Training center protesters claim 'legal victory' in RICO case

ATLANTA — The more than 60 police training center protesters tied up in the Georgia attorney general’s sweeping racketeering case said they were ready to keep fighting after a judge said he would likely let them off the hook over a legal technicality.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer said this week he was leaning toward tossing Attorney General Chris Carr’s charges under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The dismissal, should the judge finalize the order, would be based on the fact that the AG’s office skipped an essential step: it failed to get written permission from the governor to bring its case.

Kamau Franklin, a longtime training center opponent and community activist, said he hopes the charges being dropped allows those indicted to rebuild their lives and move on.

But, Franklin said, the indictment already did what the state intended: it criminalized the movement against so-called “Cop City,” the nickname the protesters gave to the massive Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

“The damage that this did to the movement and to the people cannot be forgotten,” Franklin told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think it’s great for the individuals, but I think it has to be recognized as a tactic and strategy that was meant to harm the movement and people, and it did just that.”

Attorney General Chris Carr, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, announced the indictment in August 2023, describing those who opposed the training center as anarchists whose core belief is that “society should abolish police, government and private business.”

Franklin said he hopes now that the charges are likely to be dropped that the “veil of criminality” around the movement can be lifted.

The project was one of the city’s most highly debated projects and often led to clashes between police and protesters.

Opponents of the facility spent hours at Atlanta City Council meetings demanding for the project to be halted. An effort to bring a referendum to a ballot is still in limbo as the case is stuck in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals with no indication on when the court might rule.

A protester, Manuel Paez Terán, 26, was shot and killed during a police “clearing operation” of opponents of the training center who had occupied grounds near the construction site. Terán’s family has filed a lawsuit against the officers involved the shooting.

But the training center, which city officials touted as a necessary need for the city’s police force since it was proposed by former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in 2021, officially opened in April.

Although the facility has been built and is operational, Rev. Keyanna Jones Moore said it doesn’t change the overarching goal of the “Stop Cop City” movement, as it continues to fight “against over-policing in under-resourced areas and a culture of surveillance that unfairly targets marginalized people.”

“The movement to stop Cop City was never just about a building, it was never about that particular building that was built here in Atlanta,” Jones, a prominent local organizer, told the AJC.

Jones, who is involved as a plaintiff in the referendum effort, said she was relieved when she heard of the charges being dropped, calling the charges “frivolous.” She said there was a lot of fear and anxiety as many didn’t trust the courts and didn’t know what could happen if the case continued.

Georgia’s RICO statute carries a minimum five-year prison sentence upon conviction.

“We don’t have to be afraid anymore because it might take us to a courtroom, but there is hope that somebody, a judge with not only a conscience, but a judge who is willing to follow the letter of the law is going to hear a case and we can continue the work that we’ve been doing,” Jones said.

For Brad Thompson, an attorney representing defendant Serena Hertel, the dismissal of the charges was “a significant victory” and showed the indictment was fatally flawed from the beginning.

“This is an important political legal victory because this tells the state you can’t go and attack a legitimate social movement. You can’t use the law to criminalize protected speech, to criminalize a broad-based popular social movement,” Thompson said Wednesday in a press conference held outside the Fulton County Courthouse following a motions hearing.

A felony RICO conviction carries a sentence of five to 20 years, but the sentence can be solely of probation, of prison time or a mixture of both.

The RICO charges are not the only ones that have been dropped or dismissed from the indictment.

Last year, a number of money-laundering charges against Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were dismissed by the AG’s office, however, all three still faced RICO charges for their involvement with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which prosecutors alleged raised bail money for people arrested protesting the training center.

Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer has not made a decision on whether he will also toss domestic terrorism and arson charges five remaining defendants still face.

Kautz, who was surrounded by fellow protesters of the training center, said although the judge’s decision acknowledges the defects of the case, it is not enough for them.

“It is not enough to watch the state flail and stumble in their arguments. It’s not enough to see this prosecution failing. These defendants need accountability from the police, from prosecutors and the politicians who have conspired to bring these false charges against us,” he said.

Alexis Papali, who faced one count of RICO, said the movement has been able to galvanize supporters throughout the city, country and the world and don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

“This fight is not over,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere. This movement is here to stay and it’s only strengthened by all of the forces that are implicated by this prosecution.”

A representative for the attorney general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.