Around the Region: Author Sentenced for Fraud, Man Charged With Fracturing Infant’s Skull and Suspect Accused of Stealing Patio Furniture

 — Marietta Patch

A Marietta novelist who pleaded guilty in February of defrauding a woman he had dated and another couple in a phony lawsuit has been sentenced to serve more than 12 years in prison. 

Mitchell Gross, 61, will serve 12 years and seven months, then another three years on supervised release, and has been ordered to pay $5.8 million in restitution to his victims, according to a ruling Thursday from U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta. 

Gross, who has written six science fiction and legal thriller novels under the name of "Mitchell Graham,"  on a total of 14 counts of wire fraud and money laundering.

Among the charges were that he used an online Jewish dating service to scam a woman of nearly $3 million, using $1.5 million of that total to repay an ex-girlfriend in a case that generated international attention, including in Israel.

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 — Douglasville Patch

Jada Jawan Goodson, 22, was arrested Wednesday by the  and charged with cruelty to children after his 5-month-old infant was admitted into Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital with a bilateral fracture of the skull.

Medical specialists stated the injury likely occurred just prior to the emergency room admittance. Goodson was the primary caregiver the evening the injuries occurred.

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 — Dunwoody Patch

Police have arrested a Dunwoody man they believe stole furniture outside a newly opened pub, and the man could be charged with a rash of similar thefts.
Darryl Bernard Dillard, 51, was arrested for stealing patio furniture from O'Brian's Tavern early Friday morning. The pub on the 2400 block of Mt. Vernon Road opened just last week.

Police say the man was arrested for the theft after he was identified via video surveillance footage.

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