Community Corner

Around the Region: Mayor Pleads Guilty in Child Sex Sting, Cotton Mill Destroyed by Fire and Five Robbed Outside Strip Club

A look at top Patch stories from around Georgia.

– Cartersville Patch

A Bartow County mayor has pleaded guilty to the electronic exploitation of a child after avoiding another charge he had faced—attempted child molestation.

Taylorsville Mayor Cary Wayne Rhodes, 57,  in an online sting by theFederal Bureau of Investigation and Northwest Georgia Safe Child Task Force. Authorities said Rhodes—a self-employed engineer and secretary and chief financial officer ofTaylorsville Baptist Church—was arrested in Chatsworth, where he traveled to meet and have sex with a child he had already met online.

Find out what's happening in Daculawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Two counts of attempted child molestation against Rhodes were dismissed.

 

Find out what's happening in Daculawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

– Douglasville Patch

The General Western Cotton Mill in east Douglasville at 6398 E. Broad St. (Bankhead Highway) was destroyed by fire early Saturday morning.

The structure, which dated back to 1897, had been abandoned and in derelict condition for many years, with the property surrounding the mill grown up with vegetation. Nothing was stored in the building.

The Douglas County Fire/EMS investigator stated that the fire looked “suspicious” because there was no electrical power in the mill and no external fire sources, such as lightning, in the area at the time the fire started. Because of the heat and continuing fire and the instability of remaining mill walls, it may be early next week before fire investigators will have access to the site.

 

– Midtown Patch

Five people were robbed after leaving a West Midtown strip club early Thursday morning.

According to the Atlanta Police, the four women and one man were met by two suspects, one whom was carrying a gun, after leaving Diamonds of Atlanta around 3:30 a.m.

The victims were robbed of cell phones, wallets, money and car keys. No was injured according to police investigators and no suspects have been named.


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