MARTA chairman arrested for public indecency
Was receiving oral sex from another man in airport restroom, police say
By PAUL DONSKY, RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 03/14/07

Ed Wall, MARTA's outspoken board chairman, has been charged with public indecency for receiving oral sex and fondling himself in a bathroom at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to police reports.

Wall, a married father of three, apparently met a 25-year-old man from Indianapolis on the Internet and arranged to meet at the airport, police said. The two men engaged in oral sex in a handicapped bathroom stall late Tuesday afternoon, but they left the door slightly ajar and were seen by an undercover officer, according to reports.

Wall's lawyer, Steve Sadow, said Wall has been "falsely accused."

"He is innocent and did not commit any crime," Sadow said. "This false and malicious allegation is a direct affront to chairman Wall's good reputation, and he intends to vigorously defend himself in the court of law and the court of public opinion."

Wall had celebrated his 43rd birthday on Monday.

MARTA officials sent an e-mail to Wall's fellow board members late Wednesday informing them of the arrest and Wall's claim of innocence.

Atlanta police also arrested the other man, Michael Pettry, and charged him with public indecency.

Wall and Pettry both said they met a day or two earlier on craigslist.com, a free Internet advertising service.

Wall's arrest follows the arrest of 11 men between December 2006 and late January for public indecency at Hartsfield-Jackson bathrooms. Among those arrested: an adviser with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a Spelman College professor.

Wall is managing director with Knox Wall, an Atlanta firm that sells public bonds for state and local agencies. He was appointed to the MARTA board in 2002 by DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. He is in his second year as board chairman.

"I offer my consolation to him and his family, and we expect the legal system to work the way it's supposed to," Jones said. He declined further comment.

Wall is well-known in local political circles. He served on the Atlanta Regional Commission as a citizen member and is a member of the regional Transportation Planning Board, sitting at the same table as metro Atlanta's most prominent politicians, including Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Wall has been leading the charge to get Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb counties to extend the 1 percent sales tax from 2032 to 2047, a move that could free up bonding capacity to pay for new projects, such as the Beltline and bus rapid transit lines on I-20.

Wall also is chairman of the planning and funding committee of the Transit Planning Board and has invested more than a year's worth of work into the effort to improve the area's transit options.

But Wall is far from conventional. He usually sports a bow tie, and he carries a backpack to meetings. In his trademark country drawl, Wall frequently makes self-deprecating jokes that break tension and leave observers laughing out loud.

The arrest is a setback for MARTA, the historically embattled transit system that has enjoyed a positive run of late. The authority has posted an operating surplus for the first time in a decade and is rolling out a new fare system and fleet of gleaming, refurbished rail cars.

"It's just disappointing," said Ernie Brooks, president of MARTA's employee union. "It's a bad reflection on MARTA leadership for sure. It seems like it's two steps forward and three back" for the transit system.

According to the police report, Wall was not shy about what he was doing.

The plainclothes officer wrote that he first encountered Wall at the urinal in a restroom on the west concourse that had been the location for several other arrests for public indecency. The officer, S.D. Demeester, wrote that Wall appeared to be fondling himself.

The officer then observed Wall and a second man, Pettry, leave the restroom and walk to a second airport restroom that was closed for cleaning and then to a third restroom near a restaurant in the airport atrium, where they allegedly engaged in oral sex.

After Pettry left the restroom, Wall came out of the stall and stood at the urinal to the left of the undercover officer, reports show.

The officer wrote that Wall "began to look at my genitals as I attempted to urinate" and he tried to start a conversation "in reference to me receiving or giving oral sex." All the while, Wall continued to fondle himself, according to the police report.

"At that point I identified myself as a police officer and placed Mr. Wall into custody," Demeester wrote.

Staff writers Jim Tharpe and Saeed Ahmed contributed to this article.

No pun intended...