A Georgia judge chastised state prosecutors Wednesday for mishandling confidential emails between a defense attorney and three Atlanta activists who face racketeering charges connected to protests against a planned police and firefighter training center that critics call “Cop City.”
Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams said the Georgia Attorney General’s Office committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was distributed months ago to investigators and dozens of other defense lawyers who are representing 61 defendants charged last year in a sweeping racketeering indictment against the “Stop Cop City” movement.
During Wednesday’s hearing, defense attorneys for Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson asked Adams to disqualify state prosecutors from the case and to dismiss the indictment, saying the court needed to “send a message” that such significant errors cannot be tolerated.
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