Around the Region: Lawyer Busted in Sex Case, Man Killed in Motorcycle Race and Trooper Mistake Blamed for Fatal Crash

– Marietta Patch

A Sandy Springs lawyer was arrested Thursday and charged with smuggling contraband into the  to trade for sex with inmates.

Michael Stuart Winner, 45, now is an inmate himself, held in the Cobb jail on $10,000 bond while facing eight felony charges: four counts of conspiracy to commit a crime; three counts of trading with inmates without the warden’s consent; and one count of using a communication facility to commit a drug felony.

Winner reportedly smuggled drugs and cigarettes into the jail to trade for sexual favors from at least two female inmates in private attorney-client rooms. Inmates would expose their breasts to Winner, who watched from the other side of a glass partition, Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren told The Marietta Daily Journal. In exchange, Winner brought them prescription drugs and did legal work.

– Douglasville Patch

One Lithia Springs man is dead and another is jailed on a vehicular homicide charge after they raced their motorcycles through Austell on Friday night.

Russell Kennedy, 38, was riding a black 2006 Yamaha YZFR1, and Jason Roddy, 34, was on a black 2003 Kawasaki ZX600-E as they raced south on Riverside Parkway. Kennedy lost control on a curve near Hartman Road about 9:20 p.m., hit the concrete curb and wound up slamming into several trees. He died at the scene.

Roddy is being held without bond at the  on charges of first-degree vehicular homicide, racing and reckless driving. The homicide charge is a felony.

– East Cobb Patch

A Florida Highway Patrol officer who reopened a smoke- and fog-covered portion of Interstate 75 in January did not have proper training and was not aware of procedures governing such an incident, report issued Thursday. 

A total of 11 people, , were killed in a series of crashes on the interstate caused by the smoke and fog.

The highway had been closed because of a wildfire at a nearby state park, with the smoke mixing with fog to reduce visibility. 

More than a dozen cars, several semitrailer trucks and other vehicles crashed in various pileups, some of them catching fire.