The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 17

17 'A THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION FRIDAY, MAY 20. 1988 onian who lolled son in fight with spouse won't face trial The evidence from his investigation indicates that Mrs. Courts was a battered wife who had occasionally suffered physical and psychological abuse by her husband, Warren Courts, during their three-year marriage, Wilson said. Because of previous instances of abuse and the argument on the day of the fatal shooting, Mrs. Courts was pushed to a point where she resorted to using the gun to defend herself, the prosecutor said.

"The bottom line is that there is reasonable tasis to believe that she Georgia law, even if the evidence showed he provoked the shooting. "Mr: Courts had no weapon; he did not pull the trigger of any weapon in this case. There is no legal means by which we can prosecute him," Wilson said. Wendell Wil-lard, Mrs. Courts' attorney, said he is pleased Wilson decided not to prosecute his client "I think it was a reasonable and proper decision by the DA," Willard said.

Mrs. Courts was relieved after hearing of the district attorney's de cision. "I thank God that the DA was able to uncover the fact that I did not want anyone hit or hurt, not even Warren and definitely not my son," she said. "I just did not want him to hit me again. I did not want Sean to try to protect me again.

All I wanted to do was keep him away. I'd give anything to have my son back." During the argument, Wilson said, Courts pushed Mrs. Courts against the wall. He went to their was justified in protecting herself from Mr. Courts," Wilson said.

"And she is entitled under the law to every benefit of the doubt" Courts earlier admitted striking his wife occasionally, but has said that he did nothing during the argument before Smith died to justify Mrs. Courts' using a handgun. He also was arrested on a charge of murder that was later reduced to involuntary manslaughter. Later all charges against him were dropped. But Wilson said he could not legally prosecute him under nar Joshua's classmates Children counseled after slaying as police focus on five suspects By Kathy Scruggs and Diane R.

Stepp StaffWriten Counselors are trying to steer Roswell children and parents back to normal routines while police continue their search for Joshua Harmon's killer. Roswell police We have told teachers to pick out children at risk, those who seem upset or bothered by it, ahd have them talk with a Mary Lee of Fulton school system rowed the focus of their investigation of the slaying of the 8-year-old to two areas and have five prime suspects, Lt. Joan Rolland said Thursday. The detective would not elaborate on the suspects, but she said a convicted child molester who escaped Sunday from an Alpharetta prison is no longer a prime suspect learn about ft', 'ft 11 "it i 'i it )Li fear i NICKARROYOSlaff .7 By Connie Green StqffWriler DeKalb County District Attorney BoB Wilson announced Thursday I that he will not prosecute a woman Charged with killing her son during 3 domestic dispute. Wilson said that Monica Courts, 36, of 4495 Dover Castle Drive, acci-i dentally killed her son, Sean Smith, 1 firing shots to ward oft' her husband during a heated argument iron Feb.

8. Lewis Grizzard fA northern Celtics sees the light, 'and it's not green dear friend Jack Kennedy jliad everything going against him in Ji is youth. The poor man had to I jrow up in New York. Basketball was his passion. He played college ball at Manhattan, a school that dares go by the name But Jack got lucky.

Later in life, he took a business trip south and he met a charming Southern girl i named Donna. She knew better I than to move north, so Jack moved south and they married. Donna taught Jack things he never would have known had he re-; mained up yonder. She taught him about barbecue, home-grown tomatoes, and how nev-i er to say, "That's not the way we did it back in New York." You can get cut for saying some- thing like that to a Southerner, j. Despite his wife's teachings, Jack did embarrass me once.

I took I him to a Georgia football game in I Athens. I wore my red. I told Jack to wear his. Didn't wear the right stuff He didn't i He showed up between the hedges in all green. Celtic green.

He wore green socks. He wore green shorts. He wore a green T-i shirt that said, "Boston Celtics, World Champions." The entire Celt-; ic roster was printed on the back of Jack's T-shirt I could have died. Jack, it turned out, had become Celtic fan early in life and that was one thing his wife couldn't get out of him. Jack was a personal friend of Larry Bird.

