Pubdate: Thu, 24 Dec 2009
Source: Northeast Georgian, The (Cornelia, GA)
Copyright: 2009 The Northeast Georgian
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/TPAOZ85z
Website: http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3578
Author: Rob Moore

DA SPEAKS OUT ABOUT AYERS CASE

A Stephens County grand jury has determined that undercover drug 
agents will not face criminal charges in connection with the Sept. 1 
shooting death of the Rev. Jonathan Ayers.

Now that the determination has been made, Mountain Judicial Circuit 
District Attorney Brian Rickman is speaking out about the case.

"The first thing you have to determine is whether the shooting was 
legally justified and, if so, are they acting in self-defense or the 
defense of others," Rickman said.

Under Georgia law, a person has a right to defend himself or herself. 
Was that the case?

"You have to answer that question first because immunity means no 
further prosecution," Rickman said.

"The other thing about Georgia law is that for a law enforcement 
officer to be indicted by a grand jury, the prosecution actually has 
to draw up the verbatim indictment," he said. "The grand jury has to 
decide the charges."

"If you are going to indict, then you have to serve them [agents] 
with a copy of the indictment 10 days before it is presented," he 
said. "Then they have the right to appear with counsel. They do not 
have to answer any questions and they have a right to stay in the 
grand jury room for the entire presentation of evidence."

Rickman feels that the 18 members of the grand jury were able to ask 
any questions they wanted and to get answers that were satisfactory to them.

Agents involved in the Sept. 1 incident in Toccoa testified before 
the grand jury.

"It seemed to be a more fair way for the grand jury to get the 
answers it needed," he said.

"Does the grand jury feel that the GBI investigation has been done 
well enough?" he said. "That was an important question to me because 
it was a law enforcement agency investigating a law enforcement 
agency-involved shooting."

Rickman pointed out that a grand jury has investigative powers as 
well as review powers.

That means the panel could subpoena additional witnesses or direct 
that particular questions be asked.

"They can be a check and balance on the investigation," Rickman said. 
"We needed to get citizen review of this thing going."

"We called in two outside prosecutors to independently review this 
case: Danny Porter from Gwinnett County and Mountain Circuit DA 
Emeritus Mike Crawford," he said. "They reviewed the case file and 
were present for the grand jury to answer questions for them outside 
the presence of our staff."

That case file consisted of some 1,100 pages, 26 compact discs and three DVDs.

Rickman said he has heard some backlash since the grand jury released 
its findings.

"I've gotten a lot of quirky e-mails calling me names," he said.

"I'm comfortable as a prosecutor that we've done everything we need 
to do to let the community make the ultimate decision," he said. "The 
decision was rendered by 18 citizens of Stephens County, and that's 
how the system is supposed to work. The procedures that we followed 
are consistent with state law."

Asked if there is anything he would have changed about the procedure 
followed in the investigation, Rickman said, "The core, fundamental 
things that we did, no. Presenting it to the grand jury was the 
absolute right thing to do."

"Those are the things I would hope we would do, whether it is 
high-profile or not, if law enforcement is involved," he said.

"I've tried to formulate a process that is to the letter of the law," 
Rickman said. "I'm sure I will look back and find ways to improve."

Asked how many hours his staff and the GBI put into the Ayers 
investigation, Rickman didn't have a definite answer.

"I don't know because there's been time spent on it every single day 
since it happened," he said.

Asked if it was in the thousands of hours, he replied, "I'm sure."

Though agent Billy Shane Harrison faces no criminal charges as a 
result of his actions on Sept. 1, there is no happy outcome for him 
or the Ayers family, Rickman said.

"It's just a horrible situation for everyone - for the Ayers family, 
it's horrible for the officer involved," he said. "There's no such 
thing as a positive outcome for a situation like this."

What does the future hold for the case since no criminal charges were 
deemed appropriate?

"I suppose, in theory, that another grand jury could review the case, 
but I don't know that they can indict, because this grand jury 
determined that immunity applied," Rickman said.

"I think also in theory that a federal prosecution is not precluded 
by law," Rickman said. "I have no indication that's going to happen, 
but there's no double jeopardy there between federal and state."
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