Charges tossed against Georgia DA accused of hindering Ahmaud Arbery murder investigation

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (CN) — The trial against a former Georgia prosecutor accused of using her position to shield from immediate arrest the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery came to an abrupt end Wednesday morning.

The judge overseeing the case announced from the bench that he would grant a special demurrer to dismiss the final remaining count against former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson.

“This is not a decision I wanted to make, but feel like I must,” Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Senior Judge John R. Turner said.

Johnson argued that the indictment was deficient and failed to specify any crimes for which she faced a felony charge of violating her oath of office. The oath listed in the indictment was one she took when she became the district attorney in August 2010 — not the one she took after being reelected, and was under in February 2020 when Arbery’s murder occurred.

Turner apologized to Arbery’s mother and family members, who attended each day of the trial.

“These words might ring hollow to her, but they are sincere,” Turner said. “I feel sadness for the death of this young man and what his family has gone through.”

Turner said that after listening to testimony throughout the trial, he’ll “never understand” why Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael weren’t arrested sooner.

The white father and his son were convicted of murder and federal hate crimes for arming themselves and pursuing the 25-year-old Black man in a pickup truck through their neighborhood outside the coastal city of Brunswick, about 70 miles south of Savannah.

More than two months passed after the men shot and killed Arbery before any arrests were made, spurring the state’s indictment against Johnson the following year as the roiled community sought accountability.

“I’m thankful we got a chance to find out what really went on, so that was still a win for us,” Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones said Wednesday.

Johnson did not speak to reporters immediately after the jury was dismissed Wednesday, but her attorney Brian Steel criticized the justice system for bringing the charges.

“It’s a sad day. Ahmaud Arbery was slaughtered for no reason and then-Attorney General Chris Carr piggybacked one of the greatest tragedies in our state and nation and indicted an innocent woman,” Steel said.

“She was painted as a person who supported racism, which is totally false,” added the attorney, who recently represented hip-hop artist Young Thug in another high-profile case.

Soon after prosecutors rested their case Monday, Turner granted a directed verdict on the other misdemeanor obstruction charge against Johnson. The judge found that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to show she obstructed the police investigation into Arbery’s death.

Steel said Wednesday that the trial evidence highlighted a lack of accountability toward the police officers involved in the investigation; several witnesses testified that Johnson never instructed anyone to not arrest the McMichaels.

Video evidence showed officers arriving to the Satilla Shores neighborhood after the shooting and declining to arrest Greg McMichael, a retired investigator for Glynn County, despite the blood on his hands and Arbery’s body lying face down on the road.

Officers at the scene instead believed Greg McMichael’s false story that Arbery burglarized a home under construction and that he struggled with his son to take a shotgun from Arbery.

Taking the stand in her own trial, Johnson testified on Tuesday that when she heard the shooting involved her former employee, she immediately recused her office from handling the case.

It wasn’t until May, when a cellphone video captured by William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor who joined the chase and was also convicted, leaked online showing Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun. Johnson said when she viewed the video, “it looked like murder,” and she then informed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation of several voicemails she had received from Greg McMichael.

“Jackie, this is Greg,” he said in the first message left on Johnson’s phone, shortly after the shooting. “Could you call me as soon as you possibly can? My son and I have been involved in a shooting, and I need some advice right away.”

In Johnson’s indictment prosecutors accused her of not upholding her duty as district attorney by “failing to treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity.”

Johnson argued that she arranged a meeting with Arbery’s father and uncle, at their request, to explain to them that she could not be involved with the case and it was up to the attorney general’s office to appoint a prosecutor.

The prosecution then was handed over to George E. Barnhill, then the district attorney of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, who ultimately recused himself as well for finding “insufficient probable cause to issue arrest warrants” for the McMichales and facing increased threats. The state ultimately took over the case as public outrage grew.

Follow @Megwiththenews