Jennifer_04
08-02-2004, 09:27 AM
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Grandparents say Crawford County should help pay for child conceived in jail
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By Sharon E. Crawford
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Telegraph Staff Writer
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KNOXVILLE - Ronnie and Patricia Finney raised their three children to be law-abiding citizens.
They also took in their niece and tried to bring her up in a proper home.
But two years ago, their middle child was charged with robbing a convenience store. Four months later, they found out she was pregnant.
Records from the Bibb County Health Department and obtained from the Finneys show their granddaughter, Arianna, was conceived while Arianna's parents, LaTonya Finney and Adrian Howard, were inmates in the Crawford County Jail. Although no DNA test has been done, Howard says he is the child's father.
Records show LaTonya Finney was seven weeks pregnant when she was approved for pregnancy-related care Jan. 3, 2003.
The Finneys believe Sheriff Kerry Dunaway shares some of the blame - and should help pay for her care.
"I just didn't know what to think," Patricia Finney, 46, said. "You don't think they should be letting women get pregnant in the county jail."
According to the sheriff, LaTonya Finney was housed in his jail from Sept. 17, 2002, until Jan. 24, 2003. Medical records show she got pregnant in mid-November.
The couple says Dunaway granted them a conjugal visit in exchange for information. The sheriff says Howard must have breached security in his jail and that violation, not his permission, allowed the couple to have sex.
He also says Arianna is not the county's responsibility.
Although there is no state law prohibiting sheriffs from allowing conjugal visits, officials with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association do not recommend it. The law also doesn't specify who is responsible for children conceived in a county jail.
The Finneys are raising Arianna while her parents serve prison sentences. With Ronnie Finney, 52, unable to care for the infant because of a medical disability, Patricia Finney had to quit her job at The Medical Center of Central Georgia to be Arianna's primary caregiver.
A difference of opinion
LaTonya Finney, 19, and Adrian Howard, 28, say they lived on the streets, hung out with the wrong crowd and took drugs before going to prison.
But they deny having anything to do with the Sept. 3, 2002, armed robbery at Zenith Grocery Store in Roberta.
Macon Judicial Circuit assistant district attorney Wayne Tillis said the guns used in the robbery were recovered in the couple's car. He said the store clerk picked Finney out of a photo lineup and planned to testify she was the one who fired a shot that night.
Both pleaded guilty but now say they were railroaded by a system that just wanted to close the case.
Dunaway and Tillis say there was plenty of evidence linking the young couple to the crime.
"We had enough evidence to take them to trial and win," Dunaway said.
He denies making an offer to either Finney or Howard and says he had little contact with either defendant after their arrests.
"I don't have the authority to offer anyone a lighter sentence," Dunaway said. "And I wouldn't do that."
According to state law, a person convicted of armed robbery must serve at least 10 years in prison with no chance of parole. Finney was sentenced to 10 years to serve and Howard, who was a convicted felon, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Finney said she pleaded guilty out of fear. She said Dunaway had promised both her and Howard three years in prison if they pleaded guilty.
"They told me I was going to get life if I went to trial," Finney said. "I did what I thought I had to do. ... I had this baby coming and I wanted to spend time with her."
Bobby Bearden, Finney's court-appointed attorney, declined to comment on his handling of the case.
Howard said he was under the impression that Dunaway could work a deal in his favor. All the sheriff wanted, Howard said, was to know about other criminals in Crawford and Bibb counties.
"He turned his back on me and sent me to prison," Howard said. "I tried to go into the courtroom and tell them I didn't want to take a plea, but no one would listen to me."
Nighttime rendezvous
At night, there are usually two people in the Crawford County Jail taking care of inmates. One person watches the inmates directly, and the other answers the phone and watches 10 cameras positioned throughout the jail, Dunaway said.
Sometimes both get busy and no one is left watching the inmates, the sheriff said.
"I hate to say it, but sometimes that happens," Dunaway said. "Sometimes the jailer has to transport an inmate and he leaves the area."
Finney and Howard said Dunaway allowed them to be together for about 45 minutes one night in early November 2002.
Dunaway first told The Telegraph the child was not conceived in the jail. In a statement, Dunaway later said if the child was conceived in the jail, it was through a breach of security or by an employee allowing the two to meet.
"The Crawford County Jail has never had a policy of conjugal visits and furthermore, contact between male and female inmates is prohibited," Dunaway said in the statement. "If these two inmates had any form of contact while in jail it was without my knowledge or consent."