Jack had actually set foot in the Celtic locker room in Boston Garden. He probably even once lit Red '-Auerbach's cigar. A few years ago, Jack and I Iwere playing golf. I knew of his interest in pro basketball and I said him, "I don't guess the Hawks ever be any good, will they?" The Hawks had moved to from St Louis and had turned like all other Atlanta teams smelly. 'M- ft Joshua's funeral was to be held at 11 a.m.

today at Roswell United Methodist Church. His mother, Cherie Laws, was released from North Fulton Regional Hospital on Thursday. She collapsed after learning of Joshua's death Tuesday. Inaccurate rumors have fueled children's fears, said Linda Markwell, principal at Mimosa Elementary School, which serves the Roundtree Apartments complex where Joshua lived. "We want them to get accurate information from their parents, or fronj us." Students at Mimosa and at Kimball Bridge Elementary School, where Joshua attended, are encouraged to express feelings about the death in poems, paragraphs and drawings.

"The thing that concerns the majority of our children is the fear of what could happen to them," Ms. Markwell said. "The main focus is to get back to a normal routine and to remember the good things about Josh." Police, psychologists, social workers and counselors met with students and teachers Wednesday and Thursday at the two elementary schools. Police talked with students at Roswell Elementary on Thursday. "We have told teachers to pick out children at risk, those who seem upset or bothered by it, and have them talk with a counselor," said Mary Lee, director of psychological services for the Fulton County school system.

Teachers rode school buses home with children Wednesday and Thursday to the Roundtree Apartments, where parents were waiting to meet their children. "We encouraged them to go straight home and to walk in groups or with a buddy," Ms. Markwell said. FEARS Continued on 20A bedroom and she got the gun. She then fired three shots while retreating as he came toward her, Wilson said.

The second shot struck her son, but she did not realize it until after the third shot, Wilson said. "This is one of the most tragic cases I have ever had to deal with," Wilson said. "There is nothing that the criminal justice system can do to that woman greater than what she has to live with killing her son with her own hand." Gordon DA sues officials Board accused of meeting secretly destroying papers By Brian O'Shea StqffWriter CALHOUN, Ga. In what may be a first for the state, a local district attorney has filed suit charging the Gordon County Commission with violating the state's open meetings and open records laws in decisions ranging from the construction of a new jail to contracting for goods and services. District Attorney Darrell Wilson, who already has another lawsuit pending against the northwestern Georgia commission over a funding dispute, said the civil suit filed this week in Gordon County Superior Court is "an effort to bring the governing authority of the county to do that which they already ought to be doing." The suit accuses the commission of holding secret meetings with at least three of the five commis-.

sioners present, keeping minutes of the meetings from the public and, in some cases, using a paper shredder to destroy county records. A hearing on the suit has been set June 16 before Superior Court Judge Tom Pope. Wilson said the charges leveled in the suit were developed through special prosecutor Joe Chambers, director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, who Wilson brought in to work with investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and an investigative committee appointed by the September term of the county grand jury. The suit names as defendants GORDON Continued on 20A the makeup of the board. Murphy has been a longtime critic of the DOT and has argued that the Legislature should have more input in setting the priority list for road construction.

He said DOT officials should stay out of the transportation board elections. "I just think its wrong for the Department of Transportation to tell the General Assembly who they want to be their bosses," said Murphy. "After this one is over with, if they want to quit, I'm willing to quit" Rives, while avoiding direct criticism of Murphy, predicted another tough race. "I expect this is going to be a hotly contested election," Rives said of the upcoming contest "The speaker is always a very powerful man," acknowledged Lester. Carr, a former legislator who has served on the transportation board for the last 14 years, said Murphy's support of Argo played no part in his decision not to seek reelection to the part-time post He said the decison to step down was based on personal, not political considerations.

