News from Atlanta

[F4GIB]

The Fulton County district attorney will seek felony murder charges against at least one of the Atlanta police officers involved in a botched drug raid that resulted in the shooting death of an elderly woman, said the officer's attorney.

Defense attorney Rand Csehy, who is representing Gregg Junnier, said he had received an e-mail from District Attorney Paul Howard's office Wednesday saying the prosecutor would go before a grand jury on Feb. 26 to seek charges against his client.

Kathryn Johnston was killed Nov. 21, 2006, when narcotics officers went to her home to execute a no-knock warrant.

It was unclear Wednesday evening whether charges were being sought against others. Eight officers were put on administrative leave after the shooting. The November incident prompted a multi-jurisdictional investigation that included state and federal authorities. * * *

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/02/07/0207atlshoot.html

I'm just speechless.

 

[Mortech]

It will be interesting to see if/when the feds bring civil rights violation charges against the officers .

 

[pacodelahoya]

F4GIB

About what, that it is only one em or or one at all?

I expected at least something to come of that little episode. Suprised it's murder though.

 

[shooter503]

"There was no malfeasance here, it was sloppy police work," Csehy said. "It was cutting corners."

Junnier later told federal investigators that officers had lied to a magistrate judge about sending a confidential informant to Johnston's house to purchase drugs in order to get the warrant.

No malfeasance, really? This one they buy.

 

[JWarren]

Suprised it's murder though.

I'm VERY glad that it is murder. Nothing can change the fact that they KILLED an innocent woman down in her home. Not making this murder makes it very easy to have more "accidents" due to "sloppy police work."

In my career, if I do something particularly stupid, I am held liable and will end up paying-- and THAT isn't even something that involves someone dying.

John

 

[pacodelahoya]

Oh, I'm glad too, just suprised is all.

 

[JWarren]

yep...I'm definately surprised as well.

John

 

[pictoblu]

IMHO, this is the interesting part of the article (if I am reading it correctly). Last paragraph.

"The family of Kathryn Johnston is extremely unhappy and disappointed with today's turn of events. Mr. Howard's move today of pressing charges would effectively limit the scope of and the potential charges of a federal investigation, and borders on tampering with a federal investigation."

 

[Erinyes]

Which makes no sense to me. The state charges are worse than anything the Feds could bring down. Note that 'felony murder' in GA carries only two possible sentences; life imprisonment and death. That cop is getting the book thrown at him.

 

[Kindrox]

What happened in Atlanta seems pretty obvious now. These cops bust a drug dealer and either for profit or revenge gives up this old lady as having a pound of Cocaine.

The dealer’s profit motive is easy to see. We know the old lady had Marijuana, maybe this dealer sold it to her and though he would get a deal from the cops by rolling over on someone else.

However I question that motive because he knew at the end of the day she did not have a kilo of coke. So I think his real motive was revenge, either against the old lady or the cops. As a dealer, he would have had to know how the cops would react to the 1-kilo-of-coke bait. My only question is was his lie aimed at the old lady, or at the cops and what he figured they would do to an old lady? Did the dealer know the old lady had a gun? It sounds like the old gag of telephoning someone everyday and calling him a jerk. Then arranging for the *jerk* to come to your house at the same time another nemesis of yours coming over, then calling the cops . . .

As I understand it, one kilo of Coke is a very large bust and would be a tremendous feather in a cop’s cap. So the dealer sets the cops up with their own greed, and the cops decide they want the bust enough to lie to the judge, insuring a warrant is issued.

To me this is the key element of the crime. The cops must not have believed they could get a warrant with just the word of a drug dealer, so they embellished the story to be sure and get one. There are constitutional reasons why probable cause has to be shown.

Had the old lady been unarmed, nobody ever would have known the truth. They would have trashed the woman’s house, scared her to death, found her stash of Marijuana, and declared victory.

The lying to get a warrant was premeditated and in my mind clearly done for personal gain. This is no different than any other premeditated felony which results in murder.

 

[El Tejon]

Erinyes, no, the feds, with unlimited resources and the power of federal criminal law, can do far more damage than the state of Georgia not only to that particular officer but the entire crew that did the hit on the house and the department. The Fulton County DA is stepping in front of the feds to limit the number of officers who go to prison.

It should not be only "that cop" it is clearly a systemic problem and I am shocked that no Conspiracy to Commit Murder has been filed against the officers confederates and supervisors. Perhaps those will come later?

 

[glummer]

(Un)foreseen consequences?

Note that 'felony murder' in GA carries only two possible sentences; life imprisonment and death. That cop is getting the book thrown at him.

But, with no lesser charges made, will that mean the jury must hang him high, or let him walk?

 

[El Tejon]

glummer, I would think that lessers would be given, at least Manslaughter or Reckless Homicide.

 

[Deanimator]

Note that 'felony murder' in GA carries only two possible sentences; life imprisonment and death.

A guy in Illinois got the death penalty for being a CUSTOMER in a drug house where one cop accidentally shot and killed another cop in a raid.

I think the Atlanta cop(s) in question are FAR more deserving of the needle than that poor schlep.

