Money laundering charges dropped against three 'Cop City' activists in Atlanta police training center case

ATLANTA (CN) — The Georgia Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it is dropping all money laundering charges brought against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid protests against the construction of the city’s Public Safety Training Center.

Before a motions hearing began Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams that he would be filing paperwork to dismiss a total of 15 money laundering charges.

The attorney general’s office dismissed charges against Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson relating to their involvement in the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which prosecutors accused of misusing bail fund donations to fund the “violent acts” of protesters.

According to the indictment, the money laundering charges stemmed from certain transactions, including $93.04 for “camping supplies” and $12.52 for “forest kitchen materials,” that prosecutors claimed were made to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.

A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the charges were dropped.

The three defendants still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year for joining the purported “Defend the Atlanta Forest” conspiracy in an attempt to prevent the construction of the training center. The indictment describes Defend the Atlanta Forest as a “self-identified coalition and enterprise of militant anarchists, eco-activists, and community organizers.”

Kristen Novay, Patterson’s attorney, said the office made the right decision.

She has issues with the remaining racketeering charges against her client that she hopes the judge will dismiss in the future, as well.

Tuesday’s decision comes about two weeks after the judge overseeing the case turned down an attempt to dismiss the indictments and allowed the attorney general’s office to remain on the case.

Defense attorneys representing Kautz, Patterson and MacLean argued for the attorney general’s office should be stopped from prosecuting the case after their attorneys and the Atlanta Police Department accessed emails containing attorney-client privileged communication, which were later shared with attorneys representing the other 58 defendants.

In an Aug. 30 order, the judge allowed the attorney general’s office to continue prosecuting the case, but admonished prosecutors and warned that any future misconduct would result in “additional sanctions as determined appropriate.”

Demonstrators and civil rights activists have condemned the racketeering indictment and accused Carr, a Republican, of levying weighty charges of domestic terrorism to try to silence a movement that has galvanized environmentalists and criminal justice reform advocates across the country and even internationally.

Several defendants are accused of taking “direct action” in Atlanta and other states that has included vandalizing private property, arson, destruction of government property, threatening and throwing rocks and fireworks at law enforcement and utility workers.

However, charges against some of the defendants did not stem from any violent acts and revolve around trespassing, which is typically a misdemeanor offense. Charges against seven defendants stem from merely occupying tree houses in the forested area of the proposed site in January 2023.

Critics of the proposed 85-acre, $110-million facility that is set to be the nation’s largest training center of its kind, have expressed a variety of concerns over its construction. The high price tag has drawn opposition from locals, widespread concern over the destruction of one of Atlanta’s largest remaining forested areas, and fears the facility will result in greater police militarization and over-policing of poor and majority-Black communities.

Despite various demonstrations and attacks against the site and contractors’ equipment over the past few years, construction of the center continues. Officials say they plan for it to be finished in December.

Proponents of the facility argue it is needed to replace outdated facilities across the city and that it will help better train, as well as recruit, officers and first responders.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 signed petitions to let voters weigh in on the project have spent the past year sitting in boxes as officials await a ruling from the 11th Circuit on whether nonresidents were allowed to collect signatures as part of the mass referendum effort.

Outrage over the city’s lack of action continued Monday, when dozens of protesters testified in front of the Atlanta City Council and hurled hundreds of ping pong balls, representing the signatures, around the chamber while chanting, “You have dropped the ball.”

The first trial, for defendant Ayla King, was slated to begin in January but was put on hold after the 19-year-old appealed the judge’s denial of a motion to dismiss. The motion seeks to acquit King on the basis that their October speedy trial demand was not met.

Once King’s trial is complete, Adams said that she plans to begin prosecuting the remaining 60 defendants in groups of five with Patterson, Kautz and MacLean among the first group.

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