The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that state judges cannot authorize wiretaps that intercept phone calls outside their judicial circuits, a decision that could impair multi-county drug investigations. The ruling suppresses key evidence against three defendants charged in an alleged, large-scale ecstasy distribution ring in Gwinnett County. "This has large practical ramifications," Gwinnett Chief Assistant District Attorney Dan Mayfield said. "It will be much more difficult for us to investigate the large drug cartels in Georgia. Wiretaps were the most effective law enforcement tool for this." [continues 337 words]
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that state law enforcement cannot obtain search warrants to use thermal-imaging scans to detect indoor marijuana-growing operations. Georgia law allows for police to search for "tangible evidence," and heat patterns inside a home or garage do not fit that definition, the court said in a unanimous opinion. "Giving the word 'tangible' full effect, it appears that the General Assembly intended 'tangible evidence' to mean evidence that is essentially an object with material form that could be touched by a person," Justice Harris Hines wrote. "That meaning does not include the remotely sensed heat at issue here." [continues 213 words]
A key legislative committee on Tuesday approved sweeping changes to Georgia's criminal justice system in a sentencing reform package intended to control prison spending and ensure costly prison beds are reserved for the state's most dangerous criminals. The legislation, approved by the Special Joint Committee on Georgia Criminal Justice Reform, is a key part of Gov. Nathan Deal's legislative agenda. House Bill 1176 must be approved by the House and the Senate before the governor can sign it into law. [continues 609 words]
The first thing Tammy Jordan did was erase the damnable number from her cell phone. Not the second thing, not the third. That number was gone. Where Jordan was headed, the number had no place. She just graduated from Dawson County's drug court and vowed to look forward, not back. She would devote herself to the two daughters she had neglected and care for her father because she had abandoned her mother. Jordan's methamphetamine addiction had led her to months-long absences from her family. The boyfriends she found could be as bad as the dope, including one who beat her to the point of unconsciousness in front of her two young daughters. [continues 1253 words]
This is the fourth in a five-part series about sentencing reform in Georgia. A special state commission has found that drug courts are less expensive and work better than prison terms for many offenders. Today's article focuses on the struggle of a Dawson County man who is in the last phase of the program. Seven mornings a week, Gordon Pirkle Jr. arrives at the Pool Room just off the Dawsonville square to run the NASCAR-themed restaurant founded by his father 45 years ago. [continues 1181 words]
One Georgia drug court attracted widespread national attention over the past year. In January, Amanda Williams, the chief judge in Brunswick who presided over Georgia's largest drug court, resigned in disgrace amid charges that she behaved in a tyrannical manner and locked up some drug court defendants indefinitely, with orders they have no access to their family or lawyer. One woman given an open-ended sentence by Williams in 2008 attempted suicide after two months in jail. The woman had previously been flagged for having suicidal tendencies. [continues 137 words]
Offenders Get Help, Not Prison, From Judges Editor's Note: This is the first in a five-part series on accountability courts - intensive programs lasting a year or more in which defendants must prove that they can abide by the law. An Alpharetta mom so amped up on meth she spent eight hours cleaning her oven with Q-tips. Now drug-free: 311 days. A Roswell college student with a 3.7 grade-point average blows her tuition on drugs and is arrested for forging prescriptions. Drug-free: 390 days. [continues 2208 words]
An influential South Georgia judge accused of locking up defendants indefinitely and cutting off their access to relatives and lawyers will step down from the bench and avoid a potentially explosive trial. In a letter delivered Tuesday to Gov. Nathan Deal, Judge Amanda Williams of Brunswick said she intends to retire from the bench on Jan. 2. She also signed a consent order agreeing to never again seek or hold judicial office. In November, the state Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a dozen ethics charges against Williams. It accused her of jailing participants in her drug court for indefinite terms, giving false statements when asked about it, behaving in a tyrannical manner on the bench and allowing family members who were attorneys appear in cases before her. [continues 488 words]
Shortening sentences for some nonviolent offenses and creating a statewide network of accountability courts could help prevent Georgia taxpayers from spending more than $250 million to accommodate an expanding prison population, a state panel said Friday. The Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform said changes are needed to control the unimpeded growth in state prison spending, which has doubled over the past two decades to $1.05 billion a year. The panel noted the growth is being fueled by drug and property offenders who account for about 60 percent of all prison admissions. [continues 742 words]
A Brunswick judge who runs the state's largest drug court operation was accused Wednesday of indefinitely detaining defendants who were not allowed to have any contact with their family or their lawyers. The Judicial Qualifications Commission also said in a court filing it must determine whether Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams gave false statements, engaged in nepotism and favoritism and used rude, abusive and insulting language to those who have appeared before her in court. It also accuses Williams of violating a judicial canon that prohibited her from "using tyrannical partiality" when administering her duties. [continues 677 words]