"I know that if I had decided to run, I had more than enough pledges of support from legislators to win another term," said Carr, a Lester supporter. "But I feel like I have served maybe long enough." BOARD Continue on 10A Lorenzo Federico (left), a family leave school bus' at the Roundtree friend, meets Jacob Telego (center) Apartments. Joshua Harmon's slay and his sister, Christy, as they ing has prompted vigilance. Toiigh race predicted for seat on DOT board Murphy's strength tested in 10th District campaign 1 KEITH HADLEYStatf in Vietnam. It reads: 'Heed fire, he rallied his Vietnam War Next to a smiling portrait of Jones, the veterans organization installed a permanent plaque in the atrium with Jones' name and the phrase: "Heedless of withering enemy fire, he rallied his men and defeated the enemy." In 1987, the group convinced a developer to erect a plaque in the Galleria shopping mall to honor John L.

Fuller, an Atlantan killed in Vietnam in 1967. "A soldier's pay, as William Faulkner wrote in a novel by that name, 'is to have his suffering ignored by those for whom he HERO Continued Page 19A Elizabeth Holcombe (left) and Mary King Jones, who died read plaque in CNN Center for Lt. Gary less of enemy Ceremony honors slain hero of ary World War II commander, spoke to a crowd in The Omni atrium that began as a few dozen milling people and quickly grew to a few hundred stationary ones. The 90-minute memorial service was sponsored by the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association to honor Jones, an Atlanta native killed 20 years ago. Jones was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the country's second highest medal for bravery.

He died leading a counterattack under heavy fire. Survivors, reported he was shouting encouragement to them as he was hit '211 I "A '-'It lL- By David Beasley SluffWritcr Four months after he helped topple one member of the state Transportation Board, House Speaker Tom Murphy has targeted another seat on the powerful 10-member panel that decides when and where) new roads will be built in Georgia! The speaker is throwing his support bfchind former Rep. Bob Argo, an Athens insurance executive, in thefrace for the 10th District board post currently held by Tom C. Carr of Thomson. Carr has decided not to seek re-election.

Both Hal Rives, commissioner of the Department of Transportation DOT! and Lt Gov. Zell Miller have endorsed Augusta attorney Jimmy Lester, a former state senator, setting up another test of politir cal strength with the speaker. Last January, Murphy emerged victorious after a heated battle with Rives and Miller over another board seat, A majority of state legislators in the state's 2nd Congressional District chose the speaker's candidate, W.P. "Billy" Langdale of Valdosta, over Hugh Broome of Donalsonville, the longest serving board member. Langdale's victory prompted predictions by some legislators thai the speaker would use his influence to eventually gain control of the board.

Murphy, in an interview Thursday, said Bis involvement in transportation board races is a direct result of efforts by Rives to influence He saw potential in Hatch 1 But Jack surprised me with his answer. "Give 'em a few years," he Jsaid, "and they'll be contenders." And Richard Nixon will be back in the White House. I had lunch with Jack Wednesday. I asked, "Do the Hawks have a chance to win in Boston tonight?" "The key," he said, "is the first six or seven minutes. If the Hawks don't get blown out early, they could I watched the entire Hawks-Celtics fifth game playoff on television Wednesday night It may have been the first time in my life I watched a pro basketball game from wire to wire.

Jack was right The Hawks hung in early and beat Boston. They can make up for years of suffering for Atlanta fans by beating the Celtics at The Omni tonight, thus moving a 1 step closer to Atlanta's first major league title. I've got to give Jack Kennedy credit He saw the Hawks 'potential before anybody else did, and tonight he will abandon his beloved Celtics and pull for Atlanta. I'll never call you a Yankee and make fun of the way you talk again, Jack. I promisf 4 i i By LorriDenise Booker SUiffWriter Taps echoed mournfully through the CNN Center Thursday in a tearful service dedicating a plaque to Vietnam hero Lt Gary C.

Jones. Jones and his men "represent the flowers of our most precious resource the nation's youth," said retired Major Gen. George S. Patton III. "Lt Jones died leading his men as he was trained and expected to do.

"He and others like him were a special breed." Patton, the son of the legend.