Whitfield County man arrested for vulgar language gets charge dropped

photo Boyd Green, 58, sits on the front steps at his home in Rocky Face, Ga. Green is a disabled U.S. Marine disturbed by Whitfield County, Ga., police after several recent encounters.

Prosecutors have dropped the case against a Whitfield County, Ga., man who used profanity while talking to a police dispatcher in June.

The Whitfield County Sheriff's Office arrested Boyd Randall Green, 58, on a charge of using vulgar language on a 911 call. Since Georgia lawmakers created that crime in 2007, no other person had been arrested in Whitfield County for that reason.

But this week, prosecutors told Green they would not take him to court.

Green bonded out of jail hours after the arrest. But police booked him again a week later because the 911 arrest meant he violated probation on an earlier DUI conviction.

The second time, he stayed in jail four days.

"If we went to trial," Conasauga District Attorney Bert Poston said Wednesday, "we would have just given him credit for the time he had served."

Green's arrest June 2 revealed his painful past. An alcoholic Marine veteran diagnosed with depression, Green began drinking around 4 that morning before calling 911. He told the dispatcher he needed to see Dalton police officer Diner Mondragon.

The dispatcher told Green that Mondragon was off duty and asked, "What's the problem?"

"The problem is he let my momma lay up here and die. That's the problem."

When the dispatcher asked for Green's name, he said that Mondragon would know who he is.

"The sorry damn [expletive] knows me."

About 30 minutes later, four Whitfield County deputies arrived at Green's house and arrested him.

When Green called 911 that morning, he wasn't just a rambling drunk. He was hurt and venting.

Green had been the caretaker for his 83-year-old mother, Ada. A stroke left her barely able to move. He looked after her, cleaned her, helped her around the house.

But last summer, after Green rammed his Buick Century into the back of another car, Mondragon and another officer arrested him on a DUI charge. Green said he begged police to check on his mother while he was in jail.

But nobody looked for Ada until one of Green's friend, Dennis Southern, stopped by the house about a week later. He found her dead on the living room floor. Since then, Southern said, Green has only grown more depressed. He blames himself for his mother's death.

Poston said he was dropping the case against Green because he didn't see the point of prosecuting it.

"It was not dismissed on the merits of the case," Poston said. "It was dismissed because he had already been punished through the probation revocation."

Green is happy he won't face charges for his drunk 911 call. But he suspects he will return to jail again, somehow, some way.

"I don't know what the problem is with Whitfield County," he said. "They don't care. All they want to do is lock you up and get money out of you. That's all. They don't care if you're hurting or what."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.

News report from the archive:

Upcoming Events