
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1/4/17
Former Cobb GOP chairman’s trial may be pushed
Jon Gargis MDJ 1/4/17
The scheduled start date of the trial of former Cobb County Republican Party Chairman Joe Dendy, facing charges that he molested two young boys, is expected to be moved again just days after Dendy signing a new attorney onto his case.
The 72-year-old Dendy was arrested at his west Cobb home in May on charges that he molested two boys in separate incidents. He was indicted in August on 13 charges: four counts of child molestation, three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, four counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and one count each of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation.
At a motions hearing for Dendy’s case scheduled for Cobb Superior Court this afternoon, the Cobb District Attorney’s office is expecting an announcement regarding Dendy’s defense counsel, which will likely cause the case to be continued to a future date, said Kim Isaza, spokesperson for the DA’s office. The case had been scheduled for the trial week starting Monday, Jan. 9.
Court records show that attorney Brian Steel of the Atlanta-based Steel Law Firm officially signed onto Dendy’s case on Dec. 20.
Among the filings Steel has made on Dendy’s behalf since that time is a motion to reconsider the previous denial of a pretrial bond. In his motion, Steel argues that a bond could be fashioned to permit Dendy — who is in “ill health,” according to the filing — from not being punished ahead of his trial but to meet all objectives of the pretrial bond that had been set.
Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs had denied Dendy bond in June, saying she believed he was at “significant risk of committing another felony” and could potentially intimidate witnesses in the case.
She rejected arguments from Dendy’s then-attorney, William McKenney of Atlanta-based McKenney & Froelich, who said Dendy was well-respected in the community, a Vietnam veteran and was not a flight risk. McKenney sought to have Dendy released on a $10,000 bond, arguing that former Kennesaw Councilman Leonard Church, who also had been charged with child molestation, had been granted such a bond in 2014.
Church, who had been accused of molesting a 9-year-old boy at his Kennesaw home in 2014 and having hundreds of images of child pornography on computers he owned, pleaded guilty late last year to two counts of child molestation and four counts of sexual exploitation of children. He was given a 40-year sentence, 18 of which will be served in prison.
Other motions that have been filed by Steel seek to inspect and test physical evidence in the case, have prosecutors reveal any agreements with witnesses in return for their testimony in the case and to extend the time to file additional motions in the case, among other requests. It is unclear whether these motions will be ruled on at today’s hearing.
NEW ATTORNEY, NEW JUDGE
Steel is the third attorney to take on Dendy’s case. The first (McKenney) told Grubbs during Dendy’s September arraignment hearing that he had not been retained in the case.
The county’s circuit defender office assigned Marietta attorney Reid Thompson to Dendy’s case in October. On Tuesday, Thompson told the MDJ that he was off Dendy’s case and that a filing had been made to officially remove him from future proceedings.
“I will be poking my head in the courtroom just to make sure the judge got the substitution motion, but I don’t expect anything to happen,” Thompson said regarding today’s hearing.
In addition to a new attorney, a new judge will also be involved in the case after Grubbs retired last month. Taking over the case is Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs, who was elected to the bench in May.
The indictment against Dendy alleges that the earliest incident occurred sometime in late 2004 to late 2006 and saw Dendy take one of the boys into a Cobb department store in order to commit a sexual act.
Another alleged incident of child molestation involved the same boy at Dendy’s Creekview Court home sometime between December 2007 and December 2009. The boy was around 13 years old at the time, according to the warrant filed regarding the incident.
The boy was the focus of another child molestation charge involving an alleged sexual incident that occurred inside a closet at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs, where Dendy and his wife, Billie Dendy, have been members since 1974, according to Billie Dendy’s testimony at her husband’s bond hearing in June.
The second boy named in the indictment was 4 years old when he was allegedly molested in late December 2011, with the other boy named in the indictment witnessing the incident, according to a warrant in the case.
Dendy led the Cobb County Republican Party from 2011 to 2015. He remains in the Cobb jail after being denied bond by Grubbs in June.
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Pedophile Joseph Dendy wants to be out on Bond!
The motion was filed 12/28/16. His Case set for Trial 1/9/17.
===========================
12/30/16
DENDY NOW 'OFFICIALLY' IS INDIGENT
Although being represented by Marietta lawyer Thomas Reid Thompson since 10/4/16, Pedophile Joseph Dendy is now officially found to be Indigent and Cobb County will be paying for his representation in 2 Counts each of Child Molestation and Aggravated Sexual Battery.
The Certificate of Indigency was signed and filed 12/20/16.
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ADDRESS:
