Author: Staff Reports

Citizen Christian Academy senior London O’Steen has had a big week. Monday, she received one of four statewide scholarships from Constitutional Officers Association of Georgia. Then Wednesday, Positive Athletes named her the Most Positive girls’ basketball player in the state. For the tenth consecutive year, the Positive Athlete organization has named its state award winners for the State of Georgia, where student-athletes representing 28 different boys’ and girls’ high school sports, two coaches, and Lakeside High School in Evans, GA have been selected as the “Most Positive” in their categories. This year, over 6,800 nominations from coaches, principals, athletic directors,…

The Douglas-Coffee County Boys and Girls Club will close its doors – hopefully just temporarily – in July. The 21st Century Learning Grant offered by the Georgia Department of Education funds the Boys and Girls Club. The grant is awarded every five years; Coffee County received the grant for the first time in 2014 and again in 2019. Such was not the case in 2024. The Coffee County School System oversees the grant application. At the April 25, 2024 board of education meeting, Dr. Morris Leis, school superintendent, announced that the grant had been denied. “The 2024 21st Century Community…

This is one wild ride – literally and figuratively. A crime spree that began in the area of the Douglas Golf and Country Club early on Sunday morning, May 5, 2024, made it all the way to Valdosta then back to Douglas again, where it ended in a spectacular PIT maneuver near the intersection of US 441 South and Bowens Mill Road. Early Sunday morning, at least four individuals – two adults and two juveniles – allegedly entered several vehicles throughout the golf club neighborhood. Their big score came on Center Road where they allegedly stole a silver 2006 Ford…

A Douglas man was jailed and released after he was arrested on illegal drug possession and giving false name to police charges. According to an incident report from the sheriff’s office, a detective was working in the Oak Park community when he observed a gray Ford Focus driving too fast down Lacey Avenue. The car did not stop at the stop sign at Waterford Street and Chadwick Street. As a result, the detective stopped the Focus at the intersection of Waterford and Highway 221. During the stop, the driver said his name was Wilmar Maldonado-Mendez. He gave the detective consent…

A search warrant operation between detectives from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office and special agents from the FBI Violent Gang Task Force proved quite successful last week. According to an incident report from the sheriff’s office, officers and agents served a search warrant at 620 East Peachtree Street Apartment A5. During the search of the apartment, the officers found 1,006 grams of suspected methamphetamine in the kitchen, 14 grams of suspected cocaine, a large digital scale, a plastic container with about 20 unknown white tablets inside, and a loaded revolver. When the officers searched the bedroom, they found drug paraphernalia,…

A Douglas resident woke up to a very different kind of excitement Friday morning. Around 7 a.m., Cain Carter walked out of his home on Weeks Road to go to work and saw Jeremy Aaron Hersey, 30, going through his vehicle. When he saw him, Carter stated that he tried to talk to Hersey and keep him at the scene while neighbors called law enforcement. During the conversation, though, Hersey had other plans. “He became irate with me and rushed towards me. I punched him in the mouth and he started running down the road,” said Carter. He caught Hersey,…

On April 18, 2024, two individuals were detained leaving the old Ambrose Elementary School with backpacks full of allegedly stolen wire. According to a report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, on April 18, a school resource officer in Ambrose was clearing the old elementary school before leaving for the day. As he was making his rounds, he noticed a male, identified as Francis Jandrain, 45, of Ambrose, walking out of the school with a backpack. The SRO spoke with Jandrain and checked his backpack. The backpack was filled with wire that had come from the old school. Another Ambrose…

The CCA Patriots are off to the second round of the state playoffs after defeating the Augusta Prep Cavaliers Monday in Douglas 3-2 (game one) and 17-0 (game two). Jonathan Rutland threw a two-hit, 89-pitch complete game to keep the Cavaliers on their heels. He walked four and struck out 10. Offensively, Rutland helped his own cause quite a bit. The Patriots scored all three of their runs in the first inning — and Rutland was responsible for each one. He drove in Gray McLean and Blake Bryant when he singled with one out in the inning. Tyson Crosby came…

On April 16, 2024, an officer from the Douglas Police Department arrested Thomas Landon, 57, for allegedly driving down the road and hitting a woman who was in the vehicle with him. E911 received a call just after 4 p.m. of a man hitting a woman in a vehicle. The man, identified as Landon, left the Jet store at Bowens Mill Road and Baker Highway. An incident report from the Douglas Police Department states that the vehicle pulled out in traffic and nearly hit another car. As Landon was driving, he allegedly was hitting a passenger. The DPD officer who…

On April 21, 2024, Rigford Ortiz-Davila, 29, of Douglas, was arrested after heallegedly tried to stab his girlfriend in a room at the Comfortel Inn. According to an incident report from the Douglas Police Department,officers responded to a domestic dispute call at the Comfortel Inn. Anofficer spoke with two witnesses who said they had pulled Ortiz-Davila off hisgirlfriend as he attempted to stab her on the bed. The report says thatthey got the knife away from Ortiz-Davila and separated the couple. The victim stated that Ortiz-Davila was mad because of a text message that hehad seen on her phone from…