2 await Dekalb exoneration

Cleared men are left with ‘cloud.’ Others charged in Pin Ups strip club owner’s 2010 death.

Despite seemingly irrefutable evidence, Joey Celestin and Bill Nichols did not kill Pin Ups owner Terry Stephenson, police have refused to clear the two men in the September 2010 shooting outside the Dekalb County strip club.

Even now, one week after a Dekalb grand jury charged three other men — including the strip club’s manager — with Stephenson’s killing, Celestin and Nichols are waiting to be exonerated.

“The Dekalb Police Department has done nothing to remove the cloud they left over Mr. Celestin’s and Mr. Nichols’ heads,” Celestin’s attorney, Dave Krugler, told The Atlanta Journal-constitution. “They’ve nev- er made a statement exonerating them. To the contrary, their last statements after the charges were dismissed is that they had the right and could re-charge them at a later time.”

In an interview last year with the AJC, Celestin said that, even though charges were dropped, he was still dogged by the accusation. “Google my name and see what comes up,” he said.

Indeed, the first article to appear in a Google search of “Joey Celestin” includes this quote from a Dekalb police spokeswoman: “New information has come up, and detectives are looking into it, but these new developments do not mean the detectives cannot revisit charges against [Celestin and Nichols] in the future.”

A Dekalb police spokeswoman did not return a request for comment late Friday afternoon.

When last contacted about the incident, in November, another police spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the open investigation.

Krugler filed a legal document in June declaring his intent to seek damages for his client’s “unlawful, unconstitutional arrest, imprisonment and incarceration.”

He also requested an “unequivocal statement” exonerating his client, financial compensation and an investigation into those involved in the Pin Ups investigation.

Receiving no answer, Krugler sued the county in November for negligence, malicious arrest and false imprisonment. No trial date has been set.

Celestin told the AJC he lost his job, apartment and car because of his arrest.

He has relocated to Florida with his wife and two sons in hopes of “starting over,” his attorney said.

After he was arrested, Celestin said investigators claimed to have video footage showing him shooting Stephenson and fleeing with a duffel bag containing $61,000. He also alleged that, while incarcerated, he was told Nichols had implicated him in the murder.

The two men were released after their attorneys produced evidence that both men, who had been at the club having lunch, had returned to work a mile away at Atlanta Kitchen before the shooting.

They signed in to work using a biometric time clock requiring a handprint at the moment Stephenson was shot, lawyers said.

Moreover, neither Celestin nor Nichols matched descriptions provided to police of the shooter, seen speeding away in a black sedan.

Celestin, who had driven himself and Nichols to Pin Ups, owned a blue Dodge Charger at the time.

Krugler said his client remains traumatized by the three weeks he spent locked up along with the stain the charges brought his name. He said he plans to send another request to officials next week asking them to exonerate Celestin and Nichols.

Said Krugler: “You’d like to think, just out of fairness, they’ll respond.”