ATLANTA — A Georgia judge ruled Tuesday racketeering charges against dozens accused in a decades-long plot to stop construction of a police and fire training center that critics call “Cop City.”
Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said in a ruling that Republican Attorney General Chris Carr did not have the authority to provide security. 2023 indictments in accordance with the Law of Georgia on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, This was reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.. Farmer said he needed permission from Gov. Brian Kemp.
Carr's office said it plans to appeal.
“We strongly disagree with this decision and will continue to vigorously pursue this domestic terrorism case to ensure justice is served,” his office said.
The 61 defendants in what experts call the largest racketeering case against protesters in U.S. history face charges including throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers and providing food to protesters. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on racketeering charges.
Five of them were also charged with domestic terrorism and first-degree arson for the night in 2023 when Masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at the skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also did not have authority to prosecute the arson charge, but that the domestic terrorism charge could likely be sustained.
Amanda Clark Palmer, an attorney for one of the protesters, praised the judge's decision, saying “the prosecution did not follow the law in bringing these charges,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“We are pleased that a dismissal order has been issued, but our assistance is not complete as we wait to see whether the attorney general will file an appeal,” Clark Palmer said in a statement.
The long-running dispute over the training center came to a head in January 2023 after state troopers involved in a South River Forest cleanup killed a 26-year-old activist known as “Tortugita,” who authorities said shot at them while in a tent near the construction site. The prosecutor established the actions of the security forces ” objectively reasonable.” Tortuguita family filed a lawsuitstating that his hands were in the air and that the soldiers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.
Protests erupted, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police cars and construction equipment to stop the project and intimidate contractors into abandoning it. Opponents also used civilian routes to stop the facility, such as packing city council meetings and led a large-scale referendum that received tied up in court.
Carr, who is running for governor, investigated the case. Kemp called it an important step in the fight against “out-of-state radicals who threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”
Critics called the indictment a politically motivated and heavy-handed attempt to suppress movement against the 85-acre (34-hectare) project, which ultimately cost more than $115 million.
