ATLANTA – A former Candler County bank teller has pleaded guilty to bank fraud after skimming nearly $90,000 from a convenience store’s deposits.
Kayla Evans, 32, of Metter is facing up to 30 years in prison and up to three years of supervised release after completing her sentence as well as substantial fines and restitution.
Evans worked as a teller for the Synovus Bank in Metter, where a local convenience store kept its account. An auditor for the store began noticing substantial discrepancies between the amount of cash presented to the bank for deposit and the amount credited to the store.
An investigation found that from July 2019 through February 2021, Evans skimmed large amounts of cash for her personal use, crediting a smaller deposit to the store. As part of her plea, she agreed to pay restitution for the full loss caused by her criminal conduct and to never again seek employment in a financial institution.
“Bank customers count on their financial institution to operate with honesty and integrity, and Kayla Evans violated that trust,” said Jill Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. “This plea offers assurance that Evans will be held accountable for her theft.”
Evans will be sentenced following a pre-sentence investigation by U.S. Probation Services.
The investigation was led by the Federal Reserve Board’s Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, working with the Candler County Sheriff’s Office, the district attorney’s office for the Middle Judicial Circuit, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
ATLANTA – Legislation banning teachers and other non-parental adults from talking about gender identity with minors without the consent of a parent or guardian drew a parade of opponents Wednesday, including religious conservatives.
Senate Bill 88, which was introduced during this year’s General Assembly session, would further isolate already vulnerable transgender youths, who commit suicide at higher rates than other young people, Jeff Graham, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group Georgia Equality, testified during a hearing on the bill before the Senate Education & Youth Committee.
“This will only add to the stigma they face and make life more challenging and difficult,” Graham said.
Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, the legislation’s chief sponsor, dismissed comparisons of the measure with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill Florida lawmakers passed last year.
“All we’re saying is if you’re going to talk about gender [identity] with a child under 16 years old, you need to talk to the parent or guardian,” Summers said. “It is not [a teacher’s] job to discuss gender with a child. That’s a job for a parent or guardian.”
Kate Hudson of Atlanta, founder of the non-profit organization Education Veritas, said a nationwide movement in the schools is actively encouraging students to consider changing the gender identities they were born with.
“It is an intentional effort to dismantle our society and brainwash our youth,” Hudson said. “Our children have a God-given right to an education free of this indoctrination.”
But the bill’s opponents said students cannot be indoctrinated to be something they are not and barring them from talking about these issues with teachers can only be harmful.
“If Georgia teachers aren’t able to interact with my child … my child will go to school isolated and afraid,” said Jordan Black, the Gwinnett County mother of a transgender student.
Some opponents also argued the legislature should be addressing more important education-related issues including overhauling the decades-old K-12 school funding formula and prioritizing the needs of schools in rural Georgia.
“There are other problems in our schools,” said Mason Goodwin of the grassroots organization Georgia Youth Justice Coalition. “We just got out of the pandemic. Why are we focusing on this?”
Religious conservatives who testified Wednesday expressed concern that the bill would apply to private schools as well as public schools.
Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth , a member of the committee, said the state shouldn’t be dictating to private schools.
“I don’t know that we have an interest in doing what this bill does,” he said.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a related bill this year limiting gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, voting along party lines. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction last week temporarily blocking enforcement of Senate Bill 140, an order the state is appealing.
Highway workers repair a stretch of Interstate 16 this month. Photo courtesy of Georgia Department of Transportation
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation has reopened a seven-mile stretch of westbound Interstate 16 north of Soperton after repairing a bridge over Pendleton Creek.
The highway was closed earlier this month after a routine inspection found some of the supports holding up the bridge had settled.
Motorists were rerouted around the bridge while repairs were completed. The 11-mile detour included a bridge overpass that had to be rebuilt in 2021 after a truck knocked off its supports.
The interstate was reopened to traffic last Friday evening.
ATLANTA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is asking a federal judge to reconsider a preliminary injunction issued late last week blocking enforcement of legislation limiting medical care for transgender minors.
A motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia cites a ruling the Atlanta-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued Monday lifting a preliminary injunction a federal court had imposed barring enforcement of similar legislation in Alabama.
“In its opinion, the Eleventh Circuit expressly addressed – and rejected – each of the core legal theories Plaintiffs here advanced in support of their motion for preliminary injunction,” Carr’s motion stated.
U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Geraghty ruled late Sunday that four Georgia families and a national organization of parents with transgender children likely would succeed on the merits of their challenge to a provision in Senate Bill 140 that bans hormone replacement therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria in adolescents.
Geraghty declared that Georgia’s Senate Bill 140 violates transgender minors’ equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. If it stands, the preliminary injunction would prohibit the law from being enforced while the lawsuit moves forward.
The General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed SB140 last March, voting along party lines, Gov. Brian Kemp signed it two days later, and the measure took effect July 1.
Kemp and other supporters argued the law would protect minors from making life-altering decisions at such a young age.
“SB140 was … a good-faith effort to protect children from the irreversible, lifelong effects of experimental treatments with unproven benefits but well-documented risks to health and fertility,” Carr’s motion stated.
During the debate on the bill, legislative Democrats said delaying hormone replacement therapy or surgery for transgender youths until after age 18 could pose mental health risks. They cited higher-than-average suicide rates among transgender teens.
ATLANTA – A veteran administrator with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency’s new commissioner.
The state Board of Natural Resources voted Tuesday to promote Walter Rabon to the top post. Rabon has been serving as interim commissioner since the beginning of July, when Mark Williams left the DNR to become executive director of the Jekyll Island Authority.
Rabon began his career with the DNR in 1993 as a conservation ranger and worked his way up through the agency’s Law Enforcement Division. He served there as a major before being promoted to deputy commissioner.
“Throughout his many years of service … Walter Rabon has dedicated himself to the mission of protecting hardworking Georgians and their ability to enjoy our outdoor spaces,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday. “I look forward to DNR’s continued success ensuring our state is a good steward of its natural resources as he continues to lead the department.”
Rabon earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Brenau University and a master’s degree from Columbus State University.
