Georgia prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all 15 counts of money laundering that were levied against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid violent protests against the city’s proposed police and fire training center.
Atlanta Solidarity Fund leaders Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year following a yearslong investigation into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Prosecutors have portrayed the decentralized movement as being led by “militant anarchists” hell-bent on radicalizing supporters and halting the construction of the facility by any means necessary, including arson.
At the center of the case is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters. Prosecutors said the three defendants funneled money that was supposed to be for charitable causes and instead used it to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.
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