Community Corner

Regional Roundup: How Brunn May Have Killed Himself, School Board Addresses 'Slave' Homework Controversy, and GBI Looking for Monroe Man Who Disappeared in Athens

Canton-Sixes Patch sits down with one of the court-appointed attorneys to the convicted killer of Jorelys Rivera.

-- Canton-Sixes Patch

Ryan Brunn, , hung himself, according to one of his court-appointed attorneys.

"My understanding was that he may have used his jumpsuit and hanged himself," David L. Cannon Sr. said. "That's what I know."

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Brunn was —barely 48 hours after he was for the December 2011 murder of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera.

"He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 5:37 p.m. of an apparent suicide,"  Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said in a statement on Thursday.

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

This case was referred to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, she said.

An autopsy might occur as early as today, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday evening.

During an interview this morning, Cannon said he learned of his client's death at 5:40 p.m. Thursday from the interim director of Cherokee County's Indigent Defense.

"My initial reaction," he said, "was, 'How did it happen? Why wasn't it prevented?' My feeling was a feeling of regret. It was a feeling of emptiness and somewhat sense of failure. We worked hard to try to resolve the case so that he wouldn't be facing the death penalty, and he then took his own life. That's a difficult thing to accept."

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-- Suwanee Patch

The official fallout of the recent controversy at Beaver Ridge Elementary in Norcross has taken effect, and the controversy was very much alive at Thursday's board meeting of the Gwinnett school system in Suwanee.

Board Chairman Louise Radloff apologized for the incident after several speakers addressed the board, sometimes heatedly.

"What happened at Beaver Ridge was very unfortunate," Radloff said. "I apologize. It was not right. (The school system) is all about children."

According to media reports, the teacher who resigned is Luis Rivera, who had been with the school since 2008.

The controversy began when the third-grade teacher gave questions in a math homework assignment that referred to slavery.

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-- Athens Patch

Officials with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are asking anyone who saw Charles Steven Parker in Athens on Sunday to contact them.

The 25-year-old Parker, a Bank of America manager from Monroe, had come to Athens after church on Sunday afternoon around 2pm to look at a piece of property, said Jim Fullington, special agent in charge with the GBI Athens field office.

A police officer found his 2010 Chrysler 3000 around midnight on Tuesday near College Avenue and Hoyt Street, said Capt. Clarence Holman of the Athens Clarke County Police Department.

Parker is 5:10 and 165 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black necktie. Anyone who has seen Parker or has pertinent information should call the GBI in Athens at (706) 552-2309.

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