A Georgia mother-in-law faces a felony charge for allegedly making a false 911 call that led to the death of the father of her estranged daughter-in-law.
Dorothy Marie Gass faces a felony charge for allegedly making an emergency call to law enforcement that led to the death of the father of her estranged daughter-in-law, in Georgia, at the hands of cops.
The new criminal charges comme three and a half months after a judge unexpectedly dismissed a case against her in the making of the 911 call triggered a fatal police shooting in Rossville, Georgia.
The grand jury in  Walker County Tuesday indicted Dorothy Marie Gass charging her with false statements, writings and concealing of facts, a felony. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation accused Gass of making up a story about her son’s estranged wife in the midst of a custody battle.
Gass, 65, called and told dispatchers in Rossville, Georgia on January 1 that [her daughter-in-law] Amy Gass was threatening to kill herself and her children, a claim police have said was inaccurate.
Amy was estranged from the caller’s son and was staying over at her parent’s home.
When police arrived at the home, Amy’s father, Mark Parkinson, the unknowing home owner was startled by his barking dogs, got out of bed and grabbed his gun.
Police reportedly saw him through the window with the gun, leading one to fire his own weapon three times, hitting and ultimately killing the beloved father and husband.
‘I can’t express just how bad my past ten months have been since Mark was killed,’ his wife, Diana Parkinson, told WRCB.
‘I feel as though a shroud has been over me and I just can’t get over it.’

The 911 call came in at about 3.15am on January 1, police said, after phone records show Steven and Amy Gass had talked on the phone for about 15 minutes at around 2.30am.
In the call, Dorothy claimed to have received a threatening message from her daughter-in-law saying that she was going to kill herself and her children, the Times Free Press reported.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said there is no evidence that Amy ever made any such threat.

Even so, following the call to authorities, three Walker County sheriff’s deputies, including Deputy John Chandler, went out to the Parkinson’s home, where Amy was staying with her children.
Chandler reportedly saw Mark through the window from his position on the porch, and ducked and warned the other two deputies with him.
When Chandler peeked into the house again, he said he still saw the gun, and opened fire, striking and fatally wounding Mark.
‘By the time I got into the kitchen, which probably was 30 seconds after he got up, he was already on the floor and had been shot,’ Diana told WSBTV.
‘If I shut my eyes, I see him lying in the floor, bleeding out,’ she said, through tears. ‘When I go to bed at night I have to try to think of something else so I don’t see that.’
Chandler was cleared by an internal affairs investigation, and a grand jury failed to return an indictment on him in September, finding he had not used excessive force.

Dorothy was first charged with making a false report, a misdemeanor, in the case in February, which was being handled by the GBI.
When the GBI’s Special Agent in Charge Greg Ramey asked for the original June court date to be rescheduled, Ramey said he received no response, and when no one showed up to prosecute the case at that time, State Court Judge Billy Mullinax dismissed the charge against Dorothy.
‘It makes you feel defeated and mad and more determined than ever to bring it to civil court and get something done the correct way,’ Diana said. ‘They won’t get the best of me.’

Dorothy was first charged with making a false report, a misdemeanor, in the case in February, which was being handled by the GBI, but that was dismissed in June when no one showed up to her court date to prosecute the case, after the GBI said it wrote a letter seeking a date change.
The case went to Walker County State Court, an assizes which handles lower level offenses.
The  hearing was scheduled for June. Before the hearing, GBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Ramey said he wrote a letter to State Court Judge Billy Mullinax, asking him to push back the court date because the case’s lead investigator was out of town.
The judge did not respond to that request according to Ramey claims.
Nevertheless, the judge proceeded with the court date as scheduled. Defendant  Dorothy Gass showed up and there was no law enforcement to present a case against her. Judge Mullinax dismissed the charge.
In August Gass said that was the proper outcome of her case: “There was nothing to it,” she said.
“Not to me. But I sure was flashed all over the TV for a month. It kind of ruined my reputation, and I didn’t even do anything.”
The Times Free Press reports that when asked about the case, Judge Mullinax said he couldn’t remember it. Neither did State Court Solicitor Pat Clements. same for Robert Stultz, who sometimes fills in for Clements, who said he didn’t handle the Dorothy Gass case, either.

The lower court had ddimissed the case against Dorothy Gass, but on Tuesday, a grand jury returned an indictment against Dorothy for the felony charge of false statements, writings and concealing of facts in the cop involved killing of Mark Parkinson seen here with his wife Diana —–

Bullet holes  in Diana Parkinson’s kitchen window at her home on Wednesday, March 7, 2018, in Rossville, Ga. – Husband, Mark, was shot through the window and killed by an unseen Walker County Sheriff’s deputy on the night of New Year’s Day 2018, after he walked into his kitchen with a handgun in response to his barking dogs. The deputies were sent there by Dorothy Gass, allegedly on a false premise

The inexplicable ball dropping reportedly prompted Parkinson family attorney Jason Thompson, at the time to say, “That’s a small county. I have friends across the state who know about this case. For them to say, ‘What’s that? I don’t know what that is.’ That’s a load of crap.”
The state court officials could have brought the misdemeanor case back up, except for for some might see as a conflict of interest.
At the end of August, Chris Townley took over the State Court solicitor job from Clements. Pertinent because Townley’s former law partner represents Dorothy Gass’ son in his divorce from Amy Gass.
Townley said his presence in the case, even in the slightest form, is a conflict of interest. He could not touch the file to reopen it and appoint an outside prosecutor.
Thus, the case would need to go to Superior Court, falling under Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin’s purview.
The origins of the case date back to September 2017, when Amy Gass filed for divorce from Dorothy Gass’ son, Steven Gass. The estranged couple were in a dispute over custody.
Around 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, according to phone records, Steven and Dorothy Gass talked for about 15 minutes. Soon after, Dorothy Gass called 911, reporting that she received a threatening message from Amy Gass. Supposedly, Amy Gass threatened to kill her children and herself.

On Tuesday, a grand jury returned an indictment against Dorothy for the felony charge of false statements, writings and concealing of facts.
‘This is just the first step for the justice that is demanded,’ Stephen Fuller, an attorney representing Mark’s widow, said.
Before Dorothy’s arrest on the first charge, her son said she suffers from dementia, which might explain what she is accused of saying during the 911 call from January 1.
Steven also said that his estranged wife is a caring mother who would never hurt their children, and he didn’t believe any such threat had been made.
Dorothy has not yet  been arrested on the felony charge.
Special Agent in Charge Ramey said Gass’ attorney informed the judge in the new case that Gass is currently hospitalized.
Diana is still considering filing a civil lawsuit in the case.