After being questioned about medical documents proving the child was conceived in the jail, Dunaway produced an internal memo to his jail supervisor requesting an investigation into how the child was conceived in the jail. He said Finney did not cooperate with the investigation.
"If Ms. Finney would be truthful with my staff, I would be happy to get to the bottom of this," Dunaway said.
Dunaway said that on the night Finney and Howard conceived their child, both employees on duty must have been working on some other emergency. He said that is the only explanation he could come up with to explain the child's conception.
Finney said she was asleep when about 2 a.m. she heard someone open her cell door and Howard came in. She remembers being the only female inmate in the jail during that time.
"I jumped out of bed when I heard the cell door open because it scared me," Finney said. "I didn't realize they were letting him in there with me."
Finney said the couple talked briefly and then they had sex. It was the first time they had been alone together since their arrests.
Dunaway, she said, waited outside the cell while the couple spent about 45 minutes together.
"Maybe I made a mistake by having sex with him," Finney said. "I was just happy to see him."
The sheriff said his investigation concluded Howard used a hair comb to open his cell door and the locked door that separates male inmates from the females. He said the couple must have had sexual intercourse through an opening for a food tray in the cell door. (Yeah uh huh.....:rolleyes: )
"We've put extra security measures in place to make sure something like that don't happen again," Dunaway said. The sheriff said those security measures include a bar in front of the females' cells and better locks on the men's cells.
Howard said there was no way he could have escaped through two locked cell doors to get to Finney. He said the sheriff offered him a chance to spend time with Finney in exchange for information.
"The sheriff let me through the door himself," Howard said. "It was his decision ... now he wants to change his story about what really happened."
Finney said that when jail officials realized she was pregnant, the sheriff asked her to have an abortion. When she refused, she was punished, Finney said.
"There were times they took everything out of my cell because I wouldn't have an abortion," she said. "I had to sleep on that cold floor and I was pregnant."
Dunaway denies those allegations and said he would never ask any inmate to have an abortion.
"She told my investigators she was pregnant when she came to jail," Dunaway said. "The Crawford County Jail has never had a policy of conjugal visits and furthermore, contact between male and female inmates is prohibited."
Finney said that out of fear, she didn't tell jail officials how she became pregnant.
"I told them my baby was a miracle," Finney said. "That was my excuse."
Greg Dent, chairman of the Crawford County Commission, said there is no way Dunaway would have allowed the two inmates to have sex. Dent said he's heard rumors about the case, but doesn't know all the details.
"I think the sheriff has conducted an investigation, and the commissioners would need to hear from him," Dent said. He declined to comment further.
Dunaway said he was not aware of allegations that he had allowed the couple to have sex in his jail until Howard filed a lawsuit against the sheriff demanding to be released from prison to take care of Arianna.
The case is still pending in Crawford County Superior Court.
David Mincey Jr., the county's attorney, is representing Dunaway in the case. He said the issue is a matter of personal responsibility and neither the county nor Dunaway should be held responsible for taking care of the child.
"I just think it's a very, very bizarre social conscience these people have that their daughter conceives a child and they think the sheriff is responsible," Mincey said. "I don't want to deny this child food, shelter or medical care. ... I just don't believe it should be paid by Crawford County."
Life at home
In the last year, the Finneys have gotten used to the late-night feedings and early morning diaper changes.
They've accepted having to make room for a baby who cannot take care of herself.
Their granddaughter, a niece and their two other children - including one who is mentally disabled - are living with them.
The couple is struggling to live off $1,471 in disability and welfare checks each month. They're on the verge of losing the modest, south Macon home they bought in 2000 after years of living in apartments.
Because no one in the house is working, the Finneys are considering filing bankruptcy. They've already lost one vehicle and said they are making do with an older car that stays broken most of the time.
The financial squeeze also keeps them from making the 177-mile round trip to see their daughter in prison and accepting her collect phone calls. Every once in a while, they scrape up money to get family members to drive them over.
The couple is determined not to let Arianna be raised in a foster home and plan to continue raising their granddaughter until her mother is released from prison in 2012.
"We love our daughter and our grandbaby," Ronnie Finney said. "I wanted that baby to grow up with some family members ... to know that she was loved."
To contact Sharon E. Crawford, call 744-4384 or e-mail scrawford@macontel.com (scrawford@macontel.com).
