Published: February 24, 2006 08:44 pm
Victim in Talmadge case to be charged By Ed Brock
The pizza delivery driver who said Herman Eugene Talmadge III chased him down and pistol whipped him is expected to face charges of giving false information to police.
Meanwhile, 39-year-old Talmadge, grandson of a former Georgia governor and senator and great-grandson of a four-time Georgia governor, was expected to be released on $168,000 bond with several restrictions.
Maury Seitel, 20, had told police that another Papa John’s Pizza driver and he ended up on Talmadge’s property on Feb. 5 because they were trying to find a home where they had attempted to deliver a pizza earlier in the evening. On Friday Clayton County Police Maj. Tim Robinson said investigators had learned that some information in Seitel’s statement was false.
Seitel and the other driver, whose name was not available on Friday, could be charged as early as Monday with giving false information to police and obstruction, Robinson said. Robinson did not have the specifics of what information was false, but lawyers for Talmadge say it’s their understanding that there was no order for pizza that night at the address Seitel and the other driver told police.
In fact, attorney Keith Martin said Seitel and the other man had admitted to police that they were on the property “treasure hunting.”
“They intimated that if they saw something they liked they were inclined to stop and pick it up,” Martin said.
Seitel did not return phone calls seeking comment. Previously he said he wasn’t supposed to talk about the case.
Around 10:25 p.m. on the day of the incident Seitel and the other driver said they were trying to find an address on Talmadge Court where the other driver had previously tried to make a delivery, according to a Clayton County police report.
They wound up on a dirt road, Talmadge Road, and when they saw “No trespassing” signs they began looking for a place to turn around, Seitel and the other driver told police. When they turned around and began to leave they noticed a car following them with its bright lights on.
The car followed them to the parking lot in front of the Publix shopping center on U.S. Highway 19/41 where the driver then got out and confronted them with a gun in hand. He began shouting at them about trespassing on his property, then grabbed Seitel and started hitting him with the gun.
At one point the gun went off but Seitel said he didn’t know if the man was trying to shoot him or if the gun discharged accidentally.
Seitel said the man said something about him stealing copper from the property, then grabbed a piece of paper from Seitel’s truck, wrote down his name and vehicle identification number, and then left.
Seitel and the other Papa John’s employee later identified Talmadge from a photo lineup as the man who beat him, Clayton County Assistant Chief Jeff Turner said previously, and found paperwork on the scene connected to Talmadge.
Martin and Talmadge’s other attorney, Steve Frey, said the story never made much sense.
On the night of the incident, Frey said, Talmadge heard a commotion near the small cabin where he stays on the family’s 2,600 acre estate near Lovejoy. He went outside and saw the truck passing the cabin going from the interior of the property and heading back toward the main house and the exit nearly a mile away.
The entrance to the Talmadge farm is marked by a gate and on Friday there were bright yellow “No Trespassing” signs posted near the gate and on several trees next to the road going into the property. That road splits at one point, with a turn to the right leading to an old ham processing plant and the turn to the left going toward the main house.
The narrow but paved road, which is not illuminated according to Frey, leads to the main house that is about six-tenths of a mile from U.S. Highway 19/41. From there the road dwindles to a rutted dirt road for some distance before getting to Talmadge’s cabin.
Talmadge’s father, Herman Eugene Talmadge, Jr., lives in the main house.
Frey said the family has had to contend constantly with trespassers and thieves who have stripped the copper wiring from the old ham factory. They have confronted armed poachers on their land hunting deer.
Also, Frey said Talmadge III has been undergoing treatment for a mental health condition for years. Prior to the incident Talmadge had been having trouble with the medication prescribed to him for that condition.
Talmadge had been hospitalized for treatment of that condition, which Frey said was depression, for nearly two weeks before turning himself in to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.
Martin said they cannot change the fact that Talmadge did follow Seitel off the property where the confrontation took place.
“We can only seek an explanation for what happened down here (on the Talmadge property) that may have triggered it,” Martin said.
Among the conditions of Talmadge’s bond are a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, monitored probation and a restriction against possessing firearms. A licensed medical professional must administer Talmadge’s medicine and keep a written record of its administration.
Also, Talmadge is not to come within 2,000 feet of the Publix shopping center where the beating occurred.
Both Talmadge III and Talmadge, Jr. have been arrested before, Talmadge Jr. most recently in an incident in which he allegedly fired a gun and threatened a man who had stopped at the farm to ask directions.
According to Henry County jail records, Talmadge III was charged with running a stop sign and driving on a suspended license in 1988, pointing a gun at another in 1999 and disorderly conduct in 2005.
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