Spalding County officials have completed their investigation into allegations a firefighter used his cell phone to record a fatal accident that was posted on the Internet.
But any formal statement from county officials isn't coming -- at least not on Tuesday, according to an e-mail from the interim assistant county manager. The county's board of commissioners and administration continue to review the report from the accident and are gathering additional information, Virginia Martin, Spalding County's interim assistant county manager, said. Any personnel action "will be forthcoming as those decisions are made," the e-mail said.
Mike Kendall, the attorney for firefighter Terrance Reid, said he had not seen the video and, as far as he knows, neither have any of the county officials who are to determine if Reid broke any laws or violated any policies.
Kendall said the family of the victim in the crash has not shared the video with his client nor officials.
“He [Reid] hasn’t seen this video,” Kendall told the AJC Tuesday. “The county hasn’t seen it.”
Interim county manager Tim Whalen, who will decide if Reid will keep his job, confirmed he had not seen the video and “as far as I know none of the commissioners have seen it.”
Dayna Kempson-Schacht was killed in a single-car accident on July 17 when her car crashed into trees along Ga. 19-41 as it bypasses downtown Griffin. A video recording was made of the 23-year-old woman's body inside the mangled car; those images were put on the Internet.
Her father, Jeffry Kempson, said he received a copy of that graphic video, which was recorded on a cell phone, more than two months later, on Sept. 29.
“She had severe head trauma. It made the video all the more grotesque,” Kempson said last week.
Kempson said one of the first responders to the accident, a Spalding County firefighter, had recorded images of his daughter’s body.
The cell phone also captured the conversations between the first responders, including the exclamation of horror at what they saw when they got to the car.
Kempson complained to the Spalding County Fire Department and Reid was put in paid leave while the county investigated.
Atlanta attorney Christopher Balch, whom Spalding County hired to do the investigation, gave the Spalding County Board of Commissioners a 19-page report on his findings Monday night.
Kendall said it was not clear how it was determined that Reid took the recording and shared it with others. A second firefighter, whose name is not known, took the video to a bar and texted it to others and that’s how it spread.
Kendall said the video could have been taken by bystanders or other rescuers from the Spalding County Sheriff’s office, the Atlanta Police Department, Spalding Regional Emergency Medical Services or the Georgia State Patrol.
“Other people were out there. Bystanders had cameras out there,” Kendall said. “They don’t know how the video got linked to Mr. Reid.”
--Staff reporter Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this report.
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