Grandparents say Crawford County should help pay for child conceived in jail
http://www.macon.com/images/common/spacer.gif
By Sharon E. Crawford
http://www.macon.com/images/common/spacer.gif
Telegraph Staff Writer
http://www.macon.com/images/common/spacer.gif
KNOXVILLE - Ronnie and Patricia Finney raised their three children to be law-abiding citizens.
They also took in their niece and tried to bring her up in a proper home.
But two years ago, their middle child was charged with robbing a convenience store. Four months later, they found out she was pregnant.
Records from the Bibb County Health Department and obtained from the Finneys show their granddaughter, Arianna, was conceived while Arianna's parents, LaTonya Finney and Adrian Howard, were inmates in the Crawford County Jail. Although no DNA test has been done, Howard says he is the child's father.
Records show LaTonya Finney was seven weeks pregnant when she was approved for pregnancy-related care Jan. 3, 2003.
The Finneys believe Sheriff Kerry Dunaway shares some of the blame - and should help pay for her care.
"I just didn't know what to think," Patricia Finney, 46, said. "You don't think they should be letting women get pregnant in the county jail."
According to the sheriff, LaTonya Finney was housed in his jail from Sept. 17, 2002, until Jan. 24, 2003. Medical records show she got pregnant in mid-November.
The couple says Dunaway granted them a conjugal visit in exchange for information. The sheriff says Howard must have breached security in his jail and that violation, not his permission, allowed the couple to have sex.
He also says Arianna is not the county's responsibility.
Although there is no state law prohibiting sheriffs from allowing conjugal visits, officials with the Georgia Sheriffs' Association do not recommend it. The law also doesn't specify who is responsible for children conceived in a county jail.
The Finneys are raising Arianna while her parents serve prison sentences. With Ronnie Finney, 52, unable to care for the infant because of a medical disability, Patricia Finney had to quit her job at The Medical Center of Central Georgia to be Arianna's primary caregiver.
A difference of opinion
LaTonya Finney, 19, and Adrian Howard, 28, say they lived on the streets, hung out with the wrong crowd and took drugs before going to prison.
But they deny having anything to do with the Sept. 3, 2002, armed robbery at Zenith Grocery Store in Roberta.
Macon Judicial Circuit assistant district attorney Wayne Tillis said the guns used in the robbery were recovered in the couple's car. He said the store clerk picked Finney out of a photo lineup and planned to testify she was the one who fired a shot that night.
Both pleaded guilty but now say they were railroaded by a system that just wanted to close the case.
Dunaway and Tillis say there was plenty of evidence linking the young couple to the crime.
"We had enough evidence to take them to trial and win," Dunaway said.
He denies making an offer to either Finney or Howard and says he had little contact with either defendant after their arrests.
"I don't have the authority to offer anyone a lighter sentence," Dunaway said. "And I wouldn't do that."
According to state law, a person convicted of armed robbery must serve at least 10 years in prison with no chance of parole. Finney was sentenced to 10 years to serve and Howard, who was a convicted felon, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Finney said she pleaded guilty out of fear. She said Dunaway had promised both her and Howard three years in prison if they pleaded guilty.
"They told me I was going to get life if I went to trial," Finney said. "I did what I thought I had to do. ... I had this baby coming and I wanted to spend time with her."
Bobby Bearden, Finney's court-appointed attorney, declined to comment on his handling of the case.
Howard said he was under the impression that Dunaway could work a deal in his favor. All the sheriff wanted, Howard said, was to know about other criminals in Crawford and Bibb counties.
"He turned his back on me and sent me to prison," Howard said. "I tried to go into the courtroom and tell them I didn't want to take a plea, but no one would listen to me."
Nighttime rendezvous
At night, there are usually two people in the Crawford County Jail taking care of inmates. One person watches the inmates directly, and the other answers the phone and watches 10 cameras positioned throughout the jail, Dunaway said.
Sometimes both get busy and no one is left watching the inmates, the sheriff said.
"I hate to say it, but sometimes that happens," Dunaway said. "Sometimes the jailer has to transport an inmate and he leaves the area."
Finney and Howard said Dunaway allowed them to be together for about 45 minutes one night in early November 2002.
Dunaway first told The Telegraph the child was not conceived in the jail. In a statement, Dunaway later said if the child was conceived in the jail, it was through a breach of security or by an employee allowing the two to meet.
"The Crawford County Jail has never had a policy of conjugal visits and furthermore, contact between male and female inmates is prohibited," Dunaway said in the statement. "If these two inmates had any form of contact while in jail it was without my knowledge or consent."
