ROY HARRIS officially takes the oath of office today, taking over supervision of the combined city-county drug task force. Mr. Harris will become Counter Narcotics Team commander at a swearing-in ceremony at the Chatham County Commission meeting. The 57-year-old law officer brings a wealth of experience to the position. He will need to put all of that experience to work to hit the ground running in the struggle to rid Savannah and Chatham County of drugs and the violence they bring with them. [continues 215 words]
Police Deceit in Fatal Shooting Puts Spotlight on Neighborhood's Mistrust It's not even 9 a.m. Saturday, but the neighborhood where Kathryn Johnston led a quiet life and met a violent end is already active. Dozens of people are outside. Some walk the streets. Some ride bicycles. Others are busy repairing cars. Most of them have stories to tell about the Atlanta Police Department and the men and women who patrol -- some say terrorize -- their streets. It's a neighborhood still shaken by the latest developments in the investigation of Johnston's death. [continues 1259 words]
Armored Vehicles Get a New Civilian Life For many law enforcement agencies in Georgia, the Pentagon has become a Costco for military surplus: quality merchandise at can't-beat-it prices. For more than 15 years, police and sheriff's departments across the state have used the Department of Defense's excess property program to stock their arsenals with new and used equipment that ordinarily would have been out of their budgetary reach. The Doraville Police Department's SWAT team got an armored personnel carrier -- worth about $400,000 when it was new a few years ago -- at virtually no cost to taxpayers to aid officers in hostage situations. Columbus police picked up a used helicopter last year and saved the city nearly $200,000. [continues 649 words]
Drug Informant Exposed Cover-Up Whoever said crime doesn't pay hasn't met Alexis White. While others shuffle off to work to early morning desk jobs, White has slept late and made a living buying drugs throughout the city as a police informant. That work, which netted White between $20,000 and $30,000 a year, came to an abrupt halt in November when an elderly Atlanta woman was fatally shot by police during a botched drug bust near White's neighborhood. Narcotics officers asked White, 45, to lie to help them with a cover-up, but he called authorities and exposed renegade cops. Three officers were indicted this week in the case, and two have pleaded guilty to killing 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. [continues 453 words]
Atlanta police narcotics officer Gregg Junnier loved the hustle and danger of roaming the streets at night in search of criminals. "He loved the chase," and he was able to make his own rules, his attorney Gino Brogdon said at a news conference Friday. But in that universe, he learned shortcuts that led to the tragic death of Kathryn Johnston on Nov. 21. Johnston was killed by a team of narcotics officers who burst into her house after dark, expecting to find a kilo of cocaine and a man named Sam. Instead, they found a frightened 92-year-old shut-in who opened fire on what she thought were intruders. [continues 208 words]
Mayor, on Asia Trip, Promises Unspecified Action on Killing and Cover-Up; Chief Stays Out of Public Eye On Thursday, federal authorities made explosive allegations of widespread misconduct in the Atlanta Police Department. On Friday, the city administration remained vague in its response. Chief Richard Pennington had earlier said he was taking part of Friday off to work on his house and could not be reached for comment. Mayor Shirley Franklin was in South Korea and Japan on a trip to bring business to the city. At first, an aide said the mayor had not yet been briefed. Later, in response to e-mailed questions, Franklin said the chief briefed her a month ago on "the seriousness of the charges." Pennington "has already started to implement recommendations and changes as a result of the investigation and we will continue to take action on any new findings," the mayor wrote. [continues 929 words]
9 QUESTIONS FOR MAYOR SHIRLEY FRANKLIN City Searches for Answers in Response to Officers' Guilty Pleas on Botched Drug Raid A day after two Atlanta police officers pleaded guilty in state and federal courts to killing 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a botched drug raid, the city searched for answers. Chief Richard Pennington took part of Friday off and could not be reached for comment. Mayor Shirley Franklin was on a trade mission to Asia. She e-mailed a response to specific questions posed by the newspaper. [continues 384 words]
Woman, ', Died In Hail Of 39 Police Bullets ATLANTA - Two police officers pleaded guilty yesterday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. A third officer still faces charges. Officer J.R. Smith told a state judge yesterday that he regretted what had happened. "I'm sorry," the 35-year-old said, his voice barely audible. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation, making false statements and perjury, which was based on claims in a warrant. [continues 377 words]
ATLANTA -- After the fatal police shooting of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid, the United States attorney here said Thursday that prosecutors were investigating a "culture of misconduct" in the Atlanta Police Department. In court documents, prosecutors said Atlanta police officers regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated documentation of drug purchases, as they had when they raided the home of the woman, Kathryn Johnston, in November, killing her in a hail of bullets. Narcotics officers have admitted to planting marijuana in Ms. Johnston's home after her death and submitting as evidence cocaine they falsely claimed had been bought at her house, according to the court filings. [continues 902 words]
By Rhonda Cook and Bill Torpy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Two Atlanta police officers made a second appearance in court today to plead guilty to felonies in the fatal shooting of a 92-year-old woman in her home. Officers Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith made their second stop Wednesday afternoon to plead guilty to violating the civil rights of Kathryn Johnston by killing her during a botched drug raid at her home Nov. 21. 2006. [continues 1613 words]
