Police Blotter
More subpoenas are filed in investigation into Facebook page
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Columbia County authorities said Friday that they are a step closer to identifying the person who created a suspected fake Facebook page that implied a Lakeside High student lied during a teacher's dismissal hearing.
The page was created under the name Avery Hill, who testified last month to the Columbia County school board that a teacher helped him and other students cheat on a math test. The page was created June 9, the day after a hearing in which board members voted to uphold the termination of Lakeside High special education teacher Margaret Mudrak.
Police recently received records subpoenaed from Facebook in an attempt to track the IP and e-mail addresses used to create the page, Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said.
Now, investigators have subpoenaed records from Hotmail, the e-mail provider used by the creator of the page, he said. Morris would not speculate as to who created the page.
The page purporting to be from 16-year-old Hill claimed that he lied on the stand to get Mudrak fired.
Hill denied any role in the posting, and school system officials said they believed the page had been "spoofed." Hill's guardian later filed a police report, saying Hill had been threatened because of the posting.
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Reports are available at www.columbiacountyso.org:
Jewelry stolen in Evans burglary
An Evans man told police Thursday that nearly $3,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from his home.
The 50-year-old said that between 7:15 and 11:45 a.m. someone pried open the locked door to the garage attached to his Brandywine Drive home. The burglar entered the home through the door from the garage into the house.
Police found several drawers from a jewelry chest on the floor. Missing jewelry included watches, diamond rings, bracelets and earrings.
A laptop computer was stolen from the living room.
Man tries to use
fake bills at store
A man tried to use several counterfeit $20 bills to pay for merchandise at Walmart.
The employee of the store at 4469 Washington Road in Evans told police that the shopper used 10 $20 bills to pay for a computer monitor about 11:40 a.m. Friday.
The cashier used a marking pen to determine the bills were fake, then called a manager.
The employee said she conferred with the manager and examined the bills, which all bore the same serial number.
Before management could stop the man, he left without the computer monitor in a dark sport utility vehicle.
SUV stolen, other vehicles entered
Several residents of a Martinez neighborhood told police that someone took items from their vehicles early Sunday; a sport utility vehicle in a nearby subdivision was stolen.
A 36-year-old resident of Oak Lake subdivision said her Chevrolet TrailBlazer was stolen from the driveway of her Green Forest Court home between 1 and 9 a.m.
Seven residents of Amelia Landing, which backs up to Oak Lake, told police that someone stole items from their vehicles during the same time period.
The vehicles were unlocked and in the driveways of homes on Cutter Mill Road, Earhart Drive and Amelia Drive.
Stolen items include checkbooks, credit cards, sunglasses, GPS units, a CB radio, cell phones and CD players.
Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue report for July 18-24:
Structure fires, three; wood/brush/grass fires, two; vehicle fire, one; controlled/unauthorized burns, four; other fire, one; activated fire alarms, 13; gas line rupture, one; medical incidents, 13; vehicle accidents, four; investigate various incidents, one; and assist residents, three.