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CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Months after a raid on a Clayton County auto dealership, customers are learning they could be victims even if their odometers were not rolled back. Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland spent Thursday getting answers for one of those car buyers. "When you find out on the news that his place is raided, what do you say to yourself?" Strickland asked JD's Auto Sales customer Janice David. "Oh my God, I was like, oh my God. What am I do to?" she replied. David is a repeat customer of auto dealer John Egbe. Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne was there the moment fraud investigators raided Egbe's business in Forest Park. A second enforcement action took place at his Decatur dealership. Egbe is facing charges of false swearing and title fraud. During the raid, Egbe denied any wrongdoing. David bought her 2005 Saturn minivan two months before the raids and put $2,600 down. After getting two temporary tag extensions, David says she's been unable to register the van. It's been parked since before Christmas, and it's not even part of the odometer case. "I can't afford that. It's like giving money away. And I have not been able to resolve the problem," she told Strickland. The car lot is not under receivership. Receiver Boniface Echols, an attorney from Conyers, told Strickland there's no record of David's van, probably because it was sold so long before the raid. He gave Strickland instructions for David, and said he'd work with the state to get it straightened out. The receiver says Janice David is not the first to call with tag and title issues in the backwash of the odometer investigation. "How do you think this is all going to work out?" Strickland asked. "I don't know. I'm praying," said David. A Department of Revenue spokesman says its investigation is almost complete. The case then goes to the district attorney to seek indictments. WSBTV

The owner of Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles should consider closing permanently because of the restaurants' “grave” financial position and “unappealing” conditions, a consultant hired to assess the troubled eateries concluded. A turnaround for the restaurants owned by Shanga Hankerson, the son of the Atlanta soul music legend, could cost more than $100,000 and would take a minimum of one year, said the assessment, which was included in a Tuesday filing in Atlanta U.S. District Court. “Considering the company’s financial position this turnaround model cannot be recommended and the Receiver should contemplate the option of ceasing operations at both locations,” the assessment by Ways and Means Hospitality Consulting said. The restaurant's flagship downtown location was voluntarily closed Monday, several days after flunking its second health inspection in a year. The restaurants went under receivership after Hankerson, 40, was arrested on two felony theft counts. Georgia Department of Revenue investigators found that he had taken tax money he collected and failed to turn it over to the state. Witnesses told investigators that he had spent on marijuana and sex parties as the restaurants sank. The assessment was among records filed Tuesday as part of a suit by Knight that asks a judge to remove her name and likeness from the restaurants. It detailed sanitation problems at the downtown Atlanta location, including six cases of chicken stored at room temperature and stacked on the floor. “Kitchen cleanliness standards shows disregard for all health codes,” it states. The filing also included a report from receiver Boniface Echols that states that his staff continue to uncover unpaid debts, including nearly $48,000 in City of Atlanta water bills. Echols did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. About the Author Willoughby Mariano Willoughby Mariano is an investigative reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she focuses on housing and criminal justice issues. She previously worked for the AJC's PolitiFact Georgia, where she fact checked the claims of elected officials, and at the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered crime and breaking news.