Two Atlanta Cops Plead Guilty in Woman's Death What started with a few bags of marijuana being planted near a suspected street dealer quickly spiraled out of control. Narcotics officers lied to a judge, illegally broke into 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston's house, fired 39 shots at her -- and then one handcuffed her as she lay bleeding before he planted drugs in her basement. The events of Nov. 21, outlined in court documents, were almost an "inevitable" outcome of a troubled police unit, a federal prosecutor said Thursday as two former Atlanta narcotics officers pleaded guilty and promised to cooperate in a wider probe of the department. [continues 1143 words]
Feds Detail Woman's Death, Officers' Plea According to federal documents released Thursday, these are the events that led to Kathryn Johnston's death and the steps the officers took to cover their tracks. Three narcotics agents were trolling the streets near the Bluffs in northwest Atlanta, a known market for drugs, midday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Eventually they set their sights on some apartments on Lanier Street, usually fertile when narcotics agents are looking for arrests and seizures. Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods. Smith found dozens of bags of marijuana -- in baggies that were clear, blue or various other colors and packaged to sell. With no one connected to the pot, Smith stashed the bags in the trunk of the patrol car. A use was found for Smith's stash 90 minutes later: A phone tip led the three officers to a man in a "gold-colored jacket" who might be dealing. The man, identified as X in the documents but known as Fabian Sheats, spotted the cops and put something in his mouth. They found no drugs on Sheats, but came up with a use for the pot they found earlier. [continues 610 words]
The Heritage School has added a policy that school leaders hope will make it easier for students to say no to drugs. Random drug testing is now part of the contract between parents and the local college preparatory private school. Periodically, student names are pulled using a lottery system. The students selected have a bit of hair snipped, and the hair is tested. "We want to be able to say we are a 100 percent drug free campus, and we're doing everything we can to make that" a reality, said Judith Griffith, headmaster at Heritage. [continues 1288 words]
Columnist Anne Hart writes April 20, the unofficial holiday among pot smokers, is a time to talk to your kids about drugs. But how do you answer the question, "Mommy, did you ever smoke grass?" Friday is a big day for bong hits. April 20 - "4/20" in stoner code - has long been considered an unofficial holiday among marijuana users. It's a day to gather and chant "Free the weed" and write representatives calling for the decriminalization of pot. The phrase "420 friendly" is slang for marijuana use. [continues 619 words]
An investigation by the Winder Police Department and the Barrow County School System has resulted in the arrests of 11 individuals at Winder-Barrow High School for drug-related offenses. The six-month long "sting" drug operation began at the request of Winder-Barrow Principal Rob Johnson, who had received multiple complaints from concerned parents, students and community members about the illegal drugs being purchased and distributed on his school campus. "This operation began as a fact-finding mission," said Johnson. "We wanted to see if the complaints were true." [continues 670 words]
WINDER -- A six-month undercover sting operation resulted in the arrests Monday of 11 Winder-Barrow High School students. Three juveniles ages 15 and 16 were arrested along with [Name redacted], 17; [Name redacted], 18; [Name redacted], 17; [Name redacted], 18; [Name redacted], 17; [Name redacted], 17; [Name redacted], 18; and [Name redacted], 19. The students face multiple drug-related charges. The arrests began about 9:15 a.m. Monday at the school, about 30 minutes after classes began. "They waited until after the students were settled in their classes to avoid making a big spectacle," said Lt. Todd Druse, Winder Police Department spokesman. "It was all over within about half an hour." [continues 339 words]
WINDER, Ga. - Authorities arrested 11 high school students on drug charges after a six-month undercover investigation at the school in which a police employee posed as a classmate. The arrests began Monday, shortly after classes began at Winder-Barrow High School. The students - whose ages range from 15 to 19 - face a total of 26 charges. Most students were arrested at the school, but one, who did not come to school, was arrested at home. Prompted by complaints from parents and students, the investigation began in September when a Winder police employee enrolled at the school as a student, Principal Rob Johnson said. [continues 113 words]
Growers Find Areas Make Easy Hide-Outs LAWRENCEVILLE, GA - In Coldwater Creek, a middle-class housing development outside Atlanta, the neighbors mind their own business and respect one another's privacy - ideal conditions, it turns out, for growing marijuana in the suburbs. Police this month raided an utterly ordinary-looking red-brick house on the block and broke up a pot-growing operation with 680 plants arrayed under bright lights. "You'd never know from the outside. I guess that's the idea," said Doug Augis, who lives with his pregnant wife and a toddler in Coldwater Creek. "That doesn't give you a really good feeling." [continues 529 words]
LAWRENCEVILLE, GA. - In Coldwater Creek, a middle-class housing development outside Atlanta, the neighbors mind their own business and respect each other's privacy - ideal conditions, it turns out, for growing marijuana in the suburbs. Police this month raided an utterly ordinary-looking, redbrick house on the block and broke up a pot-growing operation with 680 plants arrayed under bright lights. "You'd never know from the outside. I guess that's the idea," said Doug Augis, who lives with his pregnant wife and a toddler in Coldwater Creek. "That doesn't give you a really good feeling." [continues 354 words]
High school athletes will be randomly tested for drug use now that the school board approved a mandatory drug testing policy for student-athletes last Thursday. The vote was unanimous. Parents and members of the White County Meth Task Force present at the meeting thanked school officials for initiating the policy. No one voiced opposition to the new policy at the school board meeting. "If a (school) policy like this had been in place my daughter might be alive today," said Melissa Adams whose daughter, Shannon Harter, was killed five years ago in Harrison County, Miss. Harter's boyfriend later committed suicide and is believed to have been involved in her death. Adams said no one knew that her daughter's boyfriend was using drugs at the time. [continues 457 words]
Inside Georgia
