Sheriff: Wordes incident could have been avoided

By Joan Durbin
jdurbin@neighbornewspapers.com


The saga of Roswell’s Chicken Man and his ultimate act of self-destruction might have had a completely different ending if the eviction had been handled differently, according to some law enforcement officials.

“This was ugly. It shouldn’t have happened and it didn’t have to happen,” said Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson, whose office refused to participate in the proceedings.

Roswell police also declined to provide support, according to Mayor Jere Wood.

“We were aware of threats from Andrew to defend his property. A dispossessory over a derelict house is not worth an armed confrontation,” Wood said. “The judgment call we made was it was not worth pursuing, but another official made another judgment.”

Fulton County Marshal Antonio Johnson said he had information from the county manager’s office that Andrew Wordes might react badly to being dispossessed. He said he first asked Roswell police, then the sheriff’s office, for backup when the writ was being served.

“I knew it could turn volatile. That’s why I called them,” Johnson said.

People who knew Wordes say the thought of losing his split level house on Alpine Drive was devastating to him.

“It had become a symbol to him. It was his last hold on reality,” said Judie Raiford, who had become a good friend to Wordes in the last two years.

Roswell Police Chief Dwayne Orrick said he and department members had several conversations with the marshal’s office prior to March 26.

“We told him, you’re going to have a problem with Mr. Wordes,” Orrick said. “Mr. Wordes was seeking a physical confrontation with police. I said I was respectful of their job and didn’t question their authority, but it was likely to develop into him defending his home against the government and there was a less aggressive approach to doing it.

“We told them our concerns that this could turn into a Ruby Ridge type situation. They asked us to accompany them and we said no. They said fine, they would call the sheriff and ask for SWAT.”

Jackson said when he got that call, he was not yet aware that Roswell had turned down the marshal’s request. But he said his 35 years of law enforcement experience, including being in charge of the regional FBI office, told him that a direct encounter with Wordes had the potential for disaster.

“I knew how he fought the city about raising chickens and he was very resilient, then how things went south for him and he was broke and would have nowhere to go,” Jackson said.

Having armed officers on his property wasn’t the best way to go about serving the eviction notice, he said.

“You don’t want to jeopardize his safety or the safety of your officers. We didn’t agree with it so we backed out and didn’t participate,” Jackson said.

Orrick said one alternative to an armed confrontation was “they could just back away,” he said. “We offered to set up surveillance for them and they could wait until he left the house.”

Johnson emphatically denies that the sheriff, Orrick, or anyone in either law enforcement agency recommended any other way to handle the eviction.

“We weren’t going to go in there with SWAT and bust down the door. This was a civil matter. The only thing you do in a civil matter is go knock on the door and see what his mindset is,” Johnson said.

The marshal said he called Wordes on March 12 to let him know his office had a dispossessory writ. “We had a good conversation. I asked him if there was any way I could help [him] vacate the premises and said we wanted to do anything we could to help out.”

Johnson said he also told Wordes to have his attorney call “if he needed more time.”

On March 15 and again on March 22, the marshal said he talked to the representative of the bank that was foreclosing on the house, told him he had not yet heard from Wordes’ attorney and asked for patience. The representative “concurred, said he didn’t want any trouble and would support eviction whenever I felt ready,” the marshal said.

On March 23, Johnson said he got a message from Ryan Strickland, Wordes’ attorney, about seeking an injunction against the eviction. Johnson said he called Strickland several times that day and left a message that he wanted “to discuss his client’s situation and get feedback on what I needed to do.”

Three days later, Johnson sent six deputy marshals to Alpine Drive with instructions that two were to go to the door and make contact with Wordes. The other four were to hang back out of sight of the house “in case of emergency.”

The two deputies had contact with Wordes for at least two hours, the marshal said. “He was very responsive to us. He said he didn’t have a beef with us, it was with Roswell police department and Roswell government.

“Around 10:15 my staff called me and told me they’d been talking to Mr. Wordes, who said his attorney was down at the courthouse trying to get an injunction on the writ,” Johnson said.

“I personally called the judge’s chambers and talked to her staff attorney, who told me the injunction was not going to be signed. We needed to carry out the civil order,” he said.

According to Johnson Wordes was on the phone with his attorney at the same time and got the news that the injunction wasn’t forthcoming. At that point, he called a media representative to have him tell the deputies to move away from the door and get off his property.

Minutes later, the house blew up and Wordes died in the resulting blaze.

“Mr. Wordes had been very cordial to us. We had a good rapport, and it’s very unfortunate what happened,” Johnson said.

“I think a life is worth more than two hours. If he had stayed indoors, we would have directed the deputies to retreat and waited until his attorney got an injunction.”