https://www.fox13news.com/news...ld-human-trafficking

quote:

Jimmie Gardener lives in Georgia and works as a motivational speaker and emotional intelligence trainer for students and people who were formerly incarcerated.

TAMPA, Fla. - Jimmie Gardener, 57, was arrested on Friday morning after a 16-year-old reported that he attacked her for refusing to have sex, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Around 1:43 a.m., TPD says Gardener invited the victim to his room at Renaissance Hotel at International Plaza, and she accepted the invitation.

The victim told police she initially agreed to take money in exchange for sex acts but later told Gardner that she no longer wanted to engage, and he became angry.

According to officials, Gardner told the victim that she needed to leave his hotel room and the two got into a verbal argument that escalated to a physical dispute after Gardner put his hands around the victim's neck, stopping her from being able to breathe.

TPD says after the dispute, Gardner left the hotel room and the victim called 911. According to officers, Gardner left the scene before they arrived, but found the victim.

Gardner was arrested on charges including human trafficking, lewd and lascivious touching of certain minors, and battery, according to police.

The State Attorney's Office says that Gardner, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1984, was wrongly convicted in the 1987 sexual assault of two women in West Virginia. Authorities say 27 years after his wrongful conviction, he was exonerated in 2016 and released from prison.

Two years after his release, he married Georgia Federal Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, according to officials. He is the brother-in-law of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Jimmie Gardener lives in Georgia and works as a motivational speaker and emotional intelligence trainer for students and people who were formerly incarcerated.

"Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Our attorneys will prosecute this case as we would any other offender who is alleged to have committed these crimes. We take these charges very seriously," said State Attorney Suzy Lopez in a statement.

Jimmie Gardener is in jail in Hillsborough County with no bond, according to police. He is scheduled to face a judge in first appearance court in Tampa on Saturday.

Motivational speaker…HAAAAAA!

I expect Jimmie will refuse to 'concede' long after everyone else has accepted that the counts are accurate!

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Motivational speaker…HAAAAAA!

Government grants out the wazoo.

So he got mad after he paid an underage hooker and got ripped off.

Seems like somewhere in that chain of events he could have made a better decision or two.

I use to run into these guys when I lived in Detroit, they always called themselves entrepreneurs.

Motivational Speaker, isn't that the same as a community organizer,

Got to be some way to turn him into a victim.

Looking forward to hearing Stacey Abrams spin on what happened, she'll be tap dancing I'm sure!

Can’t be that good at his job if he wasn’t able to motivate a 16 year old.
What a piece of shit. The old “no means no” doesn’t fly, huh?
Couldn’t even motivate her to leave the hotel room..

quote:

...escalated to a physical dispute after Gardner put his hands around the victim's neck, stopping her from being able to breathe.

That's a really long way to say he choked her.

Sounds like a basic disagreement over price and product ... he should have just taken her to small claims court.

So what lesson is "choke a bitch" in emotional intelligence training?

Guess he didn’t wanna choke the chicken, so he choked the 16-year old girl instead.

The presumption of innocence is fine, but if he is in any way connected to Stacey Abrams, he can't be all that great.

It was a mostly peaceful choking.