A Fulton County Superior Court Judge will allow the state Attorney General’s Office to continue to prosecute opponents to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.
Defense attorneys representing Marlon Kautz, Savannah Patterson and Adele MacLean argued for the removal after prosecutors and Atlanta Police Department officials accessed emails containing attorney-client privileged communication. Those emails were later shared with attorneys representing the other 58 defendants.
Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, in an August 30 order, admonished the state for their misconduct and warned them that any future misconduct would result in “additional sanctions as determined appropriate.”
All three defendants face charges of violating the state’s RICO act and multiple counts of money laundering for their involvement in the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which prosecutors allege raised bail money for people arrested protesting the training center.
Don Samuel, who represent Kautz, told Adams in a July hearing that he didn’t think the prosecutors shared those emails in “bad faith” or with any “malice.”
“I am motivated to make (the disqualification) request … because they have shown a degree of nonchalance about this problem despite standing at the podium today and saying how sick they were,” Samuel said
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Assistant Attorney General Hallie Dixon said they didn’t become aware that there was privileged emails in records they had acquired from Google until defense attorneys filed their motion earlier this month.
She claimed to have “felt sick” and that it was a shock and upsetting as a prosecutor to find out that it had happened. Dixon added that they have not read any of those emails.
“We do not, to this day, have any clue or any information or any knowledge about what is contained in those emails,” Dixon said.
Adams questioned Dixon as to why they did not create a team to screen documents for privileged communications. She said it never crossed anybody’s mind to do so.
“To suggest you did not contemplate the possibility that there might email communications between any of these defendants and each other, any of these defendants and their lawyer or other prospective attorneys they might consider hiring or any other lawyers representing any of the other defendants, is incredible,” the judge told Dixon.
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Credit: undefined
Samuel argued that he told lead prosecutor John Fowler multiple times about the need to set up such a process after multiple communication devices belonging to his client and the other two defendants were seized during a May 2023 raid.
“They just didn’t care,” Samuel said.
Samuel said the emails contained warnings, explanations of law, defense strategies and explanation from the clients about how the Atlanta Solidarity Fund works.
APD Detective Ronald Sluss, who requested the emails from Google, testified that he had a team of analyst go through the raw data received from Google and write reports about them.
Two of those analysts were called to testify and they both said they were simply told to disregard and to not include in their reports any emails involving attorneys and clients.
Dixon argued that there was no purposeful intrusion and the violation does not warrant disqualification or dismissal of the indictment.
“The relief they have requested is not warranted under the law because the relief they have requested is the most extreme,” she said.
In her August 30 order, Adams ordered the state to provide within 10 days a list of all the individuals who may have possessed and/or received the emails and a copy of all the warrants the state has used to obtain similar materials.
Prosecutors were also ordered to meet with the defense and establish a filter team to go through materials seized by law enforcement in a similar way.
The hearing comes a week after defense attorneys were allowed to visit the site of the planned training center as part of discovery for the case. During a hearing in May, Adams had ordered the state to schedule a visit to the site by June.
In a motion filed Monday, Fowler asked for a protective order after an image of him at the site during the attorneys visit was posted on social media by a group of protesters. Adams called out the motion Wednesday.
“If you have time to do those kind of things, you also have time to review the evidence thoroughly,” Adams told prosecutors.
Adams is still waiting to finish the trial against Ayla King, the only defendant named in the indictment that filed a speedy trial demand. The trial is currently halted as they await ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Once King’s trial is finished, Adams expects to begin prosecuting the remaining 60 defendants in groups of five with Patterson, Kautz and MacLean among the first group.
