Bloggus Interruptus 2

This blog will go dim again.

I miss it. But it can’t be helped.

Priority posting will still be given to Heather items, though.

I managed to do this one via The Device I Will Not Name via an etherjacked hotspot last night. To clue you in to the amount of aggravation it gave me: it took an hour to post.

Heather: New Details

Barbie bandits walked off with almost $11,000

Benny Allen III, 22, of Cartersville, who was working as a teller in the bank at the time and has also been charged, instructed the teens what to write in the demand note and gave them directions, according to McEntyre. The women had never previously met Allen, but talked to him on the phone the morning of the robbery.

They had to call him back after they ended up at the wrong Kroger, said Johnston’s lawyer, Clay Thompson.

And:

Michael Chastang, 27, of Decatur, allegedly put Johnston and Miller in touch with Allen. Police say Chastang coordinated the theft. Chastang is being held in Fulton County jail. Allen is free on bond.

So, it turns out my suspicions were correct.

Chastang: Goad and ringleader.

Allen: Didn’t say No. He in fact egged them on!

And:

The parents said their daughter calls them regularly and they visit her in jail on Saturdays. On Thursday, their daughter showed up in court in a dark blue prison uniform. She was not her “bubbly” self, her mother said. “She does not look like my Heather yet,” she said. “We’re trying to reel her back.”

Do so. But dear God, gently!

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Heather: Smile Again

I should have dropped “The Hot” appellation earlier in the week. Not because she isn’t (she is), but because the game, such as I have made it, is coming to an end. I will keep the Category name, however.

A video — another cam-pointed-at-a-TV-screen one has surfaced on YouTube. A variation of this appears at the MyFox Atlanta site, from which I have taken snaps:

Detective giving testimony

Heather’s parents

Johnston family pastor

Several points:

Ashley Miller denies her part in the theft. This is incredible. What was she putting into her bag?

Heather has apparently cooperated with authorities, confessed all, and implicated everyone else. Miller, the teller who quickly made bail and has been out free, is the one I would focus on as the source of making restitution. He worked at the bank. He had conventional employment. He had access to the money. Even when Heather and Ashley stood before him, he could have said No and stopped everything.

Ashley’s denial is a deep mystery to me. According to prior reports, she didn’t like working at the strip club and, if the reports are to be believed, just days before the theft was contemplating joining a branch of the armed services to get out of her current life. She seemed to have a conscience. Where did it go? Her current and repeated denial and admission of being a meth an ecstasy dealer just put her in deeper trouble. The hammer could land very hard on her.

Chastang, who fancies himself as “$ Mr. Get Up & Get It $” on MySpace (I will not provide a link) is, I suspect, the goad and the ringleader. His MySpace page is filled with his lust for money. I hope he gets up and gets it in prison for a long, long time.

If Heather’s parents have been able to arrange bond on schedule, Heather should be free within hours of my posting this, if she hasn’t already been cut loose. If jail wasn’t as cruel as I believe it was, a trained medical professional probably put her on a mixture of prescriptions to alleviate whatever drug cravings she was due to experience. Pot, meth, cocaine and whatever else was swimming in her bloodstream would exact a nightmarish toll when taken away suddenly. Add to that the stress of being in jail, jail food, jail noise and crowding, and the nightmare is squared, if not cubed.

Sloppy reporting in yesterday’s print accounts mangled the name of the Johnston family pastor. The video has it correct. He is Danny Rager of the Woodland Hills Assembly of God church. The Sermons section (audio files) hasn’t been updated in just about a year; that troubles me. However, at least the Church, evidenced by this photo at bottom right, seems to have a sense of humor. I hope they will treat Heather kindly. And with true Christian love.

Finally, some solemn words to Heather herself:

Hey, kid. You’ve been in a tough spot. But you’re tough yourself. You’ll get through all this. If my assessment of you is correct, at some point you’re going to see this website and everything I’ve posted. At first, I think you’ll be shocked. But then I think you’ll smile. I’ve tried not to add to your troubles. Most of what’s been written about you on the Net has been bad. Ignore it. Don’t go looking for it. You don’t need to see it. Those people don’t count. You do. I hope you like this little twisted and obsessive scrapbook of mine. You wouldn’t have seen any of this if someone hadn’t grabbed it for you. Perhaps I went a bit(!) over the top, but that’s the stuff that I think will make you smile. And you need to smile — a lot. It’s not going to be easy for you for quite some time. But you’re up to it. You’re going to succeed in piecing yourself together again and having a very good life. While everyone else scorned, abandoned, or otherwise used you, I hope you’ll see that I never did. At least one person was thinking about you during your grim days. Now give us a big smile and go have a great life.

And if I may one final time:

Le XoXo, toujours.

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