Ramblings' Journal

TV espose says Atlanta shooter Nichols has cell phone in jail cell

According to a broadcast report last night, Fulton County Courthouse shooter Brian Nichols has a cellphone in his jail cell.

WSB-TV's investigative report, broadcast last night, interviewed employees of the Fulton County Jail, and confirmed rumors regarding Nichols' possession of a cellphone. According to the report, Nichols' telephone use is unmonitored. In addition, WSB reports that Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman is aware of Nichols' phone, and has not taken steps to remove it, nor to even investigate guards who are at the center of the controversy.

Jailhouse rules require that detainees be escorted to a wall telephone in order to make calls. That phone is monitored and recorded. A cellular phone, obviously, would not be.

The WSB report points out that recently in Tennessee, a man being transported to a courthouse from a local jail had been able to use a cell phone to call his wife and to have her stationed outside the courthouse with a gun. One deputy was killed in that instance, and the couple escaped. (They were ultimately captured in Columbus, OH several days later)

The report has caused a lot of consternation among officials, who are reserving comment for now.

After all the other problems that FulCo Sheriff Myron Freeman has had to deal with, and despite lumping many of those problems on former Sheriff Jackie Barrett, many people are beginning to agree with the call from some quarters for a voter-driven recall of Freeman.