After being questioned about medical documents proving the child was conceived in the jail, Dunaway produced an internal memo to his jail supervisor requesting an investigation into how the child was conceived in the jail. He said Finney did not cooperate with the investigation.
"If Ms. Finney would be truthful with my staff, I would be happy to get to the bottom of this," Dunaway said.
Dunaway said that on the night Finney and Howard conceived their child, both employees on duty must have been working on some other emergency. He said that is the only explanation he could come up with to explain the child's conception.
Finney said she was asleep when about 2 a.m. she heard someone open her cell door and Howard came in. She remembers being the only female inmate in the jail during that time.
"I jumped out of bed when I heard the cell door open because it scared me," Finney said. "I didn't realize they were letting him in there with me."
Finney said the couple talked briefly and then they had sex. It was the first time they had been alone together since their arrests.
Dunaway, she said, waited outside the cell while the couple spent about 45 minutes together.
"Maybe I made a mistake by having sex with him," Finney said. "I was just happy to see him."
The sheriff said his investigation concluded Howard used a hair comb to open his cell door and the locked door that separates male inmates from the females. He said the couple must have had sexual intercourse through an opening for a food tray in the cell door. (Yeah uh huh.....:rolleyes: )
"We've put extra security measures in place to make sure something like that don't happen again," Dunaway said. The sheriff said those security measures include a bar in front of the females' cells and better locks on the men's cells.
Howard said there was no way he could have escaped through two locked cell doors to get to Finney. He said the sheriff offered him a chance to spend time with Finney in exchange for information.
"The sheriff let me through the door himself," Howard said. "It was his decision ... now he wants to change his story about what really happened."
Finney said that when jail officials realized she was pregnant, the sheriff asked her to have an abortion. When she refused, she was punished, Finney said.
"There were times they took everything out of my cell because I wouldn't have an abortion," she said. "I had to sleep on that cold floor and I was pregnant."
Dunaway denies those allegations and said he would never ask any inmate to have an abortion.
"She told my investigators she was pregnant when she came to jail," Dunaway said. "The Crawford County Jail has never had a policy of conjugal visits and furthermore, contact between male and female inmates is prohibited."
Finney said that out of fear, she didn't tell jail officials how she became pregnant.
"I told them my baby was a miracle," Finney said. "That was my excuse."
Greg Dent, chairman of the Crawford County Commission, said there is no way Dunaway would have allowed the two inmates to have sex. Dent said he's heard rumors about the case, but doesn't know all the details.
"I think the sheriff has conducted an investigation, and the commissioners would need to hear from him," Dent said. He declined to comment further.
Dunaway said he was not aware of allegations that he had allowed the couple to have sex in his jail until Howard filed a lawsuit against the sheriff demanding to be released from prison to take care of Arianna.
The case is still pending in Crawford County Superior Court.
David Mincey Jr., the county's attorney, is representing Dunaway in the case. He said the issue is a matter of personal responsibility and neither the county nor Dunaway should be held responsible for taking care of the child.
"I just think it's a very, very bizarre social conscience these people have that their daughter conceives a child and they think the sheriff is responsible," Mincey said. "I don't want to deny this child food, shelter or medical care. ... I just don't believe it should be paid by Crawford County."
Life at home
In the last year, the Finneys have gotten used to the late-night feedings and early morning diaper changes.
They've accepted having to make room for a baby who cannot take care of herself.
Their granddaughter, a niece and their two other children - including one who is mentally disabled - are living with them.
The couple is struggling to live off $1,471 in disability and welfare checks each month. They're on the verge of losing the modest, south Macon home they bought in 2000 after years of living in apartments.
Because no one in the house is working, the Finneys are considering filing bankruptcy. They've already lost one vehicle and said they are making do with an older car that stays broken most of the time.
The financial squeeze also keeps them from making the 177-mile round trip to see their daughter in prison and accepting her collect phone calls. Every once in a while, they scrape up money to get family members to drive them over.
The couple is determined not to let Arianna be raised in a foster home and plan to continue raising their granddaughter until her mother is released from prison in 2012.
"We love our daughter and our grandbaby," Ronnie Finney said. "I wanted that baby to grow up with some family members ... to know that she was loved."
To contact Sharon E. Crawford, call 744-4384 or e-mail scrawford@macontel.com (scrawford@macontel.com).