Judge abandons terrorism charges against Atlanta “Police City” protesters | “Police City”

The judge has dismissed domestic terrorism charges against the defendants, which involve allegations of construction equipment related to vandals Georgiacommonly known as Police City, is considered a victory for protesters.

DeKalb High Court Judge Gregory Adams ruled Thursday that the defendant Jamie Marsicano’s due process and constitutional rights to a quick trial were violated by the state and failed to arrest them at a nearby music festival two and a half years later.

“The judge admitted that the state was intentionally postponed, which is what the public skeptics and activists said,” said Masicano attorney Xavier de Janon. “It’s the idea that the process is punishment.”

Opposition to the $109 million center that opened this spring comes from various local and national organizations and protesters, and focuses on the focus on police militarization and forest cleaning Climate crisis. Atlanta police said “world-class” training needed the center and attracted new police.

Over the past three years, the state has filed allegations of family terrorism against opponents of the DeKalb Training Center and RICO conspiracy charges in neighboring Fulton County and uses regulations commonly used for organized crime.

Marsicano faces charges in both places. At last week’s hearing on De Kalb’s delay, De Janon said the state was trying to make charges in two counties based on the same alleged act “trying to get two apples.” Marsicano could also be one of the first of 61 defendants in the RICO case, the largest criminal corruption indictment ever filed against members of protests or social movements.

Meanwhile, Marsicano graduated from North Carolina and passed a lawyer’s school over the past few years, but the state law committee refused to issue a license for practice due to unresolved charges. Judge Adams wrote: “Personal and professional consequences [Marsicano] Due to this uncertain cost, there is a form of actual bias. ”

“Family terrorism appears in housing and job applications – a deep social and political stigma,” Masicano said.

Adams also wrote that Georgia Deputy Attorney General John Fowler has been using the DeKalb accusations that “get a tactical advantage” rather than Marsicano. De Janon noted that while the charges in both counties involved the same conduct and the deadline for collecting discovery materials in the RICO case, the state continued to collect evidence about Marsicano.

Fowler said at a DeKalb hearing last week that the delay was partly due to 14 evidence-EThe strangeness of photos over 3M At least twice as many countries as any previous number cited by the state. “This means there is no evidence we have seen,” De Janon told The Guardian.

Thursday’s decision was the second time in three years that the state tried to punish the police training center for dozens of punishments was dismissed in decades.

Last September, Fowler has dropped the box office in the indictment for 15 of 18 counts in the Atlanta Solidarity Foundation (a member of the Atlanta Solidarity Foundation).

de Janon also pointed out Judge at several hearings With the police city “condemns the state” behavior, such as loss of deadlines and sharing privileged lawyers-client information. This, along with the dismissal of the allegations, “shows that the state’s strong prosecution has begun to collapse.”