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Prosecutors Say Corruption in Atlanta Police Dept. Is
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Apr 2007
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Shaila Dewan and Brenda Goodman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Kathryn+Johnston
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
PROSECUTORS SAY CORRUPTION IN ATLANTA POLICE DEPT. IS WIDESPREAD
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.
Two of the three officers indicted in the shooting, Gregg Junnier and
Jason R. Smith, pleaded guilty on Thursday to state charges including
involuntary manslaughter and federal charges of conspiracy to violate
Ms. Johnston's civil rights.
"Former officers Junnier and Smith will also help us continue our very
active ongoing investigation into just how wide the culture of
misconduct that led to this tragedy extends within the Atlanta Police
Department," said David Nahmias, the United States attorney.
Asked how widespread such practices might be, Mr. Nahmias said
investigators were looking at narcotics officers, officers who had
once served in the narcotics unit and "officers that had never been in
that unit but may have adopted that practice."
The investigation has already led to scrutiny of criminal cases
involving the indicted officers and others who may have used similar
tactics. Paul Howard, the Fulton County district attorney, said his
office was reviewing at least 100 cases involving the three officers,
including 10 in which defendants were in jail.
If they continue to cooperate, Mr. Junnier, who retired after the
shooting, faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and Mr. Smith, who
resigned Thursday, faces 12 years.
The third officer, Arthur Tesler, declined a plea deal. He was
indicted on charges of violation of oath by a public officer, making
false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process.
Mr. Tesler's lawyer, John Garland, said his client was following his
training when he put false claims in an affidavit.
Mr. Nahmias took a moment to dwell on what he said was the unusual
nature of the officers' offenses.
"The officers charged today were not corrupt in the sense that we have
seen before," he said. "They are not accused of seeking payoffs or
trying to rob drug dealers or trying to protect gang members. Their
goal was to arrest drug dealers and seize illegal drugs, and that's
what we want our police officers to do for our community.
"But these officers pursued that goal by corrupting the justice
system, because when it was hard to do their job the way the
Constitution requires, they let the ends justify their means."
Mr. Nahmias said the statement in the plea agreement that officers cut
corners in order to "be considered productive officers and to meet
A.P.D.'s performance targets" reflected their perception of the
department's expectations.
The police chief, Richard Pennington, said that officers were not
trained to lie and that they had no performance quotas. Two weeks ago,
he announced changes to the narcotics squad, including increasing the
unit's size and more careful reviews of requests for so-called
no-knock warrants like the one served on Ms. Johnston's home.
"Let me assure you, if we find out any other officers have been
involved in such egregious acts, they will be dealt with just as
sternly as these other officers have been," said Chief Pennington, who
after the shooting asked for a review by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. "I assure you that we will not tolerate any officers
violating the law and mistreating our citizens in this city."
The death of Ms. Johnston, whose age is listed variously as 88 or 92,
outraged Atlantans, brought simmering discontent with police conduct
toward residents to a boil and led to the creation of a civilian
review board for the Police Department.
The day she was killed, narcotics officers said, they arrested a drug
dealer who said he could tell them where to recover a kilogram of
cocaine, and pointed out Ms. Johnston's modest green-trimmed house at
933 Neal Street.
Instead of hiring an informant to try to buy drugs at the house, the
officers filed for a search warrant, claiming that drugs had been
bought there from a man named Sam. Because they falsely claimed that
the house was equipped with surveillance equipment, they got a
no-knock warrant that allowed them to break down the front door.
First, according to court papers, they pried off the burglar bars and
began to ram open the door. Ms. Johnston, who lived alone, fired a
single shot from a .38-caliber revolver through the front door and the
officers fired back, killing her.
After the shooting, they handcuffed her and searched the house,
finding no drugs.
"She was without question an innocent civilian who was caught in the
worst circumstance imaginable," Mr. Howard, the district attorney,
said at a news conference on Thursday. "When we learned of her death,
all of us imagined our own mothers and our own grandmothers in her
place, and the thought made us shudder."
When no drugs were found, the cover-up began in earnest, according to
court papers.
Officer Smith planted three bags of marijuana, which had been
recovered earlier in the day in an unrelated search, in the basement.
He called a confidential informant and instructed him to pretend he
had made the drug buy described in the affidavit for the search warrant.
The three officers, Mr. Junnier, Mr. Smith and Officer Tesler met to
concoct a story before talking with homicide detectives, the court
filings say.
Though the three met several more times, prosecutors said, Mr. Junnier
admitted the truth in his first interview with F.B.I. agents. Mr.
Smith at first lied about his role, but later admitted to the
conspiracy.
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