Former DA never hindered Arbery investigation, assistant police chief testifies

“Not to my knowledge,” she replied.

Johnson’s defense team said the former district attorney of the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit voluntarily recused herself immediately after learning the shooting involved Greg McMichael, one of her former investigators.

She called George Barnhill, then-district attorney of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, and asked if he would meet with police and answer investigators’ questions about the case, Johnson’s attorneys said.

Oliver, who was a sergeant in the criminal investigations division at the time, detailed a meeting held at police headquarters on Feb. 24, 2020, one day after Arbery was chased down by three white men in pickup trucks and shot to death in the street.

Credit: Associated Press

Credit: Associated Press

Glynn County police had the cellphone video of Arbery’s killing, but wanted legal advice about whether the shooting was justified, she said.

Barnhill advised “that there weren’t any laws broken,” Oliver said on the stand, “that it was justified.”

McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael were later convicted of murder in 2021, along with their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, who joined in the chase and filmed Arbery’s deadly shooting. All three were convicted of federal hate crimes in a separate trial the following year after prosecutors successfully argued the men targeted Arbery because of his race.

But in the aftermath of the shooting, the men told police they had suspected Arbery of burglarizing a vacant home under construction. Arbery had been killed during a struggle over Travis McMichael’s 12-gauge shotgun, they said at the time. It was later determined that Arbery never took anything from the vacant house.

Oliver said it is normal for police to contact the DA’s office with legal questions, something she still does to this day.

“It is common practice for us to call the district attorney’s office when someone is claiming self-defense,” Oliver said. “I don’t have a law degree. I didn’t go to law school. They’re the experts in the arena of law.”

The second count of prosecutors’ two-count indictment against Johnson accuses the former DA of hindering the police investigation and names Oliver specifically. Oliver testified she’d told the grand jury that ultimately indicted Johnson the same thing she was saying on the stand Thursday: Johnson hadn’t intervened.

Based on Barnhill’s advice, Glynn County police decided not to make any arrests in the case.

It wasn’t until more than 70 days later when the harrowing video of Arbery’s murder was leaked online, that the GBI arrested the three men responsible.

Even the way Johnson handled the recusal was common, three witnesses have testified.

David McLaughlin, who handled prosecutor recusals at the AG’s office for about two decades, said Johnson’s prior working relationship with the elder McMichael did not constitute a conflict of interest. He said it might have given “an appearance of impropriety,” but said she likely could have remained on the case if she wanted to.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Johnson’s defense team subpoenaed Chris Carr as a witness in the case, but that subpoena was quashed by the judge, who determined Georgia’s attorney general did not have to appear in person.

McLaughlin testified on the stand that it was Johnson’s “duty” to get the police the help they requested once she decided not to handle the case.

“What is wrong with Johnson not wanting to watch the video, and suggesting Mr. Barnhill talk to police?” Steel asked McLaughlin.

“In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with that,” McLaughlin said. “If law enforcement needs help immediately then you need to get them help immediately ... I get why Ms. Johnson would have done what she did.”

He then asked the former AG’s office employee whether Johnson did anything wrong.

“I can’t say, in those parameters, that she did anything wrong,” McLaughlin said.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Court adjourned for lunch after the prosecution’s sixth witness was excused from the stand. Johnson smiled in the halls of her former courthouse as the 52-year-old chatted with sheriff’s deputies on the second floor.

Jurors later heard from prosecutor Rocky Bridges, who worked as an assistant district attorney in Johnson’s office at the time of Arbery’s murder. The longtime prosecutor was asked about a barrage of phone calls made between him and his colleagues in the aftermath of Arbery’s killing.

Bridges said he was told by another assistant DA that the shooting involved Greg McMichael, a retired investigator who had worked in their office for years.

“My immediate reaction was ‘what a moron,’” Bridges said. “What was he thinking? I was very disappointed.”

After receiving a phone call from police that afternoon asking for help, Bridges said he “told Jackie that they need to get somebody there to give them some legal advice.”

“I don’t think either one of us thought it was gonna be conflicted out very fast, and law enforcement was asking for help,” Bridges testified.

He told Oliver that Barnhill would be there the next day.