ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia appeals court denied a motion Monday to dismiss the case against one of the 61 activists accused of violating the state’s RICO law by participating in protests over Atlanta’s planned police and fire training facility, dubbed “Cop City.”
A three-judge panel for the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled the state court did not violate a demand for a speedy trial as argued by defendant Ayla King. They did, however, order a new jury to be selected, finding that the court violated King’s right to a public trial.
The 19-year-old would have been the first defendant to stand trial after being charged in a sprawling racketeering indictment last year. King is accused of participating in a criminal conspiracy to halt the construction of the $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center by occupying the 381-acre forest where building is ongoing.
In October 2023, King filed a demand for a speedy trial during the September term of court after pleading not guilty to the single charge of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Under Georgia law, a jury must be seated and sworn into service by the end of the speedy trial deadline. The deadline in Fulton County is two terms of court, or about four months, making the deadline for King to be tried as requested Dec. 31, 2023.
After a jury was selected and sworn in in December, the court said that it would not begin opening statements until January 2024 because it would be closed for several days over the holidays and the trial was expected to last three to four weeks.
King filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that she had not been “tried” by the mere selection and swearing-in of the jury and that the long recess between jury selection and the presentation of evidence undermined “the spirit of the statute.”
“We conclude that the trial court did not violate the spirit of the statute because the delay was fairly brief and occasioned by legitimate reasons,” Judge Mildred Yvette Miller wrote in the ruling.
Joined by Judges David Todd Markle and Ben Land, Miller wrote that swearing in the jury merely sets the stage for trial and does not mean that a defendant has been “tried” and a case should only be considered to have been tried when a verdict has been rendered.
However, during the voir dire phase of jury selection for King’s trial, the court proceeded without the public or media present in the courtroom.
The appellate judges wrote that the judge was required to issue a written order justifying why the public and media were excluded from the courtroom.
“Although we respect the trial court’s rationale for not leaving the courtroom open, we are required to reverse on this fundamental judicial responsibility since the court did not leave the courtroom open to the public and the media during jury selection and did not enter a written order regarding the reasons for closure,” Miller wrote.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Adams had only orally denied King’s request for a public trial, stating concerns over pretrial publicity, space in the courtroom, and safety and security related to jury selection in the case, which involves the largest number of defendants in the state’s history.
In May, Adams said she expects the anticipated trial to likely kick off before the end of the year and that defendants will be tried in groups of five.
The plan to build the training facility that is expected to be the largest in the nation of its kind has faced fierce local and national opposition since it was announced.
Its high price tag has drawn criticism from local residents, while the destruction of one of Atlanta’s largest remaining forested areas and fear of the facility perpetuating greater militarization of the police and overpolicing of poor and majority-Black communities has drawn opposition from around the world.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other supporters of the project say the new training center — slated to be the nation’s largest — is necessary to replace inadequate facilities and retain new police officers and first responders.
Brought in September, the sprawling 109-page indictment accuses the 61 defendants of joining a conspiracy to prevent the training center from being built.
It describes the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement as a “self-identified coalition and enterprise of militant anarchists, eco-activists, and community organizers.”
The individual charges range drastically from more serious offenses including arson and destruction of government property, to multiple individuals accused only of misdemeanor trespassing, such as King.
King’s attorney Surinder Chadha Jimenez declined to comment on the ruling, citing a gag order in the case.