Codefendants indicted on cruelty to children charges in connection to the in-custody death of a teen at the Elbert Shaw Regional Youth Detention Center in Dalton are expected to plead guilty or not guilty in Whitfield Superior Court next month.
Former Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) employees Russell Ballard, Maveis Brooks, Monica Headrick, David McKinney and Rebecka Phillips were initially scheduled for arraignment hearings before Conasauga Judicial Circuit Judge Scott Minter on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
At the request of the prosecution, Minter agreed to continue the arraignment hearings until late January.
“Maveis Brooks, she was already continued,” said Conasauga Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Walt Eddy. “So the request would be to move that until this court’s Jan. 24 arraignment calendar on all the codefendants, as well. I believe I have told all the opposing counsel that it was Dec. 18, I misspoke.”
Arraignments for the five codefendants were originally set for Sept. 27. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) publicly announced the indictments in a Sept. 1 press release.
Per Whitfield Superior Court documents, Ballard, Brooks and Phillips are each facing two counts of first-degree cruelty to children and one count of second-degree cruelty to children, while Headrick and McKinney are each charged with one count of second- degree cruelty to children.
All of the charges are felony offenses.
The charges stem from the death of 16-year-old Alexis Marie Sluder, of Ellijay.
According to the GBI, the Dalton Police Department asked the GBI to investigate the death on Aug. 27, 2022.
At the time the offenses allegedly occurred, Ballard, of Chatsworth, was serving as a cadet at the Dalton detention facility. Brooks, of Calhoun, served as a sergeant and Phillips, of Chatsworth, was an officer.
Headrick, of Ringgold, served as a nurse at the facility. McKinney, of Rome, Georgia, was serving as the detention center director.
Per a bill of indictment, the codefendants allegedly caused Sluder “cruel and excessive physical pain by depriving said child of the necessary medical care she needed while in the lawful custody of said defendants by not contacting emergency medical authorities in a timely manner.”
Thomas Flugum Jr., an attorney representing Ballard, told the court that he has yet to receive certain materials from the DJJ, including documents pertaining to a state investigation.
Judge Minter made it evident that he did not wish to see the hearings postponed yet again.
“I don’t want this going from arraignment to arraignment to arraignment,” he stated. “So something needs to happen on Jan. 24, whether that’s a not guilty plea and putting it on the calendar or a resolution.”