| 3/03/2017 -Battery charges filed in January against Gilmer Co. Athletic Director Shawn Leo Cole will be dismissed based on a 90 Day Pre-Trial Diversion, which calls for Cole to have no contact with the alleged victim and payment of court costs.
The disposition was reached in Gilmer Magistrate Alton Skinner's court and signed by Cole's attorney Judith McCullough and Gilmer Prosecutor Gerry Hough.
Cole had been charged with the alleged battery of a student basketball player, based on a complaint filed by his mother.
GILMER ATHLETIC DIRECTOR CHARGED WITH BATTERY OF STUDENT ATHLETE
1-25-2017 - Police have charged the athletic director of Gilmer County High School with battery, related to an incident last weekend at the Gilmer-Braxton ballgame in Glenville.
Director Shawn Leo Cole has been charged by the Glenville Chief of Police Brenton Huffman, after the juvenile boy's mother filed a complaint related to an incident in the school gymnasium.
The complaint, based upon reviewing video footage and photographs, indicates that Cole picked up the player off the floor by his neck and carried him off the gym floor, after he was shooting a basketball.
"Mr. Cole grabbed the ball... and grabbed (subject) with his left arm around the chest...and placed his right arm around area of his neck and picked him up off the floor and carried him off the gym floor and put him down," says the complaint.
The player was reportedly a middle school student.
The juvenile player's mother sent photos of her son with what the complaint says showed "red marks on both sides of his neck."
The juvenile's mother said she received a text message from Mr. Cole
following the incident saying "He was sorry for what happened between him and her son and never meant to hurt him or embarrass him."
The case will be heard by Gilmer Magistrate Court.
A Ripley, Jackson County man is charged after court records said he was ejected from a basketball game in Ripley and fought with officers who were trying to subdue him.
Joshua Varney, 34, of Ravenswood is charged with three counts of battery on a police officer, battery, obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct following an incident that occurred Jan. 20, according to a criminal complaint filed in Jackson County Magistrate Court.
The complaint said Varney would not quit harassing the referee of the game,and was told to leave, at which time he engaged in a confrontation with several officers, some who were seriously injured.
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