YEAR IN REVIEW
#5: Former Cobb GOP Chairman Joe Dendy charged with child molestation
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BY Anthony White Dec 27, 2016
In this file photo, Joe Dendy, right, and his attorney, William McKenney, react after Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele P. Grubbs denied Dendy bond on June 3 on charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation, both felonies.
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Editor's Note: The MDJ is counting down the top local stories of 2016 as voted on by newspaper employees. The series this week leads to the Daily Journal’s special review of the last year and a look ahead for 2017 in the Jan. 1 edition.
MARIETTA — The arrest of former Cobb Republican Party Chair Joe Dendy in May on charges that he molested two boys in separate incidents in his home occurring as far back as 2007 would have been headline news even if 2016 had not been a presidential election year.
However, because politics was big news in 2016, Dendy’s arrest garnered even more attention.
Dendy was arrested at his west Cobb home then booked into the county jail on May 20. After his arrest, local police learned that Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Laurens Police Department in Laurens, South Carolina, both had arrest warrants alleging sexual abuse charges against Dendy, said Sgt. Dana Pierce with Cobb police.
In Cobb, Dendy faced charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation, both felonies, resulting from two incidents that police say occurred at his west Cobb home. According to the arrest warrants, in 2011, Dendy inappropriately touched a 4-year-old boy who was sitting in his lap. The boy disclosed the details of the incident in a forensic interview, with a now-20-year-old witness supporting the boy’s story. The other charge alleges that in 2007 or 2008, Dendy performed sex acts on a boy, who was 12 or 13 at the time.
In August, Dendy was indicted on 13 charges, including four counts of cruelty to children in the first degree and one count each of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation.
According to the indictment, the earliest incident occurred sometime in late 2004 to late 2006, when Dendy allegedly took one of the boys into a Cobb department store in order to commit a sexual act.
A not guilty plea was entered on Dendy’s behalf at an arraignment in September.
Dendy’s case was slated to come up in Cobb County Superior Court earlier in December but the scheduled motions hearing was delayed to Jan. 4. The case could begin in the trial week starting Jan. 9.
Dendy was elected Cobb GOP chair in 2011. He served two consecutive two-year terms then stepped down in 2015 due to term limit restrictions. After stepping down as Cobb Republican Party chair, Dendy continued his political work as the state director of party development.
In November, the Cobb County Republican Committee debated whether to boot Dendy out of the organization, which he is still a member of by virtue of being past chairman. The organization decided to wait until after Dendy’s trial before taking action on the matter.
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MY COMMENT: The Cobb County Repubican Committee is a spineless bunch of morons and none of them should represent the party and I have told them that and you can also:
Contact the Cobb County Republican Committee members via:
chair@cobbgop.org,
cobbgop@gmail.com,
1vc@cobbgop.org,
2vc@cobbgop.org,
3vc@cobbgop.org,
secretary@cobbgop.org,
treasurer@cobbgop.org,
assistant.treasurer@cobbgop.org
