BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge Wednesday threw out a felony indictment against a former Georgia prosecutor, ending her trial on charges that she abused her power by trying to protect the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.
Former District Attorney Jackie Johnson for years denied influencing police who initially decided against making arrests when Arbery was fatally shot in coastal Glynn County, where Johnson then served as the top state prosecutor.
She was indicted in September 2021 after state Attorney General Chris Carr ordered an investigation into possible misconduct by Johnson. But prosecutors for Carr’s office struggled to make a case once Johnson’s trial began last week.
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Senior Judge John R. Turner on Monday ordered Johnson acquitted of a misdemeanor count of obstructing police. Turner ruled after prosecutors rested their case, declaring they failed to show “one scintilla of evidence” that Johnson had directed police investigators not to arrest the man who shot Arbery.
The judge Wednesday dismissed the one remaining charge, a felony accusing Johnson of violating her oath of office. This time he granted a defense challenge that the indictment used to charge Johnson was fatally flawed by technical errors.
“Frankly, this is a decision I didn’t want to make,” Turner told attorneys in the courtroom. But he said he felt the defense’s challenge to the indictment against Johnson “needs to be granted.”
The judge also expressed sympathy for Arbery’s mother as she sat in the courtroom.
“When I think of this situation, I get a very deep sense of sadness,” Turner said.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, left the courtroom saying she didn’t fault prosecutors for the case’s dismissal.
“The evidence was there,” Cooper-Jones told reporters. “We all know that Jackie Johnson played a part in the cover-up of the death of Ahmaud.”
Defense attorneys for Johnson asked the judge to dismiss the indictment last week. Turner deferred ruling until Wednesday morning.
The judge didn’t explain his reasoning. Defense lawyers had argued the charge accusing Johnson of violating her oath of office contained a fatal technical error: it cited the oath Johnson signed when she was appointed district attorney in 2010 to fill her predecessor’s unfinished term.
Defense attorneys said that oath expired when Johnson took a new oath after winning election in 2012. She took it again after being reelected in 2016.
Witnesses at the trial included former district attorneys who testified they take a new oath after each four-year election cycle, voiding any prior oaths.
Prosecutor John Fowler declined to speak with reporters, deferring questions to the attorney general’s office. A spokesperson for Carr did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Three white men chased Arbery through their neighborhood before he was fatally shot. They were later convicted of murder and hate crimes.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting the 25-year-old Black man running in their Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun.
The men told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar and argued that he was shot in self-defense. No one was arrested for more than two months, until cellphone video of the shooting leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police.
Since Johnson’s trial opened a week ago, prosecutors have tried to build a case that she worked behind the scenes to protect Travis McMichael and his father, a retired investigator from Johnson’s office, even after the district attorney had recused her office from the case.
Prosecutors suffered a setback last week when Glynn County Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Oliver testified that she and Johnson have never spoken about Arbery’s case. Oliver was one of two officers named in the 2021 indictment charging Johnson with obstruction by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest.”
Prosecutors rested their case Monday without calling Stephan Lowrey, the second officer named in the indictment, to testify.
Johnson recused her office from handling Arbery’s shooting. But prosecutors argued Johnson abused her power by recommending the attorney general appoint a neighboring district attorney, George Barnhill, to oversee the case without disclosing that Barnhill had already advised police that the shooting was justified.
Barnhill testified Friday that he had advised police independently with no input from Johnson.
Johnson was voted out of office in November 2020 and largely blamed her defeat on controversy over Arbery’s killing months earlier.