 

[benEzra]

The dealer’s profit motive is easy to see. We know the old lady had Marijuana, maybe this dealer sold it to her and though he would get a deal from the cops by rolling over on someone else.

Actually, we don't know that she had marijuana. We know that a joint was allegedly found in her house, but we don't know that SHE put it there.

Unless she's lived in that house ever since it was built and has never let anyone else inside it, it's entirely possible that the joint was somebody else's. A former owner/resident of the house, a friend of her son's (if she had kids), etc.

 

[ArmedBear]

Is there such thing as "misdemeanor murder" in Georgia?

 

[glummer]

Tejon

glummer, I would think that lessers would be given, at least Manslaughter or Reckless Homicide

I would hope so; but I seem to recall at least one case where the DA went all-out for the top charge only, and the accused was acquitted, because the jury wouldn’t go that far. It could even be a deliberate maneuver; throwing the fight, so to speak.

 

[.45FMJoe]

Officers charged in murder of 92 year old Atlanta woman

Nice, notice BET.com is the only one who cares.

http://www.bet.com/News/KATHRYNJOHN...ferrer={03CE5360-2620-42CB-AD7E-77E4249C5FB7}

Police Face Charges in 92-Year-Old Woman's Death
BET.com News Staff & Wire Services

Posted Feb. 8, 2007 – Prosecutors in Fulton County say they plan to seek justice for the 92-year-old Atlanta woman who was shot to death in her home by Atlanta Police by seeking criminal charges against three officers involved.

The proposed indictment against officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Tesler accuses them of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, burglary, making false statements and violation of oath.

Smith is accused of falsely telling detectives that he instructed an informant to make a police-monitored drug buy at the house. Tesler is accused of lying to the FBI when he told them he witnessed such a drug buy. Junnier is accused of falsely stating that the two other officers met with the informant.

Shortly after the shooting, a local TV station interviewed an unidentified man who said he was the informant. He said the officers told him to lie about what happened and offered to pay him.

The woman, Kathryn Johnston, was shot to death on Nov. 21 after three officers, who were not in uniform, allegedly kicked down her door without knocking to respond to a report of drug activity in Johnston's home.

The woman's niece, Sarah Dozier, said she bought her aunt Kathryn the gun to protect herself and that her aunt had a permit for the gun. Dozier said that she opened fired on the officers because they didn't identify themselves and she was scared.

An autopsy found that she had been shot five or six times.

Narcotics officers said an informer had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.

Attorneys for the officers call the indictment "overbroad," but in a letter to the victim's family, District Attorney Paul Howard wrote, "The death of Mrs. Johnston constitutes one of the greatest tragedies ever to occur in Fulton County. I will not rest until every person responsible for her death is held accountable."

So now, where were all the naysayers from the previous threads defending the police officers?

I say find a rope and a tall tree, they are a disgrace to all who wear a badge.

 

[General Geoff]

They had to have known what they were doing was wrong; don't commit the crime if you can't do the time.

 

[CountGlockula]

I say find a rope and a tall tree, they are a disgrace to all who wear a badge.

A jailed cop...you know what's going to happen in the big house.

 

[.45FMJoe]

Wow, just wow. From the first link.

Atlanta police Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, called reports that prosecutors would seek indictments against the officers "sad."

"I think any time law enforcement officer is accused of a crime, we all sit back and wonder what went wrong and look within ourselves in what we do day to day," Kreher said. "Hopefully, if it's presented to a grand jury and there isn't enough evidence, they will send back a no bill."

Newsflash, buddy. You, too, are still a citizen.

 

[Kindrox]

Actually, we don't know that she had marijuana. We know that a joint was allegedly found in her house, but we don't know that SHE put it there.

I don't know if she put it there or not. The fact is it was there, and absent her murder, the cops would have used it to white wash the crime. I don't believe for a second that this kind of cowboy police action is all that rare. People are people, cops or not, and it just takes one officer regularly breaking the rules to get ahead in his career. These couple of cops just got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. A slightly different set of facts, and they would walk.

The funny thing is, at the end of the day it was the lady in possession of a gun that brought the cops down. A fact I am sure won’t be lost on the anti-gun police officers, who will become even more set in ‘guns are only for cops and military’.

I know there is a thin blue line and all, but I don’t see why any honest cop could/would defend these criminals, or object to a murder charge on any/all of them. Any officer that knew or had reason to suspect the origins of the warrant deserve a second degree murder charge. In any civilian world that’s how it would go.

 

[Deanimator]

I don't know if she put it there or not.

If the cops would lie on a warrant, then try to get an informant to lie, what's stopping them from planting a joint?

I believe that the term is "a pattern of behavior".

 

[Biker]

Well put, Deanimator.

"Falsis in unum, falsis in omnibus..."

Biker

 

[TCB in TN]

Anyone willing to fabricate as much other evidence as was apparently done here, would certainly be willing to drop a joint in a corner somewhere to cover themselves.

If things really are as they appear to be here, then any and all of those individuals involved deserve a very painful fate.