Threats, Closer Scrutiny Follow Profile of Her Drug Court When Amanda Williams opened the doors to a new drug court 12 years ago, critics accused her of coddling criminals. Today she presides over the state's largest drug court operation - and no one is complaining about coddling anymore. Operating for years in relative obscurity, Williams became a national headline when the public-radio show "This American Life" recently devoted an hourlong broadcast to a harsh review of her court. The report said Williams jails people for indefinite terms and imposes sanctions that are as punitive as any in the country. [continues 1637 words]
After telling him he has "a scarlet letter chiseled on his forehead the rest of his life," a federal judge sentenced disgraced ex-jurist Jack Camp to 30 days in prison for committing repeated crimes with a stripper. "He has disgraced his office," Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said of Camp, the ex-federal judge from Newnan. "He has denigrated the federal judiciary. He has encouraged disrespect for the law." Camp, who was arrested Oct. 1 in an undercover drug sting, pleaded for leniency. He asked to be allowed to remain in his home and community to repair his marriage and rebuild his name. [continues 764 words]
A relative of the 92-year-old woman killed in an Atlanta police raid three years ago asked a federal judge Friday to sanction the city for withholding documents in a wrongful death lawsuit. "Such evasion and misconduct makes a mockery of the truth-finding process that is at the heart of the judicial system and must be severely punished," said a motion filed by Sarah Dozier, the victim's niece. An APD spokeswoman, Sgt. Lisa Keyes, deferred comment to the city's law department. Acting city attorney Roger Bhadari said the city is reviewing the motion and "will respond accordingly." Beyond that, he said, the city has no further comment. [continues 313 words]
A federal judge on Tuesday handed down varying prison terms to three Atlanta police officers for their roles in the notorious 2006 drug raid that left an elderly woman dead and disgraced the department's narcotics unit. U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes sentenced former officer Gregg Junnier to six years in prison, Jason Smith to 10 years in prison and Arthur Tesler to five years in prison. Junnier, 42, and Tesler, 42, had faced recommended 10 years in prison under sentencing guidelines, while Smith, 36, faced 12 years and seven months. [continues 533 words]
Lawmakers may have botched the wording of a law criminalizing marijuana possession, but that does not make it unconstitutional, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday. The law was challenged by a Gwinnett Couny juvenile who was found delinquent for possessing less than 1 ounce of marijuana. The law violates constitutional due process, the youth's appeal asserted, because it creates a mandatory presumption of guilt. The law reads, "Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, any person who is charged with possession of marijuana, which possession is of one ounce or less, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." [continues 89 words]
Appeals Court Reverses Ex-Atlanta Cop's Prison Conviction The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed the conviction of Arthur Tesler, the ex-Atlanta police officer sentenced to prison for lying to FBI agents about the botched drug-raid killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. The court said Fulton County prosecutors failed to prove an essential element of the crime --- where the crime was committed. "The state was obligated to prove that the FBI office was located in Fulton County," Chief Judge Yvette Miller wrote. "Its admitted failure requires us to reverse Tesler's conviction." [continues 156 words]
Civil Rights Violated: Ex-Police Officer Could Be Imprisoned for 10 Years As a Result of Elderly Woman's '06 Death, Cover-Up. The federal investigation into the fatal shooting of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston ended Thursday with the guilty plea of former Atlanta police Officer Arthur Bruce Tesler. Against the advice of his lawyer, Tesler pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate civil rights, resulting in the Nov. 21, 2006, death of Johnston at her Neal Street home. As part of a plea agreement, federal prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 10 years and one month in prison. Tesler, 42, is to be sentenced in February. [continues 598 words]
After his college football career, Greg Campion became a decorated law enforcement officer for cracking large-scale drug rings and apprehending high-value suspects. But on Thursday, with some of his old colleagues looking on, the disgraced former federal agent stood before a judge and begged for mercy. "I have made a terrible mistake," said Campion, 38, his hands clasped behind his back. "I will offer no excuse to you, whatsoever." U.S. District Judge Jack Camp sentenced the former agent to one year and nine months in federal prison for failing to report more than $200,000 in cash income. Camp also ordered Campion to pay back $92,614 to the IRS and the Georgia Department of Revenue. [continues 247 words]
Two North Georgia troopers say they followed their noses to almost 3 pounds of marijuana stashed in the trunk of a car they stopped on I-75. Troopers Jeff Adamson and Kevin Turner said they caught a whiff of "raw marijuana" from within [redacted]'s car. This gave them probable cause to search, find the pot and arrest [redacted] and his passenger, [redacted]. But [redacted], of Chattanooga, claims that something about the arrest smells funny. Specially trained dogs are often used to sniff out illicit drugs, but is the human nose that sensitive? [continues 730 words]
Soldiers To Plead Guilty In Robbery Scheme Four U.S. Army soldiers who were caught planning a commando-style armed robbery of a purported drug stash house are preparing to plead guilty for their roles in the incident, according to court records and lawyers for the servicemen. The four soldiers from the Camp Frank D. Merrill mountain training facility in Dahlonega initially were charged with drug conspiracy and weapon offenses after being arrested in January. If convicted, they each faced mandatory minimum prison sentences of at least 15 years. [continues 